Otago-Southland Forest Products Industry Dinner Meeting [2 Oct 2019]

It’s time to gather as an industry again. It’s been a long winter, log prices have probably seen better days and it’s been now four years since collectively we got together to have a dinner and catch up on happenings from across the region.

• Date: Wednesday 2 October 2019
• Venue: Rosebank Lodge, Balclutha
• When: 5.30pm – Drinks | 6.30pm – Dinner | 7.15pm – After-Dinner Presentation

The Southern Wood Council (SWC), in conjunction with the local branch of the NZ Institute of Forestry and the Mid & South Otago Branches of the NZ Farm Forestry Association have planned an evening’s networking – along with more good food and some excellent company.

As with our earlier and well-attended gatherings, it’s designed for all those involved in or associated with forestry and wood products in the lower South Island. The after-dinner presentation is going to appeal to all of you who have a yearning for the outdoors in the more wild and remote locations.

After-Dinner Presentation:

• “It’s a tough job – but someone has to do it”
• Presenter: Graham Parker

Every so often we run across someone who has a job that many of us only dream about. For those of us who are old enough to remember, it’s like those summer jobs offered with the old NZFS on animal and vegetation surveys. Wandering through remote locations and getting paid for it.

Graham Parker lives that dream. He’s been involved in conservation and wildlife management and research since 2002, including extensive work with seabirds, forest birds and invasive mammals. From a very young age, he worked in construction, as a chef, then as a commercial fisherman and deckhand, for 12 years, mostly based in the US and Canada. After a sharp decline in Alaskan fisheries income, he returned home to NZ to help his brother out with conservation projects.

Wider volunteer work in NZ quickly lead to paid work in conservation. He picked up qualifications in wildlife management and then went onto working on projects in the sub-antarctic (including 13 months living at a weather station on an island 2700 km from Cape Town, Gough Island), the Falkland Islands, working at sea on 34 different Spanish fishing trawlers and doing several stints on South Georgia Island.

For the last six years, Graham has been based here in New Zealand although he has spent more than a third of his time researching seabirds on NZ’s sub-antarctic islands. Locally, he has also been driving the research on native falcons in Otago and Southland’s forests. Graham will be providing a pictorial walkthrough of his travels, his out of the way work locations and some of the research that he and his team have recently been involved in.

So, what do you need to do?

Mark the date into your diary and register. Get the notice around the office and ensure you get a carload or two of you coming through. Rarely, as you know, do these opportunities come up so make the most of it.

Please note that there is also a Transpower / Forestry Workshop starting at 3pm at the same venue. Click here for further details.

Dinner Registration details:

1. Download the Registration Page PDF and fill in the names, details of your attendance and payment method. Then email the form to caroline.rickerby@southernwoodcouncil.co.nz.
2. OR call to provide all your details by phone (Tel: 03 470 1903).

Note: Registrations need to be received BEFORE mid-day Monday 30 September 2019.