Despite innovative conservation efforts in the country over the last 50 years, over 30% of extant species remain threatened with extinction, and nearly two thirds could be under threat in the future.

According to the authors, if New Zealand’s currently threatened birds go extinct, the macroevolutionary impact could be 10 million years. That means up to 10 million years will be needed to return to today’s biodiversity levels by natural evolutionary processes. It would take 4 million years to recover the diversity lost in the less than 250 years since Europeans arrived.

To read the full article, click below​

The 2012 Clutha catchment sediment management plan estimated that 1.32 million cubic metres of sediment is deposited in the Kawarau arm each year! This is the same volume of concrete in the Clyde Dam!

Pre-dam, an estimated 2.6 metric tonnes passed through Balclutha every year with 60% from the Shotover river. The Clyde dam now traps 93% of this, with much of it settling between Bannockburn and Cromwell.

Last week we met the managing director of Lakeweed Harvesters & Contractors to access if we could benefit from a weed harvester on Lake Dunstan. There was a lot of positives to investing in this machinery but also some concerns.

We are currently in talks with LINZ, Contact Energy and the council to access the risk of spreading Lagarosiphon downstream of the dam. Lagarosiphon management costs NZ millions every year and we don't want to increase this cost. Lagarosiphon is already between the Clyde and Roxburgh Dam but currently not lower downstream.

The company we met with currently work on the Rotorua Te Arawa Lakes and a 2020 report accesses the effectiveness of weed harvesting to control aquatic weeds. To read the article and summary, click 'Read more'.

What was predicted for Lake Dunstan?

In 1986/87, Dr Reiner Jaakson, a Professor of recreation, geography and tourism from the University of Toronto visited Cromwell. He was commissioned by the Ministry of Works and Development to access the opportunities Lake Dunstan had for the local community once created.

Dr Jaakson described the potential use of the lake, priorities and market potential to town could benefit from.  He concluded Cromwell had a positive future for tourism and that we should not compete with Queenstown, but offer a different, more relaxed experience for the domestic market.

The paper summarises what activities the town should focused on, at which locations around the lake and what facilities should be built. 

To read, click the link.

Did you know:

Lake Dunstan is the 26th largest lake in NZ at 26km2. That's nearly 24 times smaller than the largest, Lake Taupo!

It is also the 3rd largest artificial lake after Lake Benmore & Aviemore. There are over 60 man-made lakes in NZ created for power generation and water supply.

​LDCT will be on Radio Central 91.9 the third Thursday of each month! Tune in at 8:40am to get updates on what we are getting up to and what's going on with the issues surrounding Lake Dunstan and the Kawarau Arm.

To listen to Thursdays interview, click 'read more' below.