Linden Brown joined the trust in the middle of the 2021 breeding season and, with some guidance from our previous ranger, Matt Charteris, we were delighted that he hit the ground running. Field work is his passion and he brought considerable field work experience from his monitoring roles with the Department of Conservation.
Completing the monitoring and reporting for the 2021 season enabled Linden to approach the 2022 season with clarity and preparedness. It was a big disappointment to him and to us all when the pin had to be pulled on the foraging study due to the unusual and clearly stressful conditions the penguins were in, apparently due to the marine heat wave.
Although his heart was in the field work, Linden provided excellent insights and advice for the behind the scenes work of the trust, including funding applications and reports and advocacy. While Education Ranger, Lucy Waller, was stuck overseas due to COVID travel restrictions, Linden also stepped up to help lead education and awareness opportunities in the classroom at the beach, proving that he could be the all rounder needed as a ranger.
Sadly though, a couple of things drew him away, firstly wanting to do more field work and less time at a desk and secondly, building a new home. He is the Trust’s third ranger to have resigned to put time into building a home!
The Trust is grateful to Linden for his contribution and flexibility and wishes him well in future endeavours.
While materials were chosen that would stand up to the harsh coastal conditions, those same coastal conditions are conducive to plant growth! Occasional checks of the fences have been carried out by volunteers and rangers so that any maintenance needs can be identified and remedied. The never-ending need for maintenance is managing the vegetation that can grow through the fence, for example gorse, blackberry and hydrangea, pushing it to breaking point in places, or flop over causing damage from the weight of rank grass, rushes and weeds such as montbretia.
Volunteers recently spent a few hours tidying up the main fence along Woodpecker Bay north of Punakaiki so a big shout out to them - thank you Fiona, Jony, Reef, Katrina, Mandy, Marty, Teresa and Deb! Flax had been pressing down on the fence, but now the fence has been freed up by these wonderful volunteers - and they picked up a fair bit of rubbish too.
Volunteer Natassja Savidge has offered to check and help maintain the Hokitika penguin protection fence and joined Ranger Lucy Waller and Manager Inger Perkins in May to inspect the length of the fence. Some minor issues were found but the main finding was the extent of the vegetation growth that was damaging the fence in places. Big thanks to Natassja!
