We have met so many remarkable individuals and in the process have come to really appreciate the people of Aotearoa/New Zealand and their cultures. In many ways our encounter with Ian Wilson is typical of many others, though with Ian we were able to spend more time and learn more about his life and passions. So we will tell Ian’s story at some length, though only a small piece of what we learned from him. Ian’s story stands as a representative of the many others whose stories we have not shared.
Learning from Ian
We first heard about Ian while chatting with a Department of Conservation staff person at an interpretive centre on the very tip of the South Island. We were talking about NZ trees and she then volunteered that if we were headed to the north of the North Island, we should visit her brother-in-law because “he loves to show people around the ‘bush’ behind his farm.” [Starting off, how many times has a government official you did no know referred you to a family member for an educational tour and family visit? That is NZ for you.]
A month later after a couple of e mail contacts, here we were knocking on the door at Ian and June’s farmhouse. Indeed this was a beautiful farm backing onto a national park with large Kauri trees in it. Within minutes we were into Ian’s ute (pick-up), and heading up the farm track and then over the fence into Puketi National Park. Ian spent three hours showing us about, telling stories, helping us understand the forest ecosystem and all of the plants. He has no formal training in the field, but you could have fooled me. Here’s how he started out though…
30 years ago as a young dairy farmer, Ian and June had moved to the North because land was cheaper and they wanted a bigger farm. Within weeks of moving in, Ian called the bulldozer contractor and scheduled the guy to come in and cut, and then dose the farm acreage that was still forest. Any NZ dairy farmer (and there are lots of them) knows that everything comes down to how much grass you can grow… more grass means more milk and more income. It happened that while they were waiting for the guy to come, a neighbour came over, and heard about the plan. He was aghast, telling Ian that there were very special plants in there and then took him out to experience the forest. As the result, Ian cancelled the dozer and left the forest standing. The neighbour brought him along to a couple of Forest and Bird meetings (the big grassroots naturalist/conservation organization in NZ), and as they say, the rest is history.
While growing more and more passionate and involved in learning about and protecting the forest as a part of Forest and Bird, he simultaneousl watch the bird life disappear in the area due to invasive mammals (possums, stoats, ferrets, rats, etc.). As a volunteer, he watched the Department of Conservation respond too little, incompetently and/or too late. Ian decided that more had to be done and so he and several others founded the Puketi Forest Trust eight years ago. In the short time since then, they have raised approximately $800,000 for protection of the forest. The Trust convinced the Department of Conservation (DOC) that they could do a better and cheaper job of trapping the invasive mammals than DOC, and they have. They check 2300 rat traps and about 800 stoat and 800 possum traps over 5500 hectares. Along the way they are doing research on how to deploy traps most effectively and with different types of bait. There are 100km of trap lines. They have gotten the monitoring evidence of stoats to zero in the larger area and rats to zero in a smaller core area, but there is the constant re-invasion and need to monitor traps and population numbers.
Ian setting a possum trap
The kiwi population has been growing at 15% a year whereas they are dropping in non-trapping areas and increasing at 9% in DOC managed areas. New Zealand Robins have been re-introduced and are growing. Each of the birds is banded and Ian keeps a check on them. We watched as he tapped on a mealy worm container and very soon a couple of robin friends turned up for a feed. As the success builds and they fundraise more, they are looking to bring back some of the other endangered bird species that once thrived in the area.
A threatened North Island Robin gets the worm
Fruiting Kie Kie
Puketi Kauri
As we wandered through the most intact Kauri forest we have seen, Ian pointed out the highlights— the smallest orchid in the world, the kie kie plants that were fruiting, a very unusual occurrence, the specific plant species that only live in association with the Kauri. Ian had brought a local elementary class up to the trails and done the research so that each kid was looking for one medicinal plant the Maori used. They found them all and were so appreciative that they invited him to their presentations back at school and presented the Trust with $700 of hard earned money from bake sales and sausage sizzles. We asked Ian how much he volunteered with the Trust… the answer was “around 40 hours a week”. Several years ago he sold the dairy herd and shifted to beef cattle because there was not enough time for his conservation work given the high time requirements of dairy farming. Everywhere we have gone we have met volunteers like Ian, working for the benefit of the community be it the human community, wildlife community, or both. They have been wonderful people to get to know.
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