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About Us
Forest
and Bird - Dunedin Branch
FOREST AND
BIRD
The Royal Forest and Bird Protection Society is the
oldest and largest non-government environmental lobbying
organization in New Zealand. Nowadays it is usually just
called Forest and Bird. The best place to gain an
overview of Forest and Bird's concerns and activities at
the national level is through the national website.
Forest and Bird produces a quarterly magazine called
Forest and Bird and has a Central Office in Wellington
with paid employees (including the Conservation Manager,
Kevin Hackwell) who attend to environmental issues of
national significance and to national administration.
While every member will belong to their particular local
branch, the magazine is distributed nationally and
subscriptions are paid to Central Office.
In addition to workers at Central Office, there is a
National Executive, a small group of experienced Forest
and Bird members (including the President, Peter
Maddison, and currently also both Janet Ledingham and Liz
Slooten from Dunedin) who have overall responsibility for
the organisation at the national level. Forest and Bird
employees, the National Executive, and one or more
councillors from each of the local branches get together
twice a year for national council meetings and for the
national annual general meeting.
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DUNEDIN
BRANCH
There are branches of Forest and Bird throughout New
Zealand. Each branch is made up of the members who live
in the area, and has a particular concern with and
interest in local environmental issues in its area.
Dunedin branch is one of the oldest and largest branches
in the country, with about 600 members. We used to be
called Otago branch, but have become Dunedin branch in
recognition of smaller more recent offshoots in other
parts of Otago - South Otago branch (based in Balclutha),
Waitaki branch (based in Oamaru) and Upper Clutha Branch.
There are also active neighbouring branches in Southland
(based in Invercargill) and in South Canterbury (based in
Timaru).
Dunedin branch is run by a management committee, which
meets monthly and is made up of about a dozen active
members of the branch. We are always keen to have members
volunteering to join the management committee! Like the
national executive, committee members are unpaid. The
management committee will include a chairperson, vice
chairperson (or persons), secretary and treasurer, who
are elected at the Dunedin branch's annual general
meeting, held each June and open to all branch members.
The management committee also elects one person from
among its own members to act as branch councillor at
national council meetings.
The management committee sends out an annual calendar of
events and a twice-yearly branch newsletter to all branch
members. It organises monthly indoor meetings in Otago
Museum (usually on the third Tuesday of the month) at
which an invited speaker gives a talk or slide show on an
environmental or natural history topic. The branch also
has monthly field trips, to different areas of interest
within Dunedin or Otago, usually led by a branch member
with special knowledge of that area or its animals and
plants. Non-members are welcome at indoor meetings and on
field trips, but we encourage people to join the branch.
These branch activities are run regularly every year. In
addition, there are always a succession of issues which
we become involved in, particular projects we look after,
and other activities for which we provide financial
support. These matters are dealt with through the
management committee, but the more input from general
membership the better.
Local issues we become involved in are ones of
environmental concern. We will lobby, for instance, for
improvements in Dunedin City Council's sewage disposal
system, or for extensions to Otago Regional Council's
requirements for weed control. Projects we look after are
often to do with the revegetation of particular reserves
or removal of particular problem species. Forest and Bird
owns Moore's
Bush in Dunedin, which is
managed by our branch, and the extensive Lenz Reserve in
the Catlins behind Tautuku Lodge (well worth a stay),
which is managed jointly by Dunedin and Southland
branches. We also have ongoing revegetation programmes on
Quarantine
Island, around Tomahawk
Lagoons, and elsewhere. We assist Dunedin City Council to
look after their Caversham Bush Reserve. We have been
particularly active in running a wilding tree control
programme throughout Otago, removing wilding exotic pine
species and other non-native trees which threaten to
damage or destroy indigenous ecosystems. We also support
a kereru (New
Zealand pigeon) recovery programme in Dunedin, currently
operating from an aviary within the Botanic Gardens, and
we are involved in the proposal to create a mainland
island at Orokonui, behind Waitati. We are also involved
in writing submissions on
proposals and policies that affect the environment
including tenure review.
Another important function of the branch is to provide
financial support for projects of conservation value
undertaken by others in Otago. Sometimes we provide money
from our own funds, but we also make donations to
suitable projects in Otago on behalf of the Dr Marjorie
Barclay Trust, a completely independent charitable body
which, through other avenues, also supports a wide
variety of other worthy projects which do not have a
particular environmental focus. Either indirectly
(through the Trust) or directly, we have contributed to
work done by the Department of Conservation on, for
instance, board walks at Aramoana and in the Fleming
Estuary, and interpretive signs throughout this part of
South Island.
KIWI
CONSERVATION CLUB - KCC
The Kiwi Conservation
Club is the junior wing
of Forest and Bird, with many local branches throughout
New Zealand. The Dunedin branch of the Kiwi Conservation
Club produces its own newsletter and has frequent field
trips and other activities for young children and their
parents. The Dunedin branch of Forest and Bird gives
financial support to KCC Dunedin, and one KCC parent
always reports to and is a member of F&B Dunedin
branch management committee.
SOUTHERN
REGIONAL OFFICE
In addition to its Central Office in Wellington, Forest
and Bird has regional offices, with paid employees, in
Auckland, Christchurch and Dunedin. The Southern Regional
Office, while it is based in Dunedin, is involved in
conservation issues throughout all of Otago, Southland,
Fiordland and the Sub Antarctic Islands. It also provides
support to all the Society's southern branches. The
Dunedin branch of Forest and Bird gives financial support
to national Forest and Bird in their running of the
Southern Regional Office. Because it happens to be in
Dunedin, there is considerable interaction between the
office and Dunedin branch, and Sue Maturin, the Southern
Regional Officer, regularly reports the office's
activities to Dunedin branch management committee.
However, the roles of Dunedin branch and Southern
Regional Office are quite distinct. The regional office
addresses particular environmental concerns throughout
the region which are of sufficient national significance
for national Forest and Bird to direct time and funding
towards them.
The Southern Regional Office is staffed by a full time Conservation Officer, Sue Maturin. Currently she is working on protecting the high country, tussock grasslands, wetlands, shrublands, and alpine environments through the tenure review campaign, promoting a marine park for underwater Fiordland, marine reserves in Paterson Inlet and the Nuggets, Protecting our Ocean from Dunedin City Council's - Dunedin sewage, protecting the wilderness and natural sounds of Fiordland, through controlling tourism, protecting native vegetation remnants around Dunedin and throughout the South through obtaining vegetation clearance rules in District Plans under the Resource Management Act, and advocating for improved and more extensive integrated pest management to protect wildlife. Sue's areas of expertise are high country, marine ecology, forest conservation and the South Pacific. She also leads the Forest and Bird annual tour to Vanuatu to support the Vatthe Conservation Park on the Island of Espiritu Santo. .
This summary only provides a partial picture of the many
ways in which Forest and Bird is involved in learning
about, supporting and protecting the environment, and
especially the natural indigenous environment, of New
Zealand. The best way to find out more is to come along
to one of the meetings of the local branch. See you
there.
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