Environmental impact analysis : the first season (November 1981 - January 1982) of a long term study on the St. James Walkway

The New Zealand Walkway system is a concept designed to provide a network of tracks giving the public safe, unimpeded foot access to the countryside, and ultimately to establish tracks traversing New Zealand from Cape Reinga to Bluff. The objectives, philosophies and policies of The New Zealand Walkways Act 1975 are well documented elsewhere and need not be repeated here. The St James Walkway, opened in late 1981, was the first of the longer walkways, forming a section of the planned North-South Walkways traverse. In addition to this, it was the first walkway to be established in a subalpine area (See Photo 1). In June 1980 the Department of Parks and Recreation, Lincoln College, put a proposal to the New Zealand Walkways Commission suggesting that the planned St James Walkway provided a unique research opportunity. It would be based on developments and changes in, and relationships between: a. the user impacts on the track, and b. its user population. The area was highly suited to impact analysis because of its 'susceptibility' due to the subalpine environment and the high rainfall. (The Walkway crosses a Main Divide pass.) This document introduces the first season's work on the user impact section of the research proposal