Science and sustainability win the day at Ellerslie International Flower Show

      Urban sustainability exhibits won several awards earlier this year at the Ellerslie International Flower Show in Christchurch, New Zealand. My colleague Dr Colin Meurk helped create Landcare Research's 'Transitions' exhibition garden that won the Supreme Award for Horticultural Excellence. 
      The destruction of much of this beautiful city as a result of the devastating series of earthquakes has led to a great deal of community reflection on how to rebuild, and locals have expressed a strong desire for a greener central city. In its exhibition Landcare Research showcased some possibilities for introducing more indigenous plants into urban areas, including pocket parks, living walls, green roofs and natural water treatment. The exhibition showed how people, nature and sustainable urban water management can be drawn together in a way while restoring some of the plants and wildlife that have been lost during the city's development.
      Find out more about Colin's award-winning garden here and here. 
      And another science-based exhibit, also a crowd favorite and winner of the Judge's Supreme Award, was 'Max's Pipe Dream, An Engineer's Garden'. Designed by Paul Roper-Gee of Beca (a major engineering consultancy), the garden won three awards and was the clear-cut winner for the Supreme Award, being fun, innovative and with great styling. Everyone loved the garden for its connection with the Mackenzie Country's hydro engineering landscape. Click here and here to find out more. 
      These awards are great news for the science of urban sustainability, showing how people, plants and animals can all enjoy attractive urban landscapes.

"Lucky break" - a scientist sings about restoring ecosystems

      Art and science are definitely coming closer together, if recent articles in New Scientist magazine are anything to go by. Of course the beauty of the natural world has always inspired painting, poetry, photography and music - and it's great to see scientists themselves contributing to this work. 
      Dr John Quinn is a principal scientist at NIWA, New Zealand's National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research and he specializes in freshwater ecology and biodiversity.  A few weeks ago we were swapping good sources of information and he sent me a link. I'd forgotten that John and his guitar are seldom separated, and the link goes to a song he wrote on the plane after attending the 4th World Conference of the Society for Ecological Restoration in Mexico in August 2011. Inspired by hearing Imelda May at the Bunbury Blues and Roots Festival, John penned and performed a great blues number that is also a call for ecological restoration. 
      Entitled "Lucky break", John's song celebrates the Earth's ecosystems that support us and asks why we're  gambling with their health when the stakes are so high. It's a great blues number - click here to see him perform it.
      Interestingly, in December last year, three of my friends and colleagues from elsewhere in New Zealand and overseas were in Auckland to attend the 25th International Congress for Conservation Biology (ICCB 2011). They were much struck by a discussion about "conservation grief syndrome": scientists are only human and do become despondent about how much is to be done if we are to continue to enjoy the beauty and benefits of nature and the plants, birds, fish, insects and animals that contribute to our emotional, psychological, spiritual, cultural and economic wellbeing. 
      Writing this up now reminds me of an observation from a friend who regularly takes long cycling trips in little-traveled parts of the world: he said that all the biologists he meets are very depressed about the state of the environment, while all the economists are very upbeat. 
     This happened  a number of years ago, so it's great to see a vigorous and spreading discussion all round the world about the need for our economic system to address social, cultural and environmental wellbeing.

Reflecting on rivers - don't let the engineers talk you out of doing it!

      Here I am in the city of Hamilton, in the heart of one of New Zealand's biggest dairying regions, in a hotel room looking down on the magnificent Waikato River. Crossed by a number of bridges in the city centre, it is increasingly becoming a community focal point: it's been lovely watching all the people walking and cycling across it - a steady stream of people walking and cycling home from work, giving way to lots of joggers, cyclists and walkers exercising in sight of the water, then to groups of people more dressed up walking into town to catch a movie or dine out - many groups of friends and couples hand in hand - it's been absolutely delightful. 
      The 6th Biennial Conference of the NZAEE, or New Zealand Association of Environmental Education, has drawn me here, and we all guffawed when yesterday's keynote speaker, Les Robinson, told us about Saskatchewan (at least I think it was Saskatchewan - anyhow, I just wanted to spell it again - what a great name!) - someone at the conference had pointed out how Hamilton, like so many river cities, had turned its back on its river and was only just starting to turn towards it again. Les told the story of the mayor of Saskatchewan, who took a more revolutionary than evolutionary approach to this and simply sent in the bulldozers.
      When asked about the boldness of this move, she apparently said it needed to be done, so why wait - and advised, "Don't let the engineers talk you out of doing it!"
      Hilarious! Mind you, most of the engineers I know love bulldozers, and so do I! Any big rigs, in fact. Yesterday I treated myself by buying two children's books to bring along to my training workshops for a bit of light relief - "The Little Yellow Digger" by Betty & Alan Gilderdale and "A Bigger Digger" by Brett Avison, to go with the magnificent yellow dump truck I got from the Caterpillar store in Peoria, Illinois a couple of years ago. (And no, I don't play with it on the floor, but ask people to put their business cards in it!)
      Watching the stately Waikato flow under the very high bridge spanning deeply cliffed banks is quite hypnotic - it moves at a fast but steady pace, with endlessly changing whorls and lines that hint at the water's massive power. Being a pounding surf type myself, and a physical geographer to boot, I find big rivers frankly terrifying.
      The Waikato reminded me forcibly of one of the upper reaches of the Mississippi at Peoria, also a river town. I walked along the river for some way and gazed at it for ages - it is immensely wide, even that far North, and the cute paddle-steamer reminded me of Mark Twain and all the people working on that enormous river. When I found some steps down to a pontoon, I overcame my trepidation to walk down and stand on it - but the sensation of its movements as the deep, black water coiled its way underneath was too much for me, and after a matter of seconds my nerve failed me and I scampered as fast as I could back onto terra firma.
      Many years ago when Mum and Dad were taking us kids on a family holiday, my father pointed out the broken concrete spans of an old bridge in a braided river bed - the protruding steel reinforcing rods had been pointing upstream, but over the years had been curled back like fingers in a fist by the flood flows. "That's the power of water," he said. And I've never forgotten it!


      Click here to find out more about the NZAEE and here to find out about this year's conference - there are similar associations in many other countries - here's the Australian one, for a start.
      And click here to find out more about the laconic, deceptively funny and very inspiring Les Robinson.

Supporting social wellbeing at Christmas time

      "Tired of crass consumerism dominating Christmas?"
      This subtitle accompanied a New Zealand Herald article by Jan Corbett way back in December 2000. 
      Jan described how the previous Christmas, PR firm The Dock Street Group had done something shocking: it didn't send a single present to a single client. Instead it sent a gift-wrapped certificate saying that in lieu of a gift, the firm was making a donation to the Fred Hollows Foundation, to support its wonderful work restoring sight to cataract-blinded people in the developing world. The Foundation was one of the firm's clients, so perhaps this was an obvious move - but it has had an ever-widening spinoff.
      By the time I saw the article, I'd already bought Christmas presents for my clients - but the following year, 2001, I did some research, found two charities to support, created a certificate and included it with my clients' Christmas cards.
      Working as I do in the environmental area, I decided to "balance my portfolio" by supporting two social charities with my Christmas donations, Amnesty International and the then-named "Domestic Violence Centre" in Auckland. 
      I was a bit nervous about this, because statistically it was probable that of the people to whom I sent cards, some would be more or less guilty of domestic violence.  But I plucked up my moral courage and did it anyway.
      To my surprise, I got a raft of emails and phone calls  from my clients congratulating me on this move - far more than had ever thanked me for my gifts. Over the years, I've seen more and more people do the same, with of course the fantastic opportunities opened up by agencies such as OxFam and other allowing anyone to support more and more good causes. 
     Other reasons make this a good idea - many of my clients work for government agencies of various kinds, and have very high standards and even rules about accepting gifts from people with whom they have a commercial relationship. So these charity gift certificates are  a great way of letting my wonderful clients know how much I enjoy working with them, while still preserving their independance. 
      A second reason for me is that there are so many worthwhile charities out there and I felt that giving a bigger sum to two of them would be better than giving dribs and drabs of coins to street collectors on a random basis (though I still sometimes do this, especially to surf lifesavers). When I say No and explain why, these people are always very understanding.
      Now in 2011, this is the tenth year I have supported my two chosen charities, with the DVC now re-named SHINE, or "Safe Homes In Nz for Everyone". And of course, I've moved to e-cards as well....
      I'll take a break from this blog over the holiday season and will resume sometime in the New Year. 
      Wishing you all the best for the end of year break, be it with snow and skiing or sun and swimming! - and for a very happy and fulfilling new year in 2012.