Te Anau's trail network will be extended and improved over the next three years as part of a conservation project costing nearly $1 million.

The Fiordland Trails Trust will develop a 6km trail around the Patience Bay area, using funding from the Government's Jobs for Nature programme.

It will also carry out a significant programme of weed control, predator control and native plantings alongside the existing Lake 2 Lake trail, which runs from Te Anau to Manapouri, and in the Upukerora River delta area.

The $973,000 Jobs for Nature-funded project will create jobs for 15 full-time-equivalent staff over the term (roughly 50 part-time seasonal positions).

Advertisement: Fiordland Joinery

Fiordland Trails Trust spokesman John Greaney says: "We are thrilled that, through Jobs for Nature, we can support employment in Fiordland with outcomes that will have ongoing and long-term benefit for locals and visitors.

"The extension of the trail will be brilliant. Within three years the trail is planned to extend out to Patience Bay and Sinclair Road. Effectively, this will form legs one and two of the Te Anau to Te Anau Downs trail, which is a long-term goal for the Trust.

"The weed and predator control programme, along with the planting of native species alongside the existing Lake 2 Lake trail and within the Upukerora delta area, will not only be fantastic for biodiversity in the area, but will really enhance the recreational experience."

Waka Kotahi [NZ Transport Agency] offered support early in the project and has already fully funded and completed a trail bridge across the Upukerora River.

Advertisement: Penny Shanks Ray White Real Estate Te Anau

The Fiordland Trails Trust has partnered with the Lower Upukerora Restoration Group (LURG) who have provided the framework for the biodiversity improvements.

LURG representative Vanessa Horwell says the biodiversity improvements focus on protecting rare and endangered braided river birds that nest on the Upukerora River and delta area, including the nationally vulnerable banded dotterel, nationally endangered black fronted tern and nationally critical black billed gull, as well as other species such as South Island oyster catcher and pied stilt.

"The proposed predator trapping network and weed control will increase the chances of successful breeding for these river birds by providing clear areas of riverbed for nesting, and reducing predators that prey on eggs, chicks and nesting birds," Horwell says.

Advertisement: Redcliff Cafe

"The extensive native plantings along the Upukerora River and at the Patience Bay wetland will provide habitat and food for native birds and invertebrates, and the weed control in the riverbed will provide suitable nesting sites for river birds."

Work is expected to start soon on clearing exotic trees in the Upukerora River delta area to start the native planting project, and trail construction will also get underway soon.