Young in years but not lacking in experience

Waimarino Bulletin, Volume 5, Issue 15, 8 September 1987, Page 13

Young in years but not lacking in experience

Tongariro National Park's newest team member, parks assistant Richard Balm, is a young man with experience beyond his years. At 26, he has worked in various national parks and reserves both in and out of New Zealand. Mr Balm's first position coincidentally, was as a park's assistant involved with track work at Whakapapa on a univershy work scheme. Since then he has gained further outdoor experience at Arthur's Pass in the South Island; in the Chatham Islands with NZ's colony of rare black robins; with reserve maintenance work on Raoul Island in the Kermadecs (halfway between Auckland and Fiji in a sub-tropical climate) and in the other extreme, as a dog-handler at Scott Base in Antarctica. Mr Balm is Tongariro National Park's new noxious weeds overseer and is involved in the Park's Pinus Contorta eradication programme particularly in the Karioi State Forest region. He is in charge of quality control and liaison with volunteer workers. Mr Balm said his original intention was to ski during the winter while working part-time at the road barrier

on the Ohakune Mountain Road. He later applied for a fulltime position with the Park because of the marginal skiing so far this season.

He is a keen outdoors person who intends utilising the facilities of the area to their fullest potential and is competing in the Mountains to the Sea Triathlon next month.