TRIBUTE TO A CONSERVATION CAMPAIGNER

Forest and Bird, Volume 16, Issue 4, 1 November 1985, Page 33

TRIBUTE TO A CONSERVATION CAMPAIGNER

DR

OBITUARY

LANCE McCASKILL

G. D. McSweeney

On 8 August, our Society lost a distinguished life member and an outstanding conservationist when Lance McCaskill, aged 85 died in Christchurch. He had a long remarkable career in education, agriculture, high country and soil conservation management and in_ recent years as a_ prolific natural history writer. His booklets on New Zealand’s scenic reserves and on Molesworth station, soil conservation and wilderness are well known. A founder member of Forest and Bird, he recently recalled that the origins of the Society followed heated discussions conducted along the Wellington waterfront! From the 1920s onwards Lance actively promoted the appreciation and planting of native plants, particularly through his work in schools and universities. To commemorate the NZ Centennial in 1940 he helped organise a scheme to establish native plants throughout our schools. He also played a pioneering role in soil conservation work — especially in the South Island high country. Lance McCaskill was a committed and determined nature conservationist. He was always prepared to argue persuasively for conservation — whether in 1958 to convince West Coast local bodies that they should establish a National Park to commemorate Westland’s Centennial; to preserve and

protect his beloved and rare Castle Hill buttercup or in his battles to stop an ecologically disastrous road_ realignment over the summit of Arthurs Pass. His determination and enthusiasm usually won through, particularly because of his talent for linking conservation principles to practical actions. In recent years, Lance maintained his close interest in our Society. He strongly supported our efforts to add the lowland forests of Okarito, Punakaiki and Waitutu to the National Park system he campaigned so hard to establish. He was delighted when we _ recently began major efforts to protect natural areas in the South Island high country. I’m sure he would be equally delighted to hear that at last we are to have a nature conservation department. Lance McCaskill’s death is a sad loss to our Society but we plan to remember his conservation efforts by establishing a McCaskill Trust, to fund further conservation work, especially by young people. These I remember, with the wind that blows Forever pure down from the tussock ranges, And these remain, like the everlasting snows, Changeless in me while my life changes, These and a thousand things that prove, You rooted like a tree in the land’s love. James K_ Baxter ‘‘To my Father’’