Vaughn Dyer
Region: Northland
Award Category: Northland
Year: 2006
Vaughan Dyer, a teacher and principal for 40 years, has been involved in the Bay of Islands area, as a conservation volunteer since 2003, when he first settled in the area.
His new career as a conservation volunteer began with assisting the community relations team, of the Bay of Islands Area Office, in Kerikeri, to develop the volunteer programme and setting up of the living quarters provided for international volunteers.
This introduction to conservation, highlighted the commitment required on a local community level for conservation to succeed, and he quickly became involved in the Weeds programme.
The weeds management programme, took him not only to offshore Islands managed by the Department of Conservation (DOC), but also to Puketi Forest, Kerikeri basin and the Whangaroa district. Supervising other volunteers to help DOC with weed eradication.
Vaughan has assisted the Weedbusters team with Wilding Pines removal from the Puketi Omahuta Forest for the last 2 years. These were sold by environmental groups as Christmas trees, providing much needed funding for their projects to restore native habitat.
A keen participant in Island planting days, Vaughan gives his time freely and enjoys the hands on aspect of conservation.
Dan O’Halloran, DOC (nominator)