LIFE IN THE FIELD

Forest and Bird, Issue 266, 1 November 1992, Page 34

LIFE IN THE FIELD

EUGENIE SAGE

As a large national conservation organisation, Forest and Bird maintains four regional offices.

talked to our

Christchurch field officer, Mike Harding.

ICTURES OF BLUE DUCK and the golden tussocks of the Lindis Pass decorate the walls of Forest and Bird’s Christchurch office, an eyrie in the rambling stone buildings of the Arts Centre. The purple flowers of an orchid cascade down the bookshelves while tomes on forest ecology and alpine vegetation jostle for space with a large collection of maps. All hint at the preoccupations and passions of Forest and Bird’s South Island field officer, Mike Harding. While working at Arthur’s Pass in the late 1980s for the Departments of Lands and Survey and then Conservation, Mike earned the sobriquet "Mother Duck". Almost daily he would pedal an old mountain bike up the incline to the Pass to check on the local blue duck or whio population in the Otira River valley. "They got no private life, those poor ducks," says a friend. "Mike. used to spend hours wandering up and down the riverbed observing them every evening after work and in his weeks off when he job shared." The research project which Mike began out of personal interest in 1987 has provided useful insights into the survival and distribution of high-country whio. ORN AND RAISED in Wellington, Mike has been a Mainlander since migrating to Dunedin for university studies in 1980. Stamulated by summer holiday work at Mt Cook and a stint overseas, and having gained a basic understanding of botany, zoology and geology, he switched from science to the parks and recreation management course at Lincoln. Most of his scientific method and expertise has therefore been self taught. It has been inspired by a deep curiosity about the natural environment and endless hours tramping and wandering in the mountain lands of the Southern Alps. In the 1970s and 1980s natural history research was a low priority at Lands and Survey’s Arthur’s Pass field centre. Mike’s enthusiasm and hard work during his three years there saw flora and fauna work gradually given more funding and staff time. Friends recall Mike organising people to spend bone-chilling winter nights listening for kiwi calling near the township. "Locals knew there were kiwi in the valley but no one knew where they were,

how many there were, and what they did," Mike says. The project was a first in providing information on population size and distribution. Mike found himself becoming increasingly involved in the politics of the South Island high country. While living at Arthur’s Pass he regularly fronted up at planning hearings in a personal capacity to object to local forestry proposals. These threatened to mar the tawny landscapes and character of the upper Waimakariri

Mike Harding on a vegetation survey of the Lower Kowai River. "One of the things I enjoy most is observing the natural environment, just working out the ecology of it." Basin, the dramatic prelude to the national park. "The high country’s a fantastic place to spend time in," says Mike. "It’s expansive and has a wilderness character of its own because it has relatively few human structures." T WAS THIS INVOLVEMENT in high country issues which led to his coming to work for Forest and Bird in 1989. But exchanging mountain vistas and the damp smell of beech forest for Christchurch’s cultivated landscapes and malodorous winter smog was a difficult decision. Of slight build, quietly spoken and with a modest and unassuming manner Mike is respected by South Island conservationists and bureaucrats for his tenacity and well researched arguments. The high country has continued as a theme in Mike’s work for Forest and Bird. He has been the driving energy behind the proposed Torlesse conservation park near Porters Pass, currently being investigated by the Department of Conservation (see Forest & Bird November 1990). He lobbied successfully to expedite protection of one of the few remnants of Hall’s totara and the woodlands which once covered the drier slopes of the Mackenzie Basin on Ruataniwha Station (Forest & Bird February and Conservation News July this year) and coordinated the society’s work on DoC’s thar management policies. The meagre number of protected areas in the vastness of the high country rankles. "The few mountain tops, pocket handkerchief reserves and the odd more extensive ones which have been set aside are inadequate, not just for nature conservation but also for providing a baseline against which changes can be measured". He points to the difficulties scientists and researchers, investigating the relationship between soils and the introduced and rapidly spreading hawkweed (Hieracium spp.), had in finding an area of high country soil which had not been grazed by either sheep or rabbits. Though resident in Christchurch, Mike thinks of Arthur’s Pass as home — a place of physical and mental rejuvenation and a base from which to continue his whio research. A population of Ra-

nunculus godleyanus in the Hawdon Valley has also come under Mike’s watchful eye with regular visits over the last four years. Alarmed by the fact that no government agencies are currently monitoring any plant species in the central Southern Alps, Mike began keeping tabs on this palatable plant to reassure himself that it was not disappearing from the area because of browsing by chamois. S FOREST AND BIRD field officer his "patch" extends from Nelson and Marlborough south to Timaru and includes the West Coast. Sue Maturin, based in Dunedin, looks after Otago and Southland. Efficient use of time means much of Mike’s work is Canterbury-based but he is available to

assist other branches when help is requested as in the Kaikoura marine reserve campaign. He says the position involves a "real juggling game" — responding to members’ requests, keeping Forest and Bird’s public profile high, representing the society at numerous local government and central agency meetings and working on national campaigns such as the review of the marine mammal sanctuary for Hector’s dolphin. "You could work 80 hours a week and still not get the job done." Scheduling time for field work 1s essential he says. ""You cannot be an officebased environmentalist and maintain your credibility forever. You've got to get out and establish the conservation values of an area, look at the specific elements, and take some photographs to show others."

The Resource Management Act, with its increased emphasis on public participation in the planning process, 1s proving a burden as well as a blessing for both branch members and field staff. Regional and district councils and DoC are immersed in preparing regional policy statements, coastal plans, district plans and regional conservation management strategies. "Everyone wants or is required to have some environmental comment in what they are doing. You could spend all your time being a voluntary adviser to councils." Mike believes regional and district councils will have to recognise that "if they want effective comment from groups they may have to provide some assistance. This could be in the form of travel expenses or a contribution towards costs."

He says he is motivated to put in the hours needed to keep all the balls in the air by the lasting rewards of seeing areas set aside for protection through his and others’ efforts. "What really fires me up is the threats to protected areas and most of them are unnecessary threats — things done for expedience or greed rather than survival." Grazing in national parks is a particular dislike. "We don’t need to do it. The economic returns are infinitesimal yet it has enormous impacts on the forest fringes and on the tussock communities." Tourism in national parks provides more dollars but also has a downside. The New Zealand Tourism Board is seeking to increase overseas visitors to three million annually by the end of the decade. Mike foresees conservationists having to

pay greater attention to the demands tourism and recreation make on parks and other protected land and the threats of Over-use and inappropriate use. "T have a clear philosophy about what national parks are for, as do many Forest and Bird members. They are here to protect indigenous flora and fauna and natural cycles, not to provide a resource to get something more from. Yet a sector of the community, particularly people involved in tourism, have quite a different perception." He predicts that if the practical implications of the three-fold increase in overseas visitors are not anticipated and some bottom lines set, New Zealand will become a "has been" on the tourist circuit. With our national parks compromised by over-crowded tracks, gondolas, hotels, condominiums and similar "developments" the visitors will head off for Antarctica — "the last frontier". A field officer’s position is not one for popularity seekers. The job often brings the incumbent into conflict with staff in government agencies at the local, regional and national level, whether it’s publicising a district council’s failure to act against a ski field developer bulldozing ski runs without the necessary resource consents, or highlighting DoC’s tardiness in moving on areas recommended for protection under the PNA programme. "You have to be diplomatic because you are confronting people all the time, asking why are you doing this, saying they should be doing that, or we believe these things are important." Good organisational and writing skills are useful, as is the old-fashioned virtue of thrift when working for a non-govern-ment organisation with limited resources. In the Christchurch office this extends to conscience pangs when note pads recently replaced odd scraps of paper for taking telephone messages. As traffic slicks by on the wet tarmac outside, the fax shrills and another press release reaches its target, the city seems only a temporary abode for Mike Harding. Before long the mountains are likely to reclaim this student of nature’s mysteries. %

Eugenie Sage is a Christchurch-based journalist.