As the year is nearing an end, we thought to look at the year behind us and see what we’ve done well. Here is what we found:

• You did some awesome hut-loving mahi at over 530 huts during the Love our Huts campaign.
• You used FMC grants and scholarship funds wisely for your adventures and shared your successes in your stories.
• You provided stunning photographs that support our advocacy work, helping us demonstrate to decision-makers why public wildlands should be preserved and not exploited for profit.
• You trusted and supported us with donations, some of which contributed to trying to save Griffin Creek from diminishing.
• You kept us informed about many local issues – a huge thank you for that!
• Your fees allowed FMC to do some incredible work for our community and wild places.

• We initiated and coordinated the Love our Huts campaign.
• We started conversations with forestry companies in the Nelson/Marlborough area about opening roads to some of the favourite local tracks and huts – some of them are now open for the holiday period! We’ve also been keeping an eye on the forestry operations around Dunedin.
• We collaborated with other recreation NGOs to ensure our recreation activities in the backcountry are our responsibility and thus protect our access to beloved crags and tramping tracks.
• We told DOC loud and clear that huts, campsites and the backcountry are to be financially and practically accessible to all Kiwis, thus keeping prices fair and certain huts off the booking system. This occasionally landed on deaf ears.
• We highlighted public access issues and worked proactively with DOC, iwi and other key stakeholders to propose realistic solutions to a long-standing access issue at Mokai Station in Ruahine Forest Park.
• Other access issues and future track re-openings are a work in progress –  Waitakere Ranges track re-openings, for example.
• We continued to advocate to DOC for a sensible discount policy for our conservation volunteers, that makes them feel like their efforts are valued and rewarded.
• We continued to strengthen our relationship with Te Urewera and her people, Ngai Tūhoe. This work has resulted in an agreement in principle to save and relocate the remaining historic huts in Te Urewera.

• We’ve celebrated paragliders and hang gliders and supported their efforts to ensure unrestricted access for non-motorised aircraft on public conservation land.
• We awarded a total of $20,000 covering 17 youth awards, 11 expedition scholarships and 4 training grants to help you upskill and do your missions.
• Together with the NZ Mountain Film & Book Festival, we made adventure and outdoor films freely available to school students.
• We made outdoor gear more easily available through discounts for members.
• We continued to support our whānau –  96 clubs with over 22,000 members and over 1,500 individual supporters.
• We helped clubs with their constitution updates and refreshed ours.
• We got our legacy included in the National Library collections, so it is safely stored and publicly accessible for future generations.
• We provided space for an open discussion about recreation and conservation and kept our community informed through the Backcountry magazine and Wilderlife.
• As a founding parent organization, we continued to support the Backcountry Trust.
• We’ve farewelled one Executive Officer and welcomed a new one to our whānau.

Love is kind of hard to show sometimes. At FMC, we demonstrate it through ongoing dialogue with DOC, open conversations within our team and with our members, carefully reading and reviewing legal and policy documents, consulting with other NGOs and our member clubs, engaging in DOC forums on conservation, recreation, and the environment, writing submissions, requesting information from the government, and occasionally attending court hearings.

This year, we’ve made 13 submissions on key issues including access to public conservation land, DOC’s discount policy (including member discounts), changes to DOC facility pricing, adding huts to the booking system, Conservation Management Strategies, the International Visitor Levy, and place name renaming.

At the moment we are reviewing the government’s Conservation law reform – we firmly oppose the introduction of access fees to public conservation land and the use of public conservation land for profit. DOC manages one-third of Aotearoa New Zealand’s land and should be far more appropriately funded by the government to manage this vast and beautiful taonga.

We proposed raising the International Visitor Levy (IVL) from $35 to $110 with a portion allocated to conservation. The IVL was increased to $100, yet the allocation portion to conservation remains unclear.

Right now, we are gathering information on projects included in the Fast-track Approvals Law that may affect recreation. After submitting a response highlighting the potential environmental impacts and the undemocratic nature of the Bill, we also reached out to the Ministry for the Environment to inquire about projects with potential recreational consequences.

We advocated for a great variety of recreation opportunities in the Far North and Waitakere Ranges and expressed that in submissions to DOC. We are advocating to preserve the West Coast’s recreational opportunities and natural values by providing input to the new Conservation Management Strategy.

This year, we took DOC and Griffin Creek Hydro Ltd. to court twice over the maximum water intake limits for the Griffin Creek and creek protection. Although the Court of Appeal ruled the concession doesn’t contain a maximum intake, we expect that this case is a catalyst to ensure DOC issues concessions in the future with greater care to safeguard conservation land’s environmental and recreational values.

None of our work would be possible without you. So, thank you – ngā mihi nui ki a koutou – for placing your trust in us, for your unwavering support, and for your encouragement throughout the year.

Your encouraging feedback is the best kindling that will keep our fires burning as we take on the opportunities and obstacles in the year ahead.

We wish you and your whānau a serene festive season and many joyful summer days in the wild.

Photos, top to bottom: Sarah Harrison, Ray Salisbury, Karl Toppler, Jack Huygens, Chris Tuffley