Davey Hughes, the founder of outdoor clothing company Swazi, is working with the Department of Conservation to promote the back country hut network and get more hunters to sign hut books.

The Department of Conservation (DOC) is appealing to hunters and trampers to fill out hut books.

DOC's South Westland operations manager Wayne Costello said hunters and trampers needed to record their stay in back country huts so funding for maintenance could be secured.

DOC looked after 965 back country huts around New Zealand, including 28 in South Westland.

SUPPLIED Barry "Bazza" Smith donated $124,000 in his will to build a new hut in the Westland back country.

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However it needed an accurate picture of how many people were using the huts to justify maintaining and replacing them.

DOC believed the huts were well used by hunters and experienced back country trampers but the records from hut books did not show that.

JOANNE CARROLL/FAIRFAX NZ This new hut in the Landsborough Valley was opened thanks to a bequest from Christchurch teacher and hunter Barry Smith.

"We need hunters and trampers to record hut use to ensure the huts keep getting looked after and replaced. We have a brilliant back country hut and track network here in South Westland that I'm sure is being well used and appreciated but the hut books don't demonstrate this," he says.

DOC enlisted help from Davey Hughes, the founder of outdoor clothing company Swazi, to front a new tahr hunting video shot in South Westland's Karangarua Valley to promote the hut network and get more hunters into the back country.

Hughes said hunters and trampers were lucky to have such an awesome network of huts in New Zealand.

"The reality is that if people aren't seen to be using the huts we could lose them.

"My message to hunters and trampers is it's not hard to fill in the huts books and pay your hut fees, maybe even offer to do a bit of volunteer work on huts and tracks and let DOC see they are being used. That way we all get to share in this amazing New Zealand back country," he said.

A new hut was opened last week in South Westland to replace an old dilapidated hut in the Landsborough Valley with the help of a bequest of $124,000 from Christchurch teacher and hunter Barry Smith.