After a decade of protecting Lake Dunstan, the Lake Dunstan Charitable Trust will move into hibernation this summer. 

The move comes after trustees decided to step down with nobody new to replace them.

Originally the Guardians of Lake Dunstan, the group was successful at lobbying and tightening up regulations of Lake Dunstan, using $1million in Government Jobs for Nature funding to tidy up the lake shore.

Their work prompted new resource consent obligations on Contact Energy, which operates the Clyde Dam - with much of the work focused on the Kawarau Arm of the lake, from the Cromwell Heritage Precinct to Bannockburn.

For years silt and driftwood had clogged the Kawarau Arm and combined with invasive weeds, made it difficult for boats to use the area.

The Trust's Bridge to Bridge project focused on restoring native species and improving recreational access/use from Lowburn Bridge to Deadman’s bridge.

Former chairman Duncan Faulkner said the Trust put the call out for new trustees recently however nobody had come forward and as a result would have to wind up operations for now.

That also meant this year’s annual spring clean, which would’ve prepared the lake edge for this coming summer, was also cancelled. 

The clean up had been happening since 2010, but relied on new volunteers to help.

A lakeside clean up at McNulty Inlet in Cromwell. PHOTI: SUPPLIED

Duncan said the trustees had fulfilled their five-year commitment and now with the Jobs for Nature funding finished, it was a perfect time for them to step back.

“The hard work’s been done really. The commitment to LINZ (Toitū Te Whenua - Land Information New Zealand) was a four-year project, so naturally we wanted to see that through to completion.”

All of the trustees were from professional backgrounds and had different skills to offer to the Trust, so were able to make change quite quickly, he said.

But with no new fresh blood to step up and take over, the group would go into hibernation for a year.

He said the trustees all had family and work commitments that were now more of a priority.

Looking back over the past few years, Duncan said there had been some surprising challenges within the community.

When the 12,000 natives were planted around the lake shore, some of them began to be ripped out and go missing and initially the Trust couldn’t understand why.

Then they realised it was certain “retirees” who were upset about the potential of losing their lake views, and the Rural Fire Service got involved.

The logic from the residents was the trees were a fire risk, but Duncan said the fire service told them they’d done a really good job of the plantings with a good choice of species.

After negotiations between the fire service and affected residents, the Trust replaced some plantings in areas in front of those properties with other species that were less of a risk.

“In reality we just saw it as Tall Poppy Syndrome, which is a shame really,” he said.

Contact Energy began its Kawarau Arm beautification project in 2023 to co-design improvements to the Old Cromwell area, as part of its revised 2019-2024 Landscape and Visual Amenity Management Plan.

Further engagement has been underway with Linz, the Central Otago District Council and local iwi.

Read more about this in our follow-up news story next week.

Read more: Old Cromwell beachfront on the cards