Thursday
15 July 2010

The July meeting of the Motutapu Restoration Trust at Millennium Hotel's the Auckland Copthorne in Quay St.

The following is Christine's address delivered at the Trust meeting to assembled trustees and invited guests:

"Today it is my privilege as Chair to present the Jim Holdaway Award for outstanding achievement in Conservation. Trevor you have been chosen today for the exceptional commitment you have made to Motutapu. The Trust wishes to record their gratitude to you. We wish to acknowledge the sense of purpose, unity and love you have brought to this project. You are an inspiration to us all.

You have shared your life with the project and nursery through the seed of your kindness you have planted on Motutapu and within all of us who work there.

Trev has had a long involvement with conservation with involvement in the projects on Tiri Tiri Matangi and Motuora before committing to Motutapu in the early 1990's.

Trev has been involved in all aspects of the Motutapu Restoration Project - from seed collection, nursery work, planting and weed control.

When DoC advised it was no longer able to provide a resident employee to supervise the nursery, Trev came to the rescue and agreed to coordinate the Trust's nursery operation.

Since then he has successfully overseen the transition from a nursery operation based around raising seedlings in root trainers to seedlings raised in tubes and PB3's

In the last year 15,713 pb3's were produced the largest number ever raised in the nursery.

This could not have happened without Trev's daily supervision of the nursery operation. He has a dedicated team of volunteers in the nursery - who love his gentle approach to managing volunteers.

He is on the island 6 days a week, making sure that things are ticking over smoothly, when he is not managing the nursery he is out seed collecting, tackling weeds or planting canopy species in amongst the pioneer forest.

Trev is a constant and calming influence on the island; he is always a happy face and never has an angry word for anyone.

There is no doubt that the Trust would not have achieved what it has without the dedicated commitment of volunteer Trevor Stones.

We appreciate and thank you for the gracious and gentle guidance you bring to us all.

Your aspirations for conservation and the sense of purpose you bring have served to bring about the transformation of our sacred island. On behalf or everyone here today our most sincere and grateful thanks"

Jim Holdaway CNZM OBE DFC and Bar
Jim is our former trust chairman now deputy chair and founding trustee, conservationist and long-serving local body politician. He has served on the Auckland Regional Planning Authority where he promoted a network of regional parks for the Auckland region, and was both a founding and long-serving member of the Auckland Regional Authority. A trustee for Hauturu Supporters Trust, he was also a member of Hauraki Gulf Maritime Park Board for 19 years. Jim was a founding member of The Tree Council and is its honorary president.