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Archives For 30/11/1999

Jobs at DOC: Wetlands scientist, Hugh Robertson

Department of Conservation —  14/11/2011

Every Monday Jobs at DOC takes 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 wetlands scientist, Hugh Robertson

At work…

Name: Hugh Allister Robertson

Position: Scientific Officer (Wetlands) based in the Freshwater Section of Research & Development, Christchurch

Hugh visiting a peatland restoration site in the Czech Republic

What kind of things do you do in your role?

I coordinate the scientific projects within the Arawai Kākāriki wetland restoration programme, together with a team of scientific, technical and operations staff. This programme aims to protect/restore three of New Zealand’s foremost freshwater/wetland systems—Awarua/Waituna in Southland, Ō Tū Wharekai (Ashburton Lakes/upper Rangitata River) in Canterbury, and the Whangamarino wetland in Waikato.

My work includes researching to understand the resilience of wetlands to changes in water quality and examines the effectiveness of wetland restoration in terms of making conservation gains. I also provide scientific advice to support the Ramsar Convention on wetlands of international importance.

Setting up a vegetation plot at Ashburton basin

What is the best part about your job?

Since coming back to New Zealand at the end of 2008 (following an eight year stint in Australia) it is hard to go past the deep pool of skilled and committed people within DOC, who collectively make it enjoyable to tackle conservation challenges.

With colleagues at Awarua wetlands

What is the hardest part about your job?

The scale of wetland loss and degradation. We still have a way to go in reducing our footprint on these fragile ecosystems and instilling freshwater conservation principles into land management.

Venturing into wetlands in the Te Anau basin - a magical place

What led you to your role in DOC?

I’d initially blame being surrounded by freshwater lakes growing up in Rotorua, and regular family fishing holidays to the mouth of the Motu River, Manukau Harbour and Coromandel. It was all down hill from then, and one way or another led to an opportunity to study shallow lakes at Otago, and floodplain wetland ecology in the drought stricken Murray-Darling Basin in Australia.

What was the highlight of your month just gone?

A recent field trip out on Waituna Lagoon to retrieve and then re-deploy salinity loggers with the Southland Conservancy and Environment Southland. We’re looking at the vulnerability of aquatic plants to changing water quality in this dynamic coastal lagoon. It’s a unique landscape, and also a Ramsar wetland, but is under stress from changes in land use in the catchment upstream.

Investigating the Waituna Lagoon opening site

The rule of three…

Three loves

  1. Exploring new places
  2. The company of friends and my partner
  3. The full moon in clear night skies

    Mountain biking at St James

Three pet peeves

  1. Cafés that serve really hot coffee
  2. People who take a while making their point (me included)
  3. Realising there’s a hole in my waders after the point of no return

Three foods

  1. Vintage cheddar
  2. Freshly baked bread
  3. Salted peanuts

 Three favourite places in New Zealand

  1. Lake Tarawera
  2. Huia in the Waitakere Ranges
  3. The expansive, near pristine, fens and bogs of the Te Anau Basin

Favourite movie, album, book

  1. Movie: Black Cat, White Cat—you’ve got to watch this if you haven’t seen it before.
  2. Album: It varies daily, but Radiohead’s OK Computer, anything with trumpets, live performances of Muse and Fat Freddy’s Drop.
  3. Book: Most stuff by Milan Kundera

Deep and meaningful…

What piece of advice would you tell your 18 year old self?

Go with your gut… while also considering advice from wise folk (mentors).

Who or what inspires you and why?

This is a tricky question to simplify or limit to one or two people. But I am ultimately inspired by those people that have kept on going, who have struggled on through whatever the world throws at them to achieve what they have set out to do, overcoming adversity. There are countless examples, and it’s something we’ve all had to do at one time or another.

When you were a kid, what did you want to be when you grew up?

Like the rest of my under 9’s soccer team, a professional football player. Back then, for Liverpool—today it would be Barcelona FC.

And now, if you weren’t working at DOC, what would you want to be?

Bernard Black (played by Dylan Moran) for his brutal honesty. If you’re a Black Books fan you may know the character.

If you could be any New Zealand native species for a day, what would you be and why?

Eleocharis acuta is a long-time favourite of mine. An emergent macrophyte from our marshes and swamps, it exudes soul and funk.

What piece of advice or message would you want to give to New Zealanders when it comes to conservation? 

Every little bit helps. Species loss, water quality decline, and other conservation issues are often slow to accumulate—restoring biodiversity is an incremental process too.

In Jobs at DOC, Wetlands , , , ,
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Jobs at DOC: Operation Rena

Department of Conservation —  07/11/2011

Every Monday Jobs at DOC takes 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 some of the people working on Operation Rena in Tauranga  

At work…

“Would you like bubbles with your bath?” Penguin cleaning, a part of the de-oiling process

Name: DOC staff involved with Operation Rena

What kind of things do you do in your role?

DOC is providing operational support for the Massey University led National Oiled Wildlife Response Team on behalf of Maritime New Zealand. To cut a long story short, DOC staff are contributing to the following:

Crew Leaders, Sector Supervisors, Skippers’ Safety, Division Commanders, Iwi Liaison, Radio Operators, Wildlife Handlers, Information, Finance, Personnel, Operations, Logistics, GIS/Mapping, Night Operations, Admin Support, the Situation Unit, and the Resources Unit.

What is the best part about contributing to Operation Rena?

People have come from across the planet to help out. They come from a variety of backgrounds, organisations, businesses and agencies to assist in the efforts of the operation. There is an incredible commitment by these people to get the job done—and to meet the objectives of the operation with a huge amount of collaboration and a real lack of egos getting in the way.

What is the hardest part about Operation Rena?

The Minister of Conservation keeping an eye on proceedings at the Oiled Wildlife Recovery Centre at Te Maunga, Tauranga

A number of the staff are spending time away from home and family.

The unpredictability of a boat precariously grounded on a reef in changeable weather is also hard!

What led you to your involvement with Operation Rena?

DOC’s Deputy Director-General of Operations, Sue Tucker, asked and, as keen and willing DOC staff members, we have all happily put our hands up to help out when and where required.

What was your highlight from the month just gone?

To date, we have managed to cover 60–80km of coastline per day since the grounding. This has enabled us to recover 402 wildlife members, including little blue penguins, gannets, shags, shearwater and seals. A part of that number was 60 nationally vulnerable New Zealand Dotterels before the spill! All of this was undertaken while keeping our cool, with a high team morale. Phew!

The rule of three…

Three loves

  1. Clean seas
  2. Clean beaches
  3. Clean birds

Three pet peeves

  1. Grounded boats
  2. Leaking oil
  3. Missing shipping containers

Three things always in your fridge

  1. Milk for the coffee to start the day off
  2. Sardines for the birds
  3. Beer for winding down after a long day

Three favourite places in New Zealand

  1. Tuhua (Mayor) Island—An awesome volcanic environment that is pest free and home to numerous indigenous species with an amazing marine reserve. 
  2. Maketu— the landing site for the Te Arawa canoe and a nesting area for estuarine species including our New Zealand Dotterels.
  3. Motuotau (Rabbit) Island—Penguins galore!

We also used to quite like Astrolabe Reef for its amazing sea life with great diving and fishing, but we’re a little indifferent to it right now!

Loading the DOC boat for Tuhua (Mayor) Island

Favourite movie, album, book

  1. Movie: Free Willy. We’re not a big fan of movies like Titanic or Poseidon at the moment!
  2. Album: Time and Tide by Split Enz, especially the song Six months in a leaky boat.
  3. Book: We’re often found perusing Rena Operation Astrolabe Incident Action Plans for a  bit of light reading at the moment, and have been considering finding a copy of Out of the Channel: The Exxon Valdez Oil Spill in Prince William Sound, but don’t really have the time right now.

Deep and meaningful…

What keeps you motivated and why?

Seeing the huge community effort that has gone on over the last few weeks in response to this disaster. There are an incredible number of small but important jobs that need to be done for an operation like this to keep moving. Often these jobs are picked up by volunteers—anything from sifting sand at local beaches and picking out tiny pieces of oiled sand, to cleaning mucky pens at the wildlife centre after the de-oiling of the birds.

Wildlife Incident Management team in action at the Incident Control Centre in Tauranga

And now, if you weren’t working at Operation Rena, what would you want to be doing?

Working back in my day job at DOC, tirelessly making New Zealand the greatest living space on Earth.

If you could be any New Zealand native species for a day, what would you be and why?

“Kia ora whanau” Iwi Liaison Taute Taiepa making the calls and loving it!

A massive pod of Maui or Hector’s dolphins. We’d go back in time by about 4-5 weeks and be patrolling off the Bay of Plenty coast. There would be so many of us that if a large container ship came past we could nudge it out of the way of any obstacles and escort it safely into port!What piece of advice or message would you want to give to others when it comes to Operation Rena?

A huge thank you to all those that have helped on the operation to date. The support from people who have ‘downed tools’ from all over the country to come and help has been amazing.

To those that haven’t come—we still need your help! This thing isn’t going away in a hurry and it will only continue to function with the support of you all.

For all the best and current info on the situation check out the Maritime New Zealand website.

In Bay of Plenty, Jobs at DOC, Marine , , , , , , ,
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Busking for kea

 —  02/11/2011

Singing on the sidewalk and sizzling sausages are just some of the fundraising efforts made by Tairua School students to help save our native species.

Denise, Tim and Jack busking outside Tairua Four Square

After learning about New Zealand’s biodiversity, Room 5 students wanted to make a difference; and that they did. All together they raised a grand total of $495!

“We did good busking in the streets of Tairua, and we made $59.00 in just under an hour,” says Tim, who was in the Kea group.

Kea, tuatara, kokako, kakapo and the yellow eyed penguin were the chosen species, all receiving a boost to their survival chances thanks to these budding young conservationists.

Mohini and Maddie with the kakapo donation box

“The tuatara’s a unique animal to New Zealand. It’s one of the dinosaurs that’s been here for a million years, and if we don’t save them… who will?” says Henry, whose group raised $270 for DOC’s tuatara recovery project.

The tuatara group raffled off a board of scratchies

Children approached local businesses to ask for donations, organised a raffle with $50 worth of scratchies up for grabs, placed donation boxes in shops, sold good old fashioned sausages, and sang along to Tim’s guitar playing outside the local Four Square. They also put up posters around the community, promoted their cause on the radio, and advertised in the school newsletter.

The students’ teacher, Samantha Telfar, says the students initiated their action plans to help save an endangered species of their choice. “I’m really pleased with the students’ progress and enthusiasm they are showing for their native species projects,” she says.

The yellow eyed penguin group put posters in shops around town

Jaxon, who studied kakapo, learnt that “some are friendly, some are cruisy, and some are big eaters.”

Tairua locals are also big eaters, spending $73.80 on barbequed sausages, with funds helping out kokako.

Connor and the money raised for the kokako

“The plan is to have a kokako in every back yard, and so many we can harvest them,” says Glenn Kilpatrick, helping out behind the barbie.

The students presented their achievements to the class, including information on what they’d learnt, and what they’d do a second time around. Each group was happy with the fantastic results they’d achieved for their chosen species, and wished to thank everyone who’d donated towards their cause.

In Native animals , , , , , , , , , , ,
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Jobs at DOC: Freshwater ecologist, David Kelly

Department of Conservation —  31/10/2011

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 freshwater ecologist, David Kelly

At work…

Fisheries survey on Six-foot Lake, Campbell Island

Name: David Kelly

Position: Scientific Officer, Freshwater Section R&D, Christchurch

What kind of things do you do in your role?

A combination of managing science projects, developing tools for more effectively managing freshwaters (such as flow management models and conservation ranking tools), and providing technical advice in varying capacities on freshwater management. 

I spend a reasonable amount of time working with some of the Conservancy planners and solicitors around RMA processes.

I work with some of the other sections in National Office, such as the Policy Group, on inputting ideas to national policy statements and environmental standards. 

I work quite a bit with scientists and managers from other organisations such as CRIs, universities, and regional councils on various freshwater projects. 

What is the best part about your job?

By far the best part of my job is being out there and getting wet. As with most people who work for DOC, it’s my love of the environment, and particularly rivers and lakes, that drives me. So pursuing a career as a freshwater ecologist means that I have the privilege of spending time out there submersed in my study medium.

I dive, I wade, and I flop around on the banks in my waders like a clumsy seal, and it’s all great. Like all fieldwork, there are days when you say ‘I can’t believe I am getting paid to do this’, and then there are the days when I say ‘There is no way I’m getting paid enough to do this’ – usually as sleet is falling in a howling southerly.

The freshwater team on a weekend excursion up the Rakaia River

What is the hardest part about your job?

The hardest part of my job is the amount of contract management I do. Because we are a small section, a significant amount of this work is done externally through other science providers. This involves a lot of process and paperwork, which is a little less inspiring than either running experiments, or analysing data.

What led you to your role in DOC?

It’s a bit of a long story how I ended up here: I was finishing graduate school in Canada, and co-taught a course on coastal limnology (the study of freshwaters) with a kiwi—Warrick Vincent—who was then working at Laval University in Quebec City.

Warrick is one of the smartest guys I’ve ever met. It was through Warrick that I made contact with some of his colleagues from NIWA, where I came to work (with the lakes team in Christchurch) for a number of years.

I was co-managing a project between NIWA and DOC, on a national lowland lakes examination, and eventually DOC advertised a position within their newly formed freshwater section to run this work. The thought of working for an organisation that is more directly linked to conservation management was really attractive to me, so I applied.

What was your highlight from the month just gone?

It would have to be attending the combined meeting of the Freshwater Science societies of both New Zealand and Australia in Brisbane. It was great to see what is going on across the ditch in terms of their approaches to managing freshwater under some very challenging circumstances (multi-year droughts), and to get to share some of our projects and ideas with them.

The rule of three…

Three loves

  1. My family
  2. Fishing
  3. Hunting… my wife might question whether that is really the correct order, but I’m holding strong on this one.

Three pet peeves

  1. Earthquakes—having to abandon my home in Christchurch; surprise
  2. The lack of thermal insulation in buildings—come on, what latitude is it here anyhow? 
  3. Way too much sport in the news—never with any coverage of ice hockey I might add.

Three things always in your fridge

  1. Milk, because I can’t even begin a conversation in the morning without at least one latte in me.
  2. Finely crafted homemade beer, for which I have a ‘special fridge’ with in-built taps.
  3. Wild venison salami—because making pizzas in my wood-fired brick oven is truly the highlight of all my cooking experiences; man-flame-outdoors-large tools-wild meat-pizza. Mmmmmmm.

The pizza oven on Christmas day lunch at Inangahua

Three favourite places in New Zealand

  1. My bach on the Inangahua River, where I am now lucky enough to live for a stint while the earthquake aftermath unfolds in Christchurch (working out of the Kawatiri Area Office temporarily, so thanks to the folks there for making me welcome). 
  2. Campbell Island—wow, what a place to see wildlife up close and personal, my most memorable DOC trip ever!
  3. The wild and free West Coast back-country rivers—fishing and hunting nirvanas, I’d tell you which ones, but then I’d have to kill you.

A day exploring Campbell Island

Favourite movie, album, book

  1. Movie: The Big Lebowski—’The Dude’ cracks me up every time, and laughing is one of the most important things in life.
  2. Album: It’s nearly impossible to narrow it to one, but by the sheer amount of enjoyment I’ve gotten from spinning the vinyl version of Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon makes it the winner.
  3. Book: It has to be a quirky one, possibly Another Roadside Attraction by Tom Robbins.

Deep and meaningful…

What piece of advice would you tell your 18 year old self?

Make sure you do something you enjoy, and don’t hurry into it, it’s all about the journey—not where you get to.

Who or what inspires you and why?

Really smart people who know a lot about a whole range of things. I like to see people that are not only good at their jobs but at a range of things outside work that they can pass along to others. And my six month old son Jasper, whose smiles and giggles make even the worst day all make sense.

When you were a kid, what did you want to be when you grew up?

Funnily enough a doctor, but I think this was subliminally instilled in me by my mother. Once I was older and realised how many people were on the planet, my far greater concern was to help other species.

And now, if you weren’t working at DOC, what would you want to be?

Possibly a fishing guide, I love being out on rivers and I think I could watch fish all day.

A good haul for the freezer

If you could be any New Zealand native species for a day, what would you be and why?

I reckon an octopus—they are so smart, can squeeze through the tiniest of spaces to uncover delicious crayfish, and how handy would it be to have even three arms let alone eight?

What piece of advice or message would you want to give to New Zealanders when it comes to conservation?

Learn from the experiences of other countries that have much higher population densities, and don’t let the incredible natural assets you have erode away.

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