148 22.7 Additional compensation provisions The warm spring that is likely to be lost has rough dimensions of a 4 m2 pool, that leads to a 5 m long slow flow channel to the main stem of the Wharekirauponga Stream. This amounts to some 9 m2 of freshwater habitat. The warm spring feature is located within the conservation estate and is an unusual natural feature in the local area with low ecological value. In terms of the effects management, as no avoidance or remedial action is available, and no other similarly warm springs are known in the area, an out of type offset (or ecological compensation) will be required (Maseyk et al., 2018). Accordingly, we have focused the proposed compensation on headwater springs and wetlands as offering similar ecological functional and habitat types. Areas that have been identified include heads of gullies where springs and seepages exist and located where the offset forms part of a much greater package of mitigation across the WNP. Locations of the spring enhancement areas are shown in Figure 32. We acknowledge that these springs and seepages will be cold springs and will not have the same mineral content as a warm spring, although a likely better faunal potential will exist. We have provided a ratio-based compensation with a gain: loss of 12:1, amounting to planting and fencing some 85 m of spring and seepage headwater habitat of tributary 3 (some 0.35 ha of riparian planting). We have provided a sizeable ratio because: • The warm spring is a singular unusual feature with no connectivity with other warm-water features within the Coromandel Forest Park. • The fauna and flora of the warm spring do not reflect the typical biodiversity of a warm water (geothermal) habitat. • The ecological values represented by the warm spring have been assessed as Low. • The ecological compensation does not include or replicate the conditions or enhancement of the mineral character of the warm spring; rather it provides protection and enhancement of a series of headwater springs and seepages of the Mataura Stream with greater ecological enhancement value. • The offset is some distance away from the warm spring feature and the headwaters of tributary 3 drain into different stream catchment to that of the warm spring. • There is no effective ECR calculation mechanism such as the SEV for springs. 22.8 Location of stream offsets The locations of the stream offsets are shown in Figure 32, Figure 33 and Figure 34. Except for the warm spring compensation (see above), as much as possible the stream offsets have been established at or close by to the stream losses, and the stream diversions occur at the same locations with diversion of the same stream source water. Thus, the Willows Farm site offsets occur within the Mataura Stream catchment, while the diversions and offsets within the Waihi component of WNP occur within the respective catchments, or as a contribution along the Ohinemuri River. As outlined above, for the ecological compensation for the loss of the warm spring, these have been located in the headwaters of a tributary of the Mataura Stream (Tributary 3).
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