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Archives For 30/11/1999

Jobs at DOC: Stella McQueen—Freshwater Ranger

Department of Conservation —  17/05/2013

Come behind the scenes and into the jobs, the challenges, the highlights, and the personalities of the people who work at the Department of Conservation (DOC).

Today we profile Stella McQueen, Freshwater Ranger/”native fish geek” in DOC’s Taranaki/Whanganui Area Offices.

At work

Stella McQueen standing in a forest.

Me!

Some things I do in my job include… Fishing! Mostly spotlighting or electrofishing, surveying streams in order to update records, find out what is there and figure out how best to look after the special places that we find.

The best bit about my job is… Fishing! The astonishment and excitement each time my spotlight falls on a great big kōkopu or longfin eel. Sharing the knowledge and helping to look after these incredible animals.

The DOC (or previous DOC) employee that inspires or enthuses me most is…
Rosemary Miller. She was a friend of the family when I was an odd teenager obsessed with medieval history. She was a huge inspiration and mentor. I still aspire to be like her when I grow up…

The scariest DOC moment I’ve had so far is… Rolling a brand new ute down a 100 metre cliff into a stream and being rescued by a helicopter, three weeks into a three month contract. I remain utterly astonished that we survived.

The rolled ute at the bottom of a cliff.

Our ute at the bottom of the 100 metre cliff

On a personal note…

The song that always cheers me up is… The old theme tune from Thomas the Tank Engine!

If I could trade places with any other person for a week – famous or not famous, living or dead, real or fictional – it would be… A zombie apocalypse survivor, so long as dying during the week wasn’t permanent. Technically, I am not a fan of horror movies, but ever since I rolled the ute I have had zombie dreams and they are so much fun!

My best ever holiday was… Last year, spending eleven months living in my little campervan. I travelled the length of the country meeting fish geeks, looking for different species and writing a field guide to freshwater fish, which will be published this November. I have loved the mobile life so much that my van is ‘home’ for the foreseeable future.

Campervan parked at Molesworth Station.

My home, parked at the top of the highest alpine road in the country (1,347 m), on Molesworth Station

My secret indulgence is… Collecting clever and/or funny internet memes, webcomics and captioned images. Embarrassingly, I have over 4,000 in 52 folders, and I look at them when I need a chuckle.

If I wasn’t working at DOC, I’d like to… Be writing more books and exploring more of this amazing country, and finding more work with DOC!

Deep and meaningful…

My favourite quote is… Well, there are lots, but my current favourite is “Never give up on a dream just because of the time it will take to accomplish it. The time will pass anyway.” The next fishy book I want to write will be a very long and extremely challenging project, which is scary, but would be so good for me to do.

Stella feeding a longfin eel at night.

Feeding pieces of fresh roadkill to longfin eels, after we finished our work for the night. They had a good go at my fingers too

The best piece of advice I’ve ever been given is… “Don’t believe a word I say.” This piece of wisdom was pressed on my first-year Classical Studies class, by our amazing lecturer Norman Austin. He wanted us to check all ‘facts’ and make up our own minds, even if the information came from trusted experts.

In work and life I am motivated by… Obsessions. Life without interests and dreams and one’s weird personal geekiness would be boring. There is always something that I am utterly fascinating by and avidly researching.

My conservation advice to New Zealanders is… That it is not a choice between having a healthy economy and a healthy environment. We either have both, or we have nothing.

A large giant kokopu.

Our best fish of the season – a 32cm severely-battle-scarred giant kōkopu

 

Question of the week…

What is your biggest pet peeve? People who use text-speak out loud.

Stella holding a Tarndale bully.

Me with a Tarndale bully – the most geographically restricted freshwater fish species in New Zealand

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Jobs at DOC: Sarah King—Biodiversity Ranger

Department of Conservation —  10/05/2013

Come behind the scenes and into the jobs, the challenges, the highlights, and the personalities of the people who work at the Department of Conservation (DOC).

Today we profile Sarah King, a Biodiversity Ranger in the Te Urewera Whirinaki Area Office.

Sarah and her helper tend to a kaka in Whirinaki Forest.

Sarah and her helper tend to a kaka in Whirinaki Forest.

A kokako singing in a tree in Whirinaki Forest.

The most beautiful sound is a kokako dawn chorus

At work

Some things I do in my job include… Monitoring birds and bats, catching and handling threatened species (the plants are a real trick to catch), and showing other people some of the cool stuff you can see in the bush.

The best bit about my job is… Getting up close to some awesome critters.

The funniest DOC moment I’ve had so far is… Being bait to catch falcons, wearing a chief’s hat with leg nooses on top. I had to get up on a tree stump to be taller than my co worker so that the falcon would strike me—best time I’ve ever had being bait.

The DOC (or previous DOC) employee that inspires or enthuses me most is… Jeff Hudson, he taught me all that he could about the ins and outs of kōkako. His enthusiasm was so infectious that even though he’s passed away I can still feel him nudging me on to find out more.

Sarah holds a short-tailed bat.

Short tailed bats have attitude and like to investigate with their teeth

Sarah holding a tuatara in Whirinaki Forest.

Chuffed to get my hands on this big fella

On a personal note…

Most people don’t know that I… Can cross country ski (I’m not saying ‘well’ though).

My stomping ground is… The Whirinaki Forest.

If I could trade places with any other person for a week famous or not famous, living or dead, real or fictional it would be… Sir David Attenborough, what a life!

My best ever holiday was… In Tasmania with my partner, catching Tazzy devils and platypus, searching for gems in the creeks and finding as many cool critters as possible.

If I could be any New Zealand native species I’d be… A falcon—high speed aerial agility; that’d be a rush.

Deep and meaningful…

My favourite quote is… Don’t really have one but this one’s quite good: “You only live once, but if you do it right, once is enough.” Mae West.

The best piece of advice I’ve ever been given is… ‘Take the time to look around you, you never know what wonders you might chance to see’.

Sarah holding a kiwi during a kiwi release.

Kiwi releases are great for getting people involved

In work and life I am motivated by… Enthusiasm. It breeds more enthusiasm, and if it’s directed towards saving threatened species then that’s the best sort.

My conservation advice to New Zealanders is… Don’t take our forests and wildlife for granted, just 50 years ago we had so much more than we do now and people assumed it would be there forever.  What little we have left: treasure it, get out and see it and fight for it because soon it could be gone forever.

A tui sitting in a tree in Whirinaki Forest.

Always amazed at the colours on tui

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Kissing under the mistletoe

Department of Conservation —  30/04/2013

Community Relations Ranger Anna McKnight is on the hunt for the rare white mistletoe, or to be more precise a photo of her favourite plant flowering.

I am crazy in love with the rare white mistletoe Tupeia Antarctica. I am looking for a photo of the flowers of my beloved, and am hoping other people who have fallen for the white mistletoe have taken a close up photo (or any photo at all) of these flowers.

The white mistletoe fruit growing on the plant.

The berry of the white mistletoe

Falling in love with mistletoes is easy! They are hemi–parasitic plants, this means they use specially adapted roots to extract water and nutrients from the stem tissues of their host plant, but also produce their own energy through photosynthetic green leaves. Mistletoes rarely harm their host tree in New Zealand.

White mistletoe in a host tree.

White mistletoe in a host tree

I think we should start a tradition here in NZ of kissing under the mistletoe like they do in the Northern Hemisphere at Christmas time! In NZ the yellow – green flowers of the white mistletoe flower from October to December (which is why I missed them) and white to pink fleshy fruit from December to March.

A volunteer setting a trap beside a mistletoe plant.

Jean Stanley of the Pukawa Wildlife Trust helps protect the mistletoe from possums

I’m making an interpretation sign for a community called Pukawa at the bottom of Lake Taupō who are protecting this rare plant by trapping possums who love to eat the fruit. They also trap rats and stoats, which is great, as native birds play an important role in seed dispersal of the white mistletoe.

Ranger Anna McKnight blows a kiss.

Ranger Anna blowing a ‘mistletoe’ kiss

If you have any photos of this flower, or know of somewhere I might be able to find them please email me at amcknight@doc.govt.nz.

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Whio awareness family adventure

Department of Conservation —  25/03/2013

Last year Genesis Energy held the first Great Whio Adventure competition. The top prize was a family trip to spend a day catching and tagging whio with DOC Rangers. Communications & Engagement Advisor Robyn Orchard reports back from the day:

The Brand family from Wellington were the North Island winners of the Great Whio Adventure competition and arrived in Whakapapa Village in late January. Jürgen, his wife Sarah, and their sons, Joshua, 18, Heinrich 14 and Daniel 12, had already spent a day white water rafting, but this didn’t stop them from returning to the local rivers with the DOC rangers in search of whio.

Daniel Brand standing holding one of the juvenile whio.

Daniel Brand with one of the juvenile whio before they were released

DOC Rangers, Ali Beath, Dean Flavell, Andy Glaser and Malcolm Swanney, were joined by Bubs Smith from Ngāti Hikairo ki Tongariro (local hapu), conservation-dogs Neo and Fern, and myself.

We all got kitted up with wetsuits and raincoats before the rangers gave us briefing and then it was off in a convoy of vehicles to a whio site in the Mangetepopo Stream, in the Tongariro Forest.

After a steep and muddy descent the rangers showed us how they find and catch the whio for checking, tagging and releasing.

Two rangers tag a mother whio duck before release.

Ruapehu Biodiversity Rangers Ali Beath and Dean Flavell tagging a mother whio duck

With the help of Neo and Fern we located a group of whio upstream. The rangers unpacked and set up a fine net across the width of the stream. The whio were gently ushered downstream and into the net where the Brand family and I were hiding, ready to grab the strong-swimming ducks.

“Try and make yourself blend in and look like a tree or a rock,” said Ali. I’m not sure that any of us looked like trees or rocks as we stood in water trying to stay quiet and still.

A family of five whio were captured in the net and held above the water by each of the Brand family members until they were untangled from the net and placed in the holding bags. One of the juveniles staged a daring escape but was quickly tracked down and shepherded back upriver by Andy and Neo.

Whio dogs and handlers beside a river before the whio release.

Malcom, Fern, Jürgen, Andy and Neo. Fern was put through her paces that day to be certified as a whio dog… she passed.

With all whio accounted for, the Brand family then helped microchip the ducks and place colour bands on their legs for identification. All whio get micro-chipped as a permanent identification method. The microchip is inserted into the back of the neck using a needle and will stay there for life. Adult ducks then have three colour bands put on their legs with each bird getting a different combination of colours. This allows the rangers to recognise each duck individually.

This combined identification method also allows the rangers to read the microchips with a scanner and gather information on how old each duck is, who their mate is, the size of their territory and other details. This data is stored on a national database and is available through the Genesis Energy funded scanning tools.

Following the checks and tagging it was time to return the mildly inconvenienced whio back into their stream. The Brand family took one whio each and together, released them into the rapids.

The Brand family releasing five whio into the river.

Watched by the conservation dog handlers and dogs, the Brand family release the family of five whio back into the river

We then left the stream just as the rain clouds closed in, and as we trudged (some of us trudging more than others) back up to the vehicles with the rain bucketing down. I was exhausted and could hardly put one foot in front of the other as I brought up the rear (thanks to Joshua for taking my backpack off me and Dean for carrying my rain jacket). I think I will either get fit at DOC or collapse trying!

The Brand Family loved their adventure prize, especially the chance to walk in the wet boots of the DOC rangers for a day.

Enjoy your own family whio adventure!

Whio Forever are running the Great Whio Adventure competition again. If you know of a family that would enjoy this unique prize, encourage them to enter by 12 April on the Whio Forever website.

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Jobs at DOC: Ivan Rogers—Whio Ranger

Department of Conservation —  15/03/2013

Come behind the scenes and into the jobs, the challenges, the highlights, and the personalities of the people who work at the Department of Conservation (DOC).

March is Whio Awareness Month. To celebrate this, we profile Ivan Rogers—Whio Ranger in the Motueka Area Office.

A whio gets away from Ranger Ivan Rogers.

A whio nearly getting away on me. This picture gets trotted out at work fairly regularly, to much amusement.

At work

Some things I do in my job include… I’m in the second year of a three year study putting cameras on whio nests to record predation. I’m also tracking them during the moult when they are equally vulnerable to predation. And anything else that comes along, especially if it’s to do with lizards.

Ranger Ivan Rogers is bitten on the finger by a common gecko.

Attacked by a common gecko during hakea control. This was the first one found after a rodent eradication. From being virtually undetectable, they have bounced back strongly

The best bit about my job… is that moment when you find a whio nest and look her (briefly) in the eye.

The loveliest DOC moment I’ve had so far is… The first time I saw a rock wren. Gareth from Golden Bay had gone for a walk up Mt Perry and had seen one. I had never seen one and I was so jealous that I scooted up as soon as I could and there it was! There turned out to be a family group resulting from a successful nest. Like toutouwai they will perch on your boot.

The DOC (or previous DOC) employee that inspires or enthuses me most is… Kath Smith from Golden Bay. We met when we were hut wardens—a rare instance of an ‘instant’ friendship—she knows me all too well!

Ranger Ivan Rogers holds a bag of fur seal vomit from Tonga Island.

This is me collecting fur seal vomit from Tonga Island

On a personal note…

Most people don’t know that I… was a punk in the very late 70s/early 80s.

The song that always cheers me up is… Roadrunner by the Modern Lovers or anything else with two chords.

My stomping ground is… I’ve had a few—Aro St, Surry Hills, the Heaphy Track…. Now I do my ‘stomping’ in the South Branch Wangapeka.

My greatest sporting moment was when… Kind of a sporting moment: I once rode a Yamaha 50 from Christchurch to Karamea and very nearly back—the front tyre blew out at Woodend so I chucked it behind a gorse bush and hitched the rest of the way….

In my spare time… I breed Northland green gecko (Naultinus grayii).

Ranger Ivan Rogers taking invertebrate samples on the Richmond Ranges.

Invertebrate sampling on the Richmond Ranges

Deep and meaningful…

My favourite quote is… “Quick! A pumpkin” (a friend’s small boy. I think he plays for the Rabbitohs now).

The best piece of advice I’ve ever been given is… Keep all your (photographic) negatives.

In work and life I am motivated by… Quick answer: I’m in awe of those people who work with the demented elderly, the profoundly disabled, and the deeply disturbed. What a noble thing to do—how is it they are the low waged?

My conservation advice to New Zealanders is… Don’t put milk out for hedgehogs.

If you could move backwards or forwards to any decade in time, which would you pick and why?
It kind of depends on where as much as when doesn’t it? I was a bit too young to enjoy the 70s so that’s one decade I’d go for. Specifically 1970s USA—being around to see all those great bands. In Detroit the Stooges and the MC5 and in New York the last days of the Velvet Underground, the Ramones, the New York Dolls, the whole Max’s Kansas City and CBGBs scene.

Rangers Ross Maley and Ivan Rogers in the Horoirangi Marine Reserve .

Out in the Horoirangi Marine Reserve with my colleague Ross Maley

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