Jamie Steer • Dec 22, 2018 •
This is this idea that we either do this or something that we love dies – what might be referred to as ‘conservation at the barrel of a gun’. Here’s another collection of quotes from the feedback to Kim Hill again – the last one most notably being from one of New Zealand’s foremost conservation biologists: ‘By accepting many introduced … Read More
Jamie Steer • Dec 21, 2018 •
Here are more comments from my interview with Kim Hill: ‘…each species we lose puts the entire ecosystem at risk of collapse’ ‘Without the species that are adapted to these native environments a whole ecosystem will eventually collapse’ Some people say that our ecosystems are going to collapse under the weight of introductions, that our ecosystems are essentially going … Read More
Jamie Steer • Dec 18, 2018 •
We still very often retain this belief that we can put the bits of our fallen humpty dumpty back together again; that we can restore what we’ve lost. Nature, in this respect, is still often presented as this relatively static puzzle that is waiting for us to make it whole again. Unfortunately what the science of the last 30 … Read More
Jamie Steer • Dec 17, 2018 •
This is the idea that people have upset the balance or equilibrium of nature, but that we can return that balance in future if appropriate steps are taken. This belief is very much supported in New Zealand by this notion that our environment is Gondwanan and that it hasn’t changed much in the last 80 million years. Or if … Read More
Jamie Steer • Dec 16, 2018 •
We often frame our relationship with introduced species in New Zealand this way – as a war, a fight, a battle. And there are plenty of examples of it, most recently in the Department of Conservation’s ‘War on Weeds’ or its ‘Battle for our Birds’. War metaphors feature prominently in both popular and scientific literatures in New … Read More
Jamie Steer • Dec 15, 2018 •
‘It’s hard to swallow giving up ur Godzone…’ (Feedback on Kim Hill interview). We have this idea in NZ that our national identity, at least when it comes to wildlife, is defined almost solely by our native species. Sure, we accept cows and kiwifruit and so on when in farmed or horticultural settings, but with the notable exception of … Read More
Jamie Steer • Dec 14, 2018 •
OK, Number 1 – the first belief for us to look at: that they don’t belong here. With ‘they’ of course being introduced species. Here are a couple of quotes from the feedback to my Kim Hill interview to lead us into this one. ‘We should round up all possums that have eaten more than a certain amount of … Read More
Jamie Steer • Dec 13, 2018 •
Recently I’ve been doing a little popular writing relating to my research here and there. And one of these articles happened to get the attention of Radio New Zealand interviewer Kim Hill who invited me onto her show for a chat (read: interrogation). It turned out to be a really fruitful experience, and you can still listen to … Read More
Jamie Steer • Dec 12, 2018 •
Over the next couple of weeks I’m going to be posting a new article each day. Each article will be supported by a short video clip providing much the same content, so you can either read this blog or just watch the clip. This first one’s a little longer but most of the clips will be about 5 minutes … Read More
Guest Author • Jul 31, 2018 •
Bianca Nogrady Experts are calling for a substantial cull of the wild horses living in New South Wales’ Kosciuszko National Park. The government isn’t having it. The peatlands that drape the high, treeless slopes surrounding Australia’s tallest peak form a natural archive. “They are unusual bits of landscape in that they actually record their own history,” says Geoffrey … Read More