Come behind the scenes and into the jobs, the challenges, the highlights, and the personalities of the people who work at DOC. Today we profile Dene Robinson, Administration Director in Wellington.
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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 Norm Thornley, Geospatial Services Manager.
At work
Norm (kneeling) with Dave Hunt, checking a stoat trap
Some things I do in my job include:
Leading a team of geospatial professionals who provide a service right across DOC.
This helps achieve DOC’s vision by:
Providing the mapping and spatial analysis for everything—from marine protection to alpine avalanche prediction and wildfire modelling, to mention but a few.
The best bit about my job is:
The variety of the work, the professionalism of the team, and being able to contribute to conservation in a meaningful way.
The scariest DOC moment I’ve had so far was:
While on the fire line in Victoria—running to escape a burn over when a back burn breached a control on a track later name Kiwi Bacon Ridge.
Lighting a back burn as part of a DOC deployment to Victoria
The DOC employee that inspires or enthuses me most is:
There are quite a few, but the ones that immediately spring to mind are Sandra Parkkali, Rene Duindam, and Martin Slimin. Their tenacity and dedication to DOC’s goals are an example to us all.
On a personal note…
Most people don’t know that:
I flew in an air force Orion out of Dunedin on a coastal surveillance mission for DOC. The object of the exercise was to capture aerial imagery of the Chatham Islands. When we got there, however, the only part that wasn’t covered in cloud was the lagoon.
My best ever holiday was:
Spending five weeks driving around Europe with Anne and our two daughters. We came away with a much better appreciation of how unique and special New Zealand is, and how privileged we are to live here.
Norm (far left), with family and friends, at the Motatapu mountain bike event
My greatest sporting moment was when:
I crossed the finish line after completing the Kepler Challenge back in 2001 with my best mate Chris.
The thing I’m most looking forward to in the next 6 months is:
First, my daughter’s wedding, in late October. Then, in December, it’s up Arthur’s Pass to help Chris celebrate moving into his next decade.
Looking out of the DOC Collingwood Batch
If I could be any New Zealand native species I’d be:
A kea. I really love seeing the mischief they get up to and their seemingly carefree enjoyment of life.
Deep and meaningful…
My favourite quote is:
Winston Churchill, speaking about the battle of Britain fighter pilots and crews: “never before have so many owed so much to so few”.
Anne, Chris and Norm, ready to start a ride on the Queen Charlotte Track
The best piece of advice I’ve ever been given is:
There are two ways you can read a rule book: The negative way, where if doesn’t say ‘you can’ then you can’t; or the positive way, where if doesn’t say ‘you can’t’ then you can.
In work and life I am motivated by:
Our beautiful country and the contribution working for DOC enables me to make to improving and protecting all the things I value.
My conservation advice to New Zealanders is:
Join a local conservation group. I belong to a predator trapping group, and checking the traps takes an hour and a half a month—a small price for enhancing the bird life and halo around Zealandia.
The DOC southern team taking the Charleston underworld caving experience
Question of the week…
Pick a scar you got in childhood and tell the story of how you got it:
That will be the tip of my right hand ring finger, which I lost to a water pump belt pulley when I was three.
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 Jack Mace, National Integration Coordinator in Wellington.
At work
Some things I do in my job include:
Jack Mace (right) with one of the locals in Afghanistan
I provide a voice for Conservation Services in National Office (and a voice for National Office within Conservation Services) so there is a lot of working in with other groups within DOC to make sure that things are working smoothly and there’s coordinated and integrated decision making across the Department.
Thus far I’ve mostly been busy trying to align our business planning and reporting processes with the outcomes we’re trying to achieve—and make them simpler and more practical in the process.
This helps achieve DOC’s vision by:
Making sure we are doing the right thing in the right place at the right time, and that we’re working as one organisation. Finding opportunities to make things easier. Looking for risks and problems and trying to resolve them. Picking up the odd jobs that would otherwise fall through the cracks.
Making the most of our historic heritage
The best bit about my job is:
A steep plot in South Westland
Working across the whole of DOC’s work. I can see how it all connects together and where there are some big opportunities for us.
I get to work with a bunch of onto it people from all levels of the Department. Plus, I’m finally starting to understand the reason for some of the things that really bugged me as a ranger—like CAPEX, thirdly reporting, depreciation…
The strangest DOC moment I’ve had so far is:
Putting a penguin in a wine cask (we were trying to work out a good way to hold it to take blood samples).
Or the time Dean Caskey, Glen Fyfe and I had to go and rescue hundreds of short-finned eels from a muddy dried-up pond in Taranaki. We got covered in muck and filled up two wheelie-bins full, which I’m sure is someone’s worst nightmare!
The DOC (or previous DOC) employee that inspires or enthuses me most is:
I could write a long list for this one—but maybe I’ll say Mark Martini from Hokitika. You won’t find a friendlier or more helpful bloke. Incredibly passionate about his work, knowledgeable about the bush and the ecological and social problems we face. He knows how to work within the system and achieve good results. And he has a good sense of humour to boot. Just don’t let him near the cooking stove…unless you like pie sandwiches!
On a personal note…
My happy place is:
Nelson Lakes National Park. I grew up skiing at Mt Robert aged 6 so it was my introduction to the great outdoors. I genuinely thought that screaming horizontal hail was normal alpine weather. It was also where I got my first job with DOC—as a stoat trapper—and where my wife Anneke and I got married last year.
Today’s dining room, this time above the Whataroa Valley
If I could trade places with any other person for a week—living or dead—it would be:
Kupe. Imagine being the first person to set foot on Aotearoa—the things you would see before humans and rats and dogs and pigs and all the rest came along and mucked things up.
My best ever holiday was:
A climbing trip to Afghanistan in 2009.
I didn’t get up to much climbing, but we spend 5 weeks walking around the Wakhan corridor in the far northeast of the country. An incredibly remote and difficult place. The people there live a definite hard-scrabble life, but were some of the most friendly and welcoming folk I’ve ever met.
Everywhere we went we were greeted with cups of tea, bread, and a place to stay. And I think if we could import a few of their yaks and donkeys we could cut down on the helicopter bills.
Kirghiz camp in the Afghan Pamir, Tajikistan in the background
If I could be any New Zealand native species I’d be:
A falcon/karearea. Would beat walking around those hills, and I could specialise in taking out stoats and rats. BAM!
Alternatively, a kea. Mucking about in the mountains causing mischief sounds like a good life.
My secret indulgence is:
Sneaking off into the bush by myself to wander around exploring. I like to say I’m hunting but my serious lack of results lately suggests I’m subconsciously just after a slow walk on my lonesome out in the bush.
An example of our majestic wildlife on Enderby Island
If I wasn’t working at DOC, I’d like to:
Be semi-retired, focusing all of my efforts on restoring a patch of bush somewhere in the top of the South Island. Failing that, a professional spinner of yarns would be a good racket.
Deep and meaningful…
The best piece of advice I’ve ever been given is:
Listen more and talk less. Obviously I’m still working on this.
Hovering at the Pelorus “landing” site
In work and life I am motivated by:
People who are passionate about what they do, and are good at it. Talking to people like Jeremy Rolfe about plants or Nobby Robson about the Ruahines make me want to get out and do it.
My conservation advice to New Zealanders is:
Make the time to get out there and enjoy it. There’s not a single town in New Zealand that doesn’t have incredible natural places nearby (even Ashburton!).
Also the pleasure that can be gained from knowing a few plants and animals far outweighs the effort it takes to learn them.
My celebrity lookalike
Question of the week…
Who is your celebrity lookalike?
I’ve been told I bear a certain resemblance to someone called “Grizzly Adams” but I’m too young to know who that is.
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 Caroline Carter, Partnerships Ranger in Fiordland.
At work
Protecting takahē in the Murchison Mountains
Some things I do in my job include:
Making friends, storytelling and magic! Basically my job involves me knowing about all the conservation work everyone is doing, and ensuring they have the resources they need to be successful. I get to share their stories with the world, inspiring others to join in the fun. Amazing things can then happen and this is where the magic comes in!
This helps achieve DOC’s vision by:
Encouraging every New Zealander to own the problem of our native species disappearing. What we do DOES make a difference and every little bit helps.
The best bit about my job is:
The big and little people I work with. In an average week I might find myself with a four year old kindy kid sharing their enjoyment of an insect found in a rotten log, and that same afternoon, be equally inspired by a colleague discussing beech mast cycles and the scientific response.
The funniest/strangest DOC moment I’ve had so far is:
Staffing the DOC careers stand at Fiordland College. The kids had a series of questions to answer about working in conservation. To spice things up a bit (and to compete with the Army next door who had kids doing push ups to great applause), we added a question along the lines of “which pest did this poo”? The ‘poo’ was in a pot and they had to eat some to find out the answer. It was a multiple choice question; a) rat, b) possum, c) stoat, d) easter bunny. Without exception, every child reluctantly tasted a sample from the pot and then most of them, through screwed up chewing faces, looked through the list of possible answers. They really believed that we might actually feed them poo!
You need a good raincoat down here on the Routeburn Track!
The DOC employee that inspires or enthuses me most is:
Every week I am inspired by my colleagues around me. We are like family!
On a personal note
Most people don’t know that:
I once shared my bed with a feral piglet! Her name was Princess Penelope and my partner shot her mother on a bacon gathering trip! She was the most intelligent animal I’ve ever known. She toilet trained herself within 24 hours of being in the house—choosing to use the shower tray when it was too cold to go outside! One night, I woke to find she had got caught up in the duvet cover in her mad dash to get to the bathroom. She didn’t want to sleep in the bed after that!
If I could trade places with any other person for a week it would be:
Anyone on the filming set of the BBC comedy ‘Gavin and Stacey’. It’s a crackin’ programme it is and I’m a total fan. On a recent visit to see family in the UK I went on an unofficial tour with my equally obsessed sister and we actually got to see where every scene was filmed—including the dodgems—‘cause you knows how I like the bumper cars’!
Out and about in my backyard—Mitre Peak, Milford Sound
My best ever holiday was:
Define holiday! I’ve spent the last 14 years in New Zealand living on the edge of Fiordland National Park, cycling, kayaking, tramping—sounds like a perfectly good holiday to me!
In my spare time I:
Enjoy dabbling in movie making. I really should do a course so I know what I’m doing, but owning a Mac makes it SO easy. I consider myself ‘learning on the job’!
If I could be any New Zealand native species I’d be:
A Burwood takahē. I’d get to eat a tasty vegetarian diet, have a cuddly colourful partner for life, foster children in need of parents and experience what it’s like to do 7 metres of poo each day!
A walk in the park with my son—looking out along the Hollyford Valley
Deep and meaningful
My favourite quote is:
“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has” – Margaret Mead
In work and life I am motivated by:
TED talks. Not only are these talks filled with ideas worth spreading, they also introduce you to some exceptional people on this planet who really know how to tell a story and captivate an audience.
Still smiling at the end of a long day spent with kids restoring the Kepler
The best piece of advice I’ve ever been given is:
“It would be selfish to have the answer and skills to prevent the extinction of native species, but to ignore this and let them slip into extinction” – Don Merton. At the time I was struggling with the fact that children lived in poverty, and it seemed unjust and selfish that a wealthy country could afford ‘luxuries’ like protecting its wildlife. But after speaking with Don I truly understood that what we do to the environment we do to ourselves. They cannot be separated. Don’s words have stuck with me ever since.
My conservation advice to New Zealanders is:
Just one cathedral in Britain alone costs 19,000 pounds a day to maintain. That’s NZ$38,000 or about NZ$30 a minute! Other countries like Britain treasure their castles, cathedrals, bridges and ancient monuments and consider this spending a vital investment. What makes New Zealand’s treasures so unique is that they are natural and LIVING—no amount of money could restore them if lost. Together we can protect these treasures, enjoy and celebrate them and be confident that they are as worthy of our attention as any Great Wall, Palace or Cathedral.
Another day at the office! Standing in the Murchison Mountains
Question of the week
If you could only use one kitchen utensil for the rest of your life, what would it be and why that choice?
My spork—an impulse purchase standing at the till in Macpac many years ago. Well it looked so useful, who wouldn’t be tempted to buy one? Of course I’ve never actually used it, so if it was the only thing I had left, maybe I would. The spoon end could stir, the fork end would mash, and the knife… it might chop?!
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 Karin Mahlfeld, Land Snails Ranger based in Wellington.
At work
Science Lab, identifying snails
Some things I do in my job include:
Updating the Department’s information on threatened land snail species, adding descriptions, images, notes on habitats, distribution maps etc. More than 450 species are currently listed in the Department’s Threat Classification list of land snails. I answer inquiries from staff, other agencies and the public relating to terrestrial and freshwater gastropods. I am also involved with monitoring the impact of rodent predation on the Wainuia urnula species. Most of this work requires me to liaise with a number of snail experts, staff at DOC, Te Papa, Wellington City Council, Greater Wellington and volunteers.
This helps achieve DOC’s vision by:
Providing information and images that staff can use to maintain inherent values of our landscapes (NZ and overseas tourists are keen to experience NZ as close to its original natural state); to ensure that nationally threatened species are conserved; to inform conservation volunteer groups of what is in their patch and its importance; to raise the profile of invertebrates and their role in ecosystem health; add to guides/publications (in addition the few iconic invertebrates usually used). Our images are useful to bring invertebrates closer to the public. We cannot fully appreciate our own place in an interconnected web of life without acknowledging how fundamentally dependent we are upon “the little things that run the world.” Invertebrates and other micro-organisms are very sensitive environmental indicators.
Some of our high tech equipment (showing dried litter sample sieved into fine, medium and coarse fraction)
The best bit about my job is:
That it involves a variety of activities: field work, research, new species discovery, working with volunteers, blogging, curation, publishing, cartography, graphics.
The funniest/strangest/loveliest/scariest/awesome-est (all of them!) DOC moment I’ve had so far is:
My first fieldwork in New Zealand in Nelson Lakes National Park, when I was accompanying Rod Hay monitoring South Island Robins. Being surrounded by mature forest with kākā monkeying around next to our hut in the middle of nowhere without any traffic noises was entirely different to managed pine and beech forests, steel works and intensive agriculture I grew up with back in Germany. After that I decided to return to NZ in the following year to do my MSc project here, which turned out to be on land snail diversity in bush fragments on Awhitu Peninsula (famous as one the highest diversity spots for micro-molluscs worldwide), the influence of stock trampling and habitat fragmentation. Geoff Park (formerly DOC) suggested this as a potential project to me. I had no idea what I got myself into. My affiliation with DOC stretches back nearly 27 years now. In 1991, I moved permanently to NZ.
The DOC (or previous DOC) employee that inspires or enthuses me most is:
Geoff Park obviously got me into researching New Zealand land snails. When I first met Geoff, I was a student studying landscape ecology in Germany. There were not many people interested in landscape ecology then, it was a relatively new degree. I always admired Geoff’s ability to jolt people into action and his love for and understanding of New Zealand’s landscapes.
Rat predated Wainuia urnula snail shells
On a personal note
Most people don’t know that:
I run a very successful science community project involving Ngaio School and its community. Together with a group of Ngaio School mums, I am running lunchtime sessions, where students learn about plants, animals, rocks, chemistry, robots, lungs, brains, angular momentum, the universe—basically anything children are interested in. We are supported by around 70 parent volunteers, who share their passion, knowledge and resources for science and sometimes other topics.
My stomping ground is:
All around Wellington. With my partner Frank, our two sons and Dave Roscoe we have covered a lot of spots around Wellington (collecting). When my partner’s parents were still alive, we would regularly visit Puponga near Farewell Spit, where we had some wonderful Christmas holidays.
On our way to collect litter in the bush remnants on top of Mount Kaukau
My best ever holiday was:
Very hard to make a decision but Austrian Alps (Carinthia) rate definitely very high but also Corsica and Canaries were trips I really enjoyed.
My greatest sporting moment was when:
I was regional champion (Lower Saxony) in table tennis a long, long time ago. These days I do a lot of walking/hiking, however I am thinking of taking up table tennis again. It is a great game: non-contact, fast (you have to anticipate quickly your opponents counter moves) but also subtle when you spin the ball.
In my spare time:
I love tinkering. My older son and I go to a robotics club, where we build simple robots. Had I not taken on malacology as my primary occupation, robotics would have been my choice, had I known how much fun it can be. But back in the early 80s, I had no exposure to it and was not encouraged in that direction at school or at home. I also like reading a good crime novel or just hanging out with my family.
Threatened species team meeting
Deep and meaningful
My favourite quote is:
“Ignoring invertebrates in conservation is simply spineless” – Kylie Williams, Charles Sturt University.
The best piece of advice I’ve ever been given is:
If you can’t find something to live for, what do you die for? (I read this somewhere and it stuck with me.)
In work and life I am motivated by:
Getting more people engaged with science and conservation. Science is often portrayed in the media as a matter of opinion rather than scientifically proven knowledge and wisdom we should base our policies and decisions on. “Being entitled to my opinion” is often used to shelter beliefs that should have been abandoned as has been witnessed with the climate change debate. It breeds a false equivalence between experts and non-experts that has become an unfortunate feature of our public discourse.
My conservation advice to New Zealanders is:
Have a long term plan, get as much help as you can, share your experiences with others and learn from others. I have attended the Conservation Day for volunteers Wellington staff organises each year and found it very useful.
Robotics club at Victoria University
Question of the week
When you’re not working at DOC, how do you like to relax?
When I come home, I have a cup of tea with my partner and we reflect on the day’s events, listen to some music and relax for a little while before having dinner. I try to avoid switching on my laptop in the evenings. I rather read, spend some time with my boys and occasionally watch a DVD.
