Margaret Peace, Conservationist

Forest and Bird, Volume 22, Issue 3, 1 August 1991, Page 22

Margaret Peace, Conservationist

By

Jim Kidson

ICTURE A PARADISE of treed tranquillity, bounty, birdsong and butterflies, harmony and handsome plants the dramatic diversity of nature neatly parcelled into less than a hectare. On that small holding of the "best soil in New Zealand, if not the world", Forest and Bird Marlborough chairperson Margaret Peace has turned a paddock overrun with docks and thistles nearly two metres high into one of the most bountiful pesticide and herbicide-free zones in New Zealand a place which has fed her pure, organic produce in astonishing quantities and provided a regular income. What Margaret achieved in the physical sense lies for all to see along a country road at Tuamarina, near Blenheim. Where other people with smallholdings manage a garden, she has achieved a self-sustaining lifestyle based on the best principles of conservation and environmental care. Growing thousands of annual and perennial plants from seed helped her establish a dried-flower business which could have been expanded many times over had Margaret decided to specialise.

Diversity the key

But, as in the natural ecosystems, she points out, the key to a successful permaculture venture is diversity, to ensure long-term sustainable production. Other income came from selling organic produce from the garden, as well as high quality hay. A vegetarian for "politico-economic"’ as well as health reasons, Margaret from the outset kept a small flock of hens, and one dairy goat. Home-produced eggs, milk, cheese, yoghurt, fruits, nuts and vegetables supplied most of her food requirements. Three years after starting her venture in Marlborough, she built up a small herd of eight pedigree Saanens, which averaged five litres of milk per head per day for most of the year. The goats’ milk fetched high prices. A couple of Romney sheep acquired as orphans were kept primarily to tidy up the paddocks, though the fleeces were often used in garments Margaret wove and sold. And three beehives ensured good pollination for twenty species of fruits, as well as honey for sale. Margaret says a key role in the whole system was played by planting a wide diversity of trees, shrubs and perennial herbs, supplying a succession of flowers, fruits and seeds year round. This provided for the steady build-up of a permanent habitat and food resources for a vast range of insects and 18 species of birds which formed an efficient network of biological controls. Margaret Peace's friends value her firstly for her tremendous courage and determination. Almost as much, they value her greatly for her knowledge as a teacher of many skills, her vision, her tireless commitment to the welfare of this besieged planet and her expertise over a range of activities. Yet in some quarters in Marlborough she has been slow

to accrue the recognition of the people she shares a province with. One unfortunate local body politician referred to her as a "rabid greenie who did more damage than anyone else in Marlborough." He didn’t realise he was speaking to Margaret's daughter. But the tributes flow from others, such as many of the 100 Workers on Organic Farms (or Woofers) who have visited Margaret's home over 13 years. @ "Thank you from the bottom of my heart for this enriching stay in your Garden of Eden..." @ "Thank you for sharing your home and garden, you are so knowledgable. Your garden reminds me of a fairy tale..." @ "| admire your knowledge and experience. I will always remember you and there will always be a place in my heart for you..." @ "I was demoralised for a long while, but now feel the strength for the long struggle ahead. I will no longer apologise to people for my idealism..." These statements flow from their brief experience of Margaret Peace at home amidst the magic she created on the Wairau Plains. Encapsulating the very essence of her philosophy, this land was the base for her forays into the contentious and chilly waters of environmental campaigning. From Marlborough, the renewed battle for the nature of New Zealand was launched...

Early life

Margaret was born in Leominster, a little town in Hertfordshire, in 1923, to John and Margaret Stokes. The family moved to New Zealand in 1924. In the 1930s Depression, the axe fell on his job and they bought a little farm in Henderson (now under concrete). "It was a quite idyllic time for me," Margaret says. "There were so many places to walk and ride around. I was an amateur ornithologist

when I was five years old. My brothers John and Robin were both much older than me so, as an only child, I spent all my time by myself learning about nature. "My father was very interested in nature study. He grew up on a beautiful estate where he photographed birds. I learnt the songs of the introduced birds. | think all very young children have a natural empathy with nature but it gets pushed out of their minds by socialisation." The young Margaret was learning about the New Zealand she would make such a huge contribution to. She joined Forest and Bird at the age of 12. She did very well at Epsom Grammar, where she was to teach in later years and at Hamilton High, where she received a scholarship. Ironically, for Margaret graduated M.Sc. in 1975, girls weren't allowed to study science at school. She did cooking instead. Some of the determination and confidence which allows Margaret to tackle anything and everything with vigour and a conviction that she can do as well as anyone was shining through already. Having graduated B.Sc. Auckland in 1945, she was asked by the principal of Takapuna Grammar to teach science and botany to the fifth and sixth forms.

Forest and Bird journals

Margaret had no training college experience but accepted the job anyway. She was then approached by the principal of Tauranga College to set up a biology curriculum for the school. At that stage, she was teaching the subject from three books and Forest and Bird journals. Margaret wrote the curriculum for the third, fourth, fifth and sixth forms before setting off for a year of teaching at Mossvale, west of Sydney. It was a Church of England school for the daughters of foreign diplomats. Miss Margaret Stokes returned to New Zealand at the end of 1949 and

married in 1950. Margaret's son Warwick was two and daughters Kerry and Robyn nine and eight when she left her husband. She held several teaching positions before in 1975 completing her Masterate thesis on the plant ecology of the dune system of Kaitorete Spit outside Christchurch. Then 53, she decided she was becoming a bit impatient with the young, as teaching was very stressful, and retired from formal teaching. After 25 years of teaching and raising a family on her own enough to send most people scuttling for an easy-care seaside cottage Margaret Peace began a new life which would produce new stresses, illness and recovery, victories, defeats, encounters with crazed dogs and grizzly bears, backpacks and, at every turn, battles on behalf of the environment. She decided to settle in Marlborough because it lay at the centre of Aotearoa and it cost just $10 to get to Wellington by ferry. It was a place of few people, had a mountains-to-the-sea environment and was a good place to be outdoors.

Rachel Carson in mind

She arrived at Tuamarina with Rachael Carson packed in her mind. The writer had galvanised Margaret and many others into consciousness about the dangers of pesticides many years before then. Margaret was teaching science in 1963 when Carson was releasing her grim predictions. The science teacher suggested the dangers of pesticides should enter the curriculum. The suggestion was greeted with gales of laughter from her colleagues. So was Carson. In 1977, Margaret and May Foley, whose entire family suffered the effects of 2,4,5,-T spraying, established the Agricultural Chemicals Action Group. For three years the pioneering group campaigned to raise awareness about the dangers of products like 2,4,5,-T. Two national seminars were held and thousands of pamphlets were distributed on the subject. Hundreds of letters poured in details of spina bifida babies, dying dogs and aborting COWS. The United States Environmental Protection Agency, locked in battle with Dow Chemical Co Ltd, sent lawyers around the world to collect evidence, including

from Margaret. Economic factors, Margaret says, have curtailed spraying to some extent, but the group helped raise consciousness about the dangers of the chemicals and their application. However, "mindless" roadside spraying still occurs. A long serving member and Minister for the Environment's nominee on the Pesticides Board, Margaret points out there are over 900 pesticides on the market in New Zealand today. Phenoxy herbicides are still being sold. Margaret scoffs at Marlborough’s adopted title of "Gourmet Paradise". It is, she says, a paradise where food and wine can be laced with pesticides. She notes how pesticides have accumulated under cherry and apple orchards for 40 years in places, how orchards can be sprayed 15 times a year and how stock are left to graze in those orchards. "The whole system of using sprays is unsustainable. It makes the problems worse and worse. We will never get biological control if this continues. There are strains of fungus becoming more and more immune to spraying. DDT-resistant mosquitoes are now responsible for a great resurgence of malaria. There are now hundred of insects resistant to sprays. "Quick-fix solutions don’t work. They are not going to allow the sustainable production of anything. It’s in everybody's interest to get back to natural farming.

Smarter than nature

"The chemical companies are now trying to find bio-tech fixes. Again, they're going the wrong way. They're trying to do something smarter than nature." Margaret, who lobbied members of the former Labour Government intensively about the dangers of pesticides, says a resource management review of toxic and hazardous

substances made comprehensive proposals after 18 months of paper and meetings. "It was a good review, but it ended up in the too-hard basket. So for the moment we're stuck with the Pesticides and Toxic Substances Boards. Hopefully we will eventually get a Hazards Control Commission." The only woman ever to hold a seat on the Pesticides Board, Margaret maintains she is the only member other than the beekeeper’s representative to have a concern for the environment. "All I have done is insisted that things get debated. It's almost impossible to get things done. I moved the formal withdrawal of or-gano-chlorines, but they can still be used.

There's a 10-year supply out there. I tried to insist they be recalled but the answer was it would be more dangerous to have them stored in any concentration." Margaret has waged a tireless war against the dumping of chemical residues into Marlborough tips, warning that they would pollute the underground water supplies as they contaminated the aquifer. One day, armed with a toxic cargo of chemicals left to her by the former property owner, she drove to a local tip and asked where she should unload the cargo for proper disposal. "Just throw them in the tip, lady," said a somewhat bemused attendant. She did not follow this injunction but it armed Margaret with the evidence of neglect she needed to tackle the bureaucrats once again about their negligence. The particular tip has been moved and linings installed to mitigate against the probable consequences of allowing toxic dumping. But, as Margaret has pointed out all too frequently, the only solution is to rid the country of potentially toxic chemicals. She envisages a pesticide-free Marlborough, a concept so bold it takes the breath out of even her supporters. Still, Margaret has been doing that all her life. She is usually right. Chairperson of the Marlborough branch of Forest and Bird from 1977/85 and a member of the Forest and Bird executive 1981/84, Margaret has recently returned to co-chair the Marlborough branch again. At 68, she is brimming with vitality.

One fire too many

Only once since 1975 has that not been the case. That was in 1984, when one fire too many destroyed a magnificent scenic reserve. It was the result of negligence of a local authority unable to control tip fires. Margaret, somewhat alone after several friends had abandoned Marlborough, decided she had endured enough. She left for Dunedin in the hope it would be too wet there for fires to destroy the land. A major knee operation destroyed her mobility. Six months later, she returned to Marlborough. It was a shock to see her shaky and frail. But she reaffirmed her commitment to life and the environment and the illness left her body and spirit. In 1988, Margaret travelled to Costa Rica, Nicaragua and Guatemala with her son Warwick. She has strong views about the way you travel : "Talk with them, don’t gawk at them. Use the environment as a learning experience. Travel should not just be indulgence in food, drink and sunshine..." Margaret uses the Lonely Planet Guide and does a lot of research before she heads off overseas. She travels with backpack and tent, or uses small accommodation places where the profit goes directly to the people. "Justify your expenditure. It’s not just a holiday. I don’t distinguish between work and recreation. I think we should be doing something constructive. "You should use minimum impact travel systems and local accommodation. Let the people profit from you. Learn about their environmental and social problems."

Life threatened

It was in Nicaragua, while she was following these principles, that her life was threatened. She was walking with Warwick alongside a main highway in the dark when a vehicle hit a dog. There was terrible screaming and "half a dog" crawled off the road and "bit the nearest thing’. That happened to be Margaret. Rabies was endemic in this country and stray dogs were shot all the time. United States destabilisation was cutting into the last years of the Sandinista Government and the country had no vaccine. The only way was to fly quickly to Guatamela, a land with an oppressive political regime. Margaret survived the ordeal with no longlasting ill effects and the following year was back in Nicaragua picking coffee with an international brigade. Other travels have included the United States and Canada. Margaret's USA travels were characteristic pack, tent and public transport, with some illegal hitch-hiking in national parks. "Travelling with white hair is a great advantage. People stop to find out who you are and why youre doing it." It was during that trip in the south-west comer of Yukon that Margaret shared the early morning with a bear who was digging for roots just metres from her tent flap. She had been told by a filling station attendant it would be safe to pitch a tent as his dogs would drive off any bears. The next morning, there were no dogs in sight but there was a black bear.

In 1982, Margaret was on the road again this time backpacking through the highlands of Papua New Guinea. She has further travels planned but they will not be to her country of birth or Europe. "I don’t want to see any more degraded environments there are enough in New Zealand," she says. "It is so important for me to go to places where there is some semblance of the original flora and fauna. If we are going to replenish the earth's resources, we have to go to where there is some baseline of what it was like. "What I am concerned about is that we have destroyed this paradise in 100 years. Each generation accepts a more degraded environment."

Major role

In the Mar!borougn years, Margaret has played a major role in the planting of thousands of trees, she fought to save the province's rare broom plants from destruction, she lobbied against the pine tree invasion of the Marlborough Sounds and she wielded shovel and crowbar to establish a mini-native forest along the Taylor River in Blenheim. She has served on both the Marlborough Catchment Board and the Marlborough Sounds Maritime Parks Board. She was the first woman to challenge for election to the former Marlborough County Council. The National Organisation of Women in Marlborough nominated her for a Zonta

award, which resulted in the Marlborough area recognising her promotion of environmental issues. She is one of a world-wide network of Women in the Environment. She has been an active member of all the main conservation organisations in New Zealand, written numerous articles for newspapers and magazines about caring for the environment, lectured to national and local audiences and given many radio talks. In the future she will not be waiting for things to come her way. In inimitable fashion, she is devoting time to the teaching of permaculture skills. Her work was recognised at the fourth international permaculture conference in Katmandu earlier this year. There, she was nominated as one of a dozen foundation members of an International Guild of Permaculture Practitioners. The skills of this hardy and devoted environmentalist are a precious asset in today’s world. Each time she passes them on, the world seems a little brighter. y

Footnote: we are pleased to announce that the winner of our competition for a holiday in Rarotonga is Margaret Peace.