Meet with DoC

Tomorrow night is the quarterly meeting that DoC's Canterbury Conservancy hosts for "recreational user groups".

These meetings are often quite interesting and it's a shame a wider range of outdoor people don't get a chance to attend. As it is there are usually only representatives from half a dozen or so of the local tramping clubs.

Of course the total membership of all the clubs represented on a good night would be less than 1% of the people who enjoy tramping and otherwise recreating on DoC administered land in Canterbury. And, among the clubs I know anything about, info from these meetings seldom reaches more than 1% of the membership.

Now the problem with that is DoC could see these meetings as fulfilling its obligation to consult with the outdoor community.

Well, sadly, and partly because of the declining significance of clubs in outdoor recreation, they can't ever meet that important need with such a restrictive type of meeting.

Comments

[Pat McIntosh]

Re user group meetings with DOC
Shows how little communication we are getting! I've been in the club two or three years and did not know we got formally involved in this type of thing.
Does it all stay with the committee and not get passed on to the wider membership? Is there a mechanism for raising concerns or questions? What are the burning issues of the day? (Apart from Ranger Biv)

For instance, is it really necessary to close landrover tracks on Banks Peninsula to the public for three and half months during lambing? In Scotland lambing never took anything like that long, and in any case walkers on roads or tracks (without dogs) cause remarkably little upset to sheep who are used to them.
Who represents the CTC?
Cheers, Pat