There's been a beach side bust up in Northland's Bream Bay over efforts to protect birds’ coastal nesting sites from four-wheel drivers.
A local environmentalist says he's been assaulted after his attempts to stop recreational drivers from driving through a designated wildlife refuge.
Four-wheel drives, and motorbikes are allowed to use the beach, but not through the wildlife refuge.
David Lourie of Bream Bay Coastal Care Trust has erected steel barriers to try and stop the damage.
“The reason why I went to using steel was because they'd use all of our wooden batons for firewood and we'd come back and find all of our fences had been burnt down,” he told 1 NEWS.
He claims he was assaulted by a group of people over his conservation efforts.
“They pushed me around for 20 minutes, put me in a neck hold, took my phone off me and threatened to bury me in the dunes,” he said through tears.
The battle has only got more complicated with DOC ordering the environmentalist to remove his barrier fences.
“We understand the intention of Mr Lourie to try and protect the nesting shorebirds from vehicles, however, the waratahs are not safe, and we have advised him these will be removed," DOC said in a statement.
DOC's solution is to run awareness campaigns to better educate vehicle users and will put staff in the car park to speak to drivers before they hit the beach.
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