DOC managment of the NZ High Country

Being rooted deep in the South Island high country this is one of my hot-button topics. So when the headline DOC 'gives up' on high country appeared in my feed I was quick to click through.
The first sentence is quick to clarify (emphasis mine)

The Department of Conservation is "giving up" on ecologically valuable high-country land because of funding cuts, conservationists say.

Documents released under the Official Information Act reveal DOC is pushing for less land than it previously sought under the tenure review process on some Mackenzie Country farms because it cannot afford to manage it.

If there is anyone that high country farmers dislike more than DOC on conservation issues it's 'conservationists'.

OK a few things:
( snip )

All a very long winded way of saying that while I might not agree with DoC on a lot of things related to high country management and development, saying they're "giving up" is a huge mis-characterisation. Fortunately the article does pretty much make that clear, I just wish they'd added "conservationists say" into the headline.

Science!

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(no I wasn't browsing cheezeburger - the pic was used as an illustration for this post talking about the 8 glasses of water a day myth)