Human Uses of the West Coast Marine and Coastal Environment

4.7 Use of Adjacent Lands

The West Coast Marine Protection Forum is focusing on the protection of the coastal and marine environment. However, the uses of neighbouring land provides some useful information on whether or when land based activities may or may not be affecting the marine environment. Neighbouring land use will not necessarily denote or indicate where recommendations for marine protected areas may eventually be made.

The very dynamic topographical and climatic environment (outlined in Chapter 2) has constrained human settlement and land development throughout the West Coast. Environmental factors which have determined this distinctive geography of human settlement include:

the narrowness of the coastal lowlands, backed by high mountains;
the preponderance of glaciated landforms, indigenous forests and wetlands;
the limited distribution of free-draining and fertile soils;
the large number of rivers crossing the coastal lowlands to the Tasman Sea;
frequent high-intensity rain storms, leading to flooded rivers; and
the lack of sheltered harbours along the 600 km-long coastline.

Both Maori and European settlers established themselves close to the coast, on dunelands or on river terraces. Port settlements at the mouths of major rivers have grown into coastal towns such as Westport, Greymouth and Hokitika.
Today, land uses adjacent to the coastal and marine environment include:

Coastal settlements;
Farming (e.g. stock grazing);
Land development; and
Mining.

West Coast coastal settlements vary from large towns like Greymouth to individual and small group residences in remoter areas like Miko and Nikau. In general, areas near the larger settlements and/or access points tend to be used more often by more people, compared to remote areas. Consequently, some of the greatest levels and varieties of commercial, social and recreational use are near the settlements of Westport, Greymouth and Hokitika.


Baches near Fox River mouth (left) and vehicle access along estuary margins (right) are examples of land uses adjacent to the coastal marine area. Photo: D Neale, DOC.

Accessibility (particularly legal public access) is an important determinant in where many activities occur. So, the proximity of State Highways 6 and 67, and other public roads to the coastline is an important factor, as is distribution of public coastal land giving free public access (particularly walking or vehicular access along marginal strips beside rivers and streams near the coastline).

Much of the coastal strip on the West Coast has been modified by land development and human activities (especially through historic farming, forestry and 'black-sanding' goldmining). This is particularly the case where prograded dune surfaces and lowland river flats abut the coastline such as around Karamea, the Mohikinui River to Charleston, parts of the Paparoa coast and the Barrytown Flats, Rapahoe to the Waitaha River, some of the remote beaches and dune landscapes between Wanganui Bluff and Heretaniwha Point, and the coastal strip and river mouths of the Haast plain. This flat, well-drained coastal land is some of the best in the region for farming and, in the northern and central parts of the West Coast it generally lies closer to the main roads and towns. The development of pasture and the associated spread of weeds have altered the coastal vegetation greatly, to the extent that there are now few examples of original foredune vegetation left.

Grazing and trampling by stock can have a number of undesirable influences, including the reduction of palatable coastal indigenous vegetation, pugging and reduction of soil physical stability, and the pollution of spawning sites for inanga. Stock grazing of the coastal strip is prevalent in the Haast, Waitaha-Taramakau, Cape Foulwind, and Karamea localities.