Technology « Conservation blog

Every Monday Jobs at DOC will take you behind the scenes and into the jobs, the challenges, the highlights, and the personalities of the people who work at the Department of Conservation.

This week we meet geographic information system (GIS) champion, Paul Hughes:

At work …

Name: Paul Hughes

Position: GIS Champion, Wellington Hawke’s Bay

Shark surveying in Fiji

Describe your role: GIS mapping and analysis locally and nationally.

What kind of work/projects are you currently involved in?

Operationalising Treaty Settlements and Biodiversity Information Management.

What led you to your current role in DOC?

Selling GIS systems to the oil exploration industry and to DOC.

Tell us about your 15 minutes of fame

Speaking in Charleston at the 2002 celebration of the final protection of the publicly owned West Coast native forests, and the end to government logging.

Kaka are ginga too

The rule of three…

Three loves

Life
My wife Jayne
My daughter Isabel

Three pet peeves

None.

Working with the community on Mt Ngauruhoe

Three things always in your fridge

Mac’s beer
Plum sauce
Kapiti ice cream

Favourite movie, album, book

Book: It’s a toss up between Nelson Mandela’s autobiography, Long Walk to Freedom, and The Universal Heart by Stephanie Dowrick—both are journeys of the soul.

Movie: The Wizard of Oz, we are living it again!

Album: Malcolm McLaren and the Bootzilla Orchestra

Codfish Island Surf Club

Getting personal

What was your favourite birthday present as a kid?

My scooter.

What is your dream holiday location or activity and why?

Ten day tramping trips at Christmas, as it takes the body to a state one seldom experiences.

What do you like to do when you’re not at work?

Beach walking at Paekakariki.

Do you have a special skill/quirk/strange fact that people may not know about you?

I am a Civil Engineer, an expert tradescantia weeder and can pan gold in a billy lid.

What was the most useful thing that somebody once told you?

Follow your inner compass.

If there was a competition for best place in New Zealand where would get your vote?

The Olivine Ice Plateau.

Olivine Ice Plateau

And if there was one native species that ruled them all, what would be your pick?

Kea

Mashup DOC data and win in the 2011 Mix & Mash competition

Department of Conservation — September 7, 2011 — Leave a comment

Most organisations have a lot of information. And most organisations also have limited resource available to fully exploit this information – to make it as useful and accessible and beautiful as it could be. We are no exception.

We also know that, as a government department, we work for you. What is ours is yours. So, with this in mind, we’re giving you our information and challenging you to mix it with your own inspired ideas to make something new, useful and delightful.

And, if you’re quick, you could enter your creation in the Great NZ Remix & Mashup Competition. There’s cash, prizes and glory to be won, including four DOC sponsored New Zealand conservation experiences for the winners of the Lead Judges’ Special Awards.

Last year’s supreme winner, Daniel Pietzsch, developed an application using DOC’s tracks data http://nzwalksinfo.co.nz. What could you do to help connect more people to New Zealand’s natural and historic heritage and the work DOC does? We can’t wait to see!

Screen shot from the NZ Walks Information website

In Technology mix & mash, open data

Possums and stoats eat kea

Ian Gill — November 19, 2010 — 1 Comment

Large numbers of kea nests have been failing in the wild but it is only now with the use of nest-cameras that we’ve been able to uncover what’s going on.

It’s only midway through the breeding season and of eleven kea nests under surveillance three have been devastated by stoats and possums, and six chicks have died.

We’ve caught possums killing adult kaka on camera before, but until now we were completely unaware they were invading kea nests.

It is upsetting to see the photos of a possum eating a nearly fledged kea and the video showing the prolonged death of chicks attacked by stoats. Even more distressing is how long it takes chicks to die during an attack.

One attack lasted two and a half hours with the stoat remaining in the nest hole and repeating its assault on the two dying chicks. One chick died at the end of the torment but the other lived for 40-hours with its injuries before disappearing.

The footage is unpleasant stuff to watch, but it shows what’s happening in places where predators are not controlled. We’ve posted it on YouTube so you can see for yourself exactly what’s going on inside kea nests.

For more information and pictures read the media release.

In Animal pests, Native animals, Technology, West Coast

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Jobs at DOC: GIS Champion, Paul Hughes

At work …