Outdoor Nerd
Wed, 21 Apr 2010 10:18 am – Posted by Mandy | 7 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.
It’s a busy time to join Forest & Bird as a conservation advocate, hence I spend a bit more time at work and home, and less time tramping, than I used to.
Before joining the team here, I worked as a research advisor for the Green Party MPs in Parliament, so I’m no stranger to conservation issues or the politics that swirl around them. That background is useful because much of Forest & Bird’s current work involves pushing back against plans to raid or damage our conservation lands and rivers for mining, intensive farming or hydro-electricity.
I’m lucky enough to live on the eastern shores of Wellington Harbour. A thin strip of housing backs onto the East Harbour Regional Park, which has great tracks for biking and walking. It’s awesome having regional conservation land as my own backyard.
The bush has been damaged in places by past fires and pest animals, but it is regenerating. A ground-based pest control programme by the Regional Council – supported by a volunteer network called MIRO – is doing wonders to restore the health of the forest and its wildlife.
The results are real. I heard kakariki (parakeet) chattering while gardening on the weekend. They’re likely to have come from Matiu/Somes Island. A riroriro (grey warbler) regularly sings in our garden too. And karearea (falcon) are breeding again in the Park.
On second thoughts, maybe I am a “nature nerd” like Nic after all?
A few weeks ago, I took my nephews for an overnight tramp in the Park. We camped the night in the lush Gollans Stream. A North Island Robin bid us welcome the evening, and farewell in the morning. My nephews had a ball, and all in walking distance from my home (and public transport)!
It’s great to be part of Forest & Bird’s work to give nature a voice.
It seems a bit strange that someone who’s a paid advocate for Forest & Bird is promoting a project that’s not a F&B one here on their website.
Hi hectors. I’m not sure why that is strange. Forest & Bird promotes positive conservation projects regularly, including those led by DOC or community groups other than F&B. F&B does awesome practical conservation work throughout the country, but we’re not the only ones out there. In this case, my blog is about introducing me - not F&B - and so focuses on a project I’m getting involved in in my own backyard. I encourage readers to send me stories of other local conservation projects - whether led by F&B or others - for the blog. Email q.duthie@forestandbird.org.nz . Happy Earth Day.
Why does it seem strange that Quentin is involved in a pest project? It’s all good conservation activity. The possums and stoats are not going to notice which group is trapping/baiting them.
All the best for your time with Forest and Bird, Quentin.
Welcome aboard, Quentin, and good on you for getting your hands dirty with a local conservation project. I’ve been involved in setting up three conservation groups which have been spinoffs from Branch projects but I’m still a proud Forest and Birder. It’s important to remember that F&B is leading the charge on the real big conservation issues facing the country. Quentin joins a very good team of professionals but they can’t do it on their own.
Hi Quentin,
Welcome to F&B. I came along to the hear the lively debate (to mine or not to mine) last week, it was just what I needed to get my a into g and write a submission this afternoon opposing the mining. I see the deadline has been extended though, which is great. hopefully everyone of the 50,000 protesters from Auckland yesterday will submit too!
I’m invloved with a regular team of weed busters on Matiu Somes Island and I’ve very recently joined a group closer to my home at Onehunga Bay (Titahi Bay). Next Sunday, 9th April, 10am we’d welcome any willing helpers to join us in the first of a series of planting days, trying to restore some of the habitat sadly destroyed by fire a couple of months ago. Cheers! Linda
Because you’re employed as to advocate for F&B is all. But welcome to F&B and hopefully you’ll get involved in some of their work now cos you’re right, they do some awesome work that deserves pubilcising.
[...] I have a new daughter. Instead of lofty mountains, it will involve family-friendly wanders in the forest behind my home where the rata is blooming brightly and rare birds like the karearea (falcon), kakariki and NI robin [...]