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Executive
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Our Structure
Branches
Forest & Bird has more than 50 branches that organise local activities, including conservation projects, walks, trips, and guest speakers. Each branch is run by a committee that is elected annually by its members.
Council
Each branch has one representative on our national Council. Each year, these representatives elect the national Executive board.
Executive
Each year the Council elects a president, deputy president, treasurer and up to 10 other Executive members. The Executive meets at least four times a year and oversees Forest & Bird’s direction in accordance with the organisation’s policy and the wishes of the Council.
Staff
Forest & Bird employs about 25 staff with scientific, resource management, administrative, communications and advocacy skills, based in our National Office in Wellington and regional offices in Auckland, Nelson, Christchurch and Dunedin.
Meet our Executive
Barry Wards, President (Upper Hutt branch)
Molecular bacteriologist-turned-MAF adviser, Dr Barry Wards has been an active member of Forest & Bird for more than 20 years, and has served on the Executive since 2004. Barry is a strong believer in community-based projects that inspire people to take responsibility for their natural environment. His interests include environmental sustainability and terrestrial and marine biodiversity. Barry can often be found in his garden tending to a selection of weeds, natives and exotics, or tramping throughout the North Island.
Andrew Cutler, Deputy President (Wellington branch) -
When Andrew Cutler joined Forest & Bird he didn’t expect to be labelled a member of the ‘eco-Taliban’ or chased by an angry fisherman around the Island Bay foreshore. But that’s what happened during the campaign for the Taputeranga Marine Reserve. He’s also been labelled ‘anti-cat’ for running a study on cat-predation in urban areas. Between the battles, Cutler has worked hard to protect bush-remnants and bird corridors, by making submissions to the the City and Regional councils. And given his background in public sector communications in central, local & regional politics he's well placed to negotiate the bureaucracy. Since the mid-1990s, he has been involved in a number of projects such as the Karori Bird Sanctuary & the Wellington Branch’s Greening Wellington project, which aims to join up Wellington's green spots. One green spot he's hoping to grow in the next few years is in his backyard - a place where he can often be found on the weekends battling weeds, poisoning possums and planting natives.
Craig Potton, (Nelson-Tasman branch)
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Craig Potton
Craig is a noted landscape and nature photographer and conservationist, and the founder of independent publishing house Craig Potton Publishing. He has been actively involved in conservation work for more than 20 years and is particularly interested in seeing Forest & Bird pursuing national campaigns, including high country protection, controlling and eliminating pests and weeds, protecting the marine environment, and combating global warming.
Mark Hanger (Dunedin branch)
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Armed with a degree in botany, an adventurous spirit and an effervescent love of nature, Mark Hanger got himself the ultimate job as nature tour guide twenty-five years ago, however year–by-year he’s seen wilds of the South change dramatically in the drive towards development. When he’s not tripping around the foothills and mountain-peaks of the South Island, he can be found in his 15 hectare garden battling gorse, or indulging in one of his favourite pastimes: watching trees grow. As well as being a self confessed tree-hugger, he’s a climate change activist, a water conservation guru, and - more recently - a seabird re-homer. He ultimately wants to return all of the 7 lost species of sea-birds once found in the Otago coast back to their former homeland.
Graham Bellamy – Treasurer (Upper Hutt branch)
Graham is an accountant for an animal health company and has been a member of Forest & Bird for about 30 years. He became a more active member after going along with his colleagues to do community work at a Forest & Bird project, and says his subsequent involvement in projects such as Hull’s Creek restoration has opened new horizons in his life. He’s now a passionate advocate for the environment and the importance of preserving it for the enjoyment of future generations.
Alan Hemmings (Overseas Branches)
Alan is based in Canberra but makes frequent visits to New Zealand, where he teaches at Canterbury University. He has been a member of Forest & Bird since 1985 and his main involvement in environmental advocacy has been through his work on protecting the Antarctic environment. He sees climate change, oceans management and control of invasive species as the top conservation priorities New Zealand is facing.
Jon Wenham (Waikato branch)
Hot-air balloonist, sailor and bird enthusiast, Jon Wenham was gifted a Forest & Bird life membership by his nature-loving father 30 years ago. After a several years overseas working as a tropical horticulturalist & aerial photographer, Jon returned to Waikato with a great gusto to restore its natural heritage, and has since been active in branch activities. He lives on a quarter-acre block with his partner and son, as well as several pukeko, moreporks and eels.
Lindsey Britton (South Auckland)
Nature nerd, green thumb and sustainable living tutor, Lindsey Britton has what she describes as an ‘ecological gene’. From a young age she shared her bedroom with tanks of tree frogs, stick insects, newts and gerbils, and inevitably went on to study zoology. Since arriving in New Zealand from England, she has worked at Greenpeace and for Manukau and Auckland City Councils on projects ranging from helping draft Manukau's State of the Environment Report to introducing recycling to Auckland's inner CBD. She lives on what was once a bare 1.3 acre paddock now substantially replanted with native plants and trees and re-established enough to be frequented by bellbirds, kotare, kereru and tui. She aims to re-invigorate the grassroots networks of the society, sharpen the strategic goals of the organisation and boost membership.
Ines Stager (South Canterbury)
Landscape architect, Ines Stager came to New Zealand from Switzerland in 1981 en route to South America, and enjoyed our vast areas of landscape that she never left. For 20 years, she has been living off the grid on a 12 hectare Geraldine property that she shares with her partner, and a range of native birds such as kingfisher, kereru, grey warbler, bellbirds as well as some endangered long tailed bats (pekapeka). During her 27 years at Forest & Bird, she been the driving force behind handful of restoration projects; worked as a kids club co-ordinator with her partner and campaigned hard on water issues around the Canterbury/Mackenzie basin region.
Peter Maddison (Waitakere)
Entomologist Peter Maddison hails from England, and gained his PHD from the University of London, after studying the effects of pesticides on soil animals. Since then, he has worked on insect projects in Samoa, Fiji, Niue, Tonga, the Cook Islands and Vanuatu, as well as in parts of South-East Asia. Since arriving in New Zealand in 1977, he has been involved in insect identification and biosecurity issues. From 1992 to 1998 he was a Councillor at Waitakere Eco City and helped to initiate the sustainability agenda of that city.He has had a key role in the Painted Apple Moth eradication and in the discovery of the Kauri Dieback disease. Peter has been a Forest & Bird member for over 40 years, and during that time he has helped to spearhead the Pollen Island Marine Reserve, Ark in the Park and the current Kaimai Mamaku campaign. He has served as chair of both Central Auckland and Waitakere Branches, an executive member and Forest & Bird's President from 2005 to 2009.