April, 2010
Thu, 29 Apr 2010 10:34 am – Posted by Mandy | 1 Comment
Blogger: Forest & Bird’s North Island Conservation Manager, Mark Bellingham
Back in the day, I was what you’d call a rock man.
I did my undergraduate degree in geology, and since then I have kept in contact with people in the industry.
The industry is a tight-lipped one, but this Geological & Nuclear Science report the government is basing its predictions of ‘$194 billion of mineral wealth’ has lots of geologists shaking their heads.
Insiders in the minerals industry who have pored over the discussion document are shocked at the highly optimistic estimates, the woeful lack of science and the tendency to gloss over the environmental impacts of these mines.
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Wed, 21 Apr 2010 10:18 am – Posted by Mandy | 6 Comments
Blogger: Tramp-o-holic & Forest & Bird’s (near newest) Conservation Advocate, Quentin Duthie.
Nic Vallance, Forest & Bird’s newest staff-member, has upstaged me. The first blog from the self-confessed “nature nerd” came in her first week. Quick work Nic!
I’ve already been here a month, but it’s never too late to start blogging. After all, Claire Browning’s already thrust me into the blogosphere on Pundit.
I think I’m more an “outdoor nerd” than “nature nerd”, although the difference is subtle.
Tramping is a love of my life, walking to places that most don’t know exist (although Nic may have flown there with DOC’s film crew in our least endangered mountain bird, the helicopter). My boots have taken me to some extraordinary places like the wilds of Fiordland [PDF p2], obscure huts in the Southern Alps and the lush forests of Te Urewera.
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Fri, 16 Apr 2010 2:44 pm – Posted by Mandy | 5 Comments
Blogger: Forest & Bird’s (newest) Conservation Advocate, Nic Vallance.
Gidday everyone,
I’m Nicola (Nic) Vallance, and I’ve just taken up a role as Conservation Advocate based in Christchurch, working on the Mackenzie campaign, mining, and pest control .
Nic gets up-close-and-personal with a giant weta.
I’ve just finished my first week, so it’s all pretty new, but I’m quite excited to be working for Forest and Bird, and getting stuck into some of the challenges that we are all facing at the moment regarding conservation of our precious wildlife and wild places.
My background is in zoology and natural history communication. Prior to taking the role with Forest and Bird, I worked for the Department of Conservation, both in Otago Conservancy, and more recently as the national media advisor in Head Office.
Over the past three years I was lucky enough to work with TVNZ to produce over 200 episodes of Meet the Locals for TVNZ 6.
During this time, I had the privilege of travelling from one end of the country to the other, including Hauturu/Little Barrier Island, Codfish Island/Whenua Hou, th Poor Knights Islands Marine Reserve, Fiordland, the Chathams, Waipoua Forest - to name but a few places. I also got up close and personal with a plethora of protected wildlife, and have been sat on, bitten by, and occasionally crapped on by all manner of species, including kakapo, black stilts, tree weta, giant weta, kiwi, kauri snails, you name it! You can see more about Meet the Locals here http://www.tvnz.co.nz/meet-the-locals
I took the job with Forest and Bird, because I am first and foremost passionate about protecting our unique wildlife and wild places.
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Thu, 15 Apr 2010 10:34 am – Posted by Mandy | No Comments
Blogger: Kea hunter, Corey Mosen
'Arnie', Photo: Corey Mosen.
Bound for the mountains yet again, I loaded up my car – a low-slung vehicle 1996 Nissan Skyline not designed to be a work horse around the mountains - and wheeled down to Wellington’s ferry terminal. And after a day’s travelling, I was there at my destination – rain-filled St Arnaud.
This time I had two underlings – a one-time kea hunter, Athena and a complete novice - my older brother. This was my chance for revenge: after all those years of my older brother picking on me, he deserved a little kea punishment.
The first day out in the field was beautiful and I used the opportunity to check the ski field to see if there were any kea haunting the abandoned slopes. My car struggled in the fords however luckily they weren’t high and the only obstacles were rocks; there were a few scraping sounds coming from underneath the car but we came out unscathed.
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Tue, 13 Apr 2010 9:24 am – Posted by Mandy | 3 Comments
Blogger: Web Manager for Forest & Bird, Mandy Herrick
A few years back, I lived in China. Yes, for two whole years, I sucked back lungfuls of their toxin-laced air, drank their increasingly polluted waters and ate their chemical –riddled fish.
And unnoticed by me (I was an entertainment reporter), day by day, I think I grew into an environmentalist.
I quickly learnt the phrase ‘the pollution is not good here’ in Chinese, and I would tell everyone I met - but that’s the extent of my environmental activism.
Part of me thinks that I should have bottled some New Zealand air and smuggled it back to China, so I could ambush taxi-drivers, strangers, acquaintances and force them to take a shot.
That way, they could palpably understand what I actually meant.
So what do you need to get a nice, clean lungful of air these days? It’s only in the past two years (since becoming an F & Ber) that I have begun to unpick all the things I think you need.
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