Wild Solutions
Variety and determination to make a difference fuel kiwi expert’s stellar contribution to conservation
“My dad always told me I'd never make a career out of being a tree hugger so I'm very pleased to have proved him wrong.”
Kiwi conservation and population recovery specialist Tamsin Ward-Smith recalls her father’s cautionary advice with a wry smile. Despite the sentiment, she learned much from his interest in the natural world. As a keen rambler he taught Tamsin, or Tamo as she’s universally known, the value of quiet observation and the skill of observing changes and small details in the environment around them.
Tamo founded her Hawke’s Bay-based conservation and species restoration consultancy, Wild Solutions, in 2016, following a six-year stint with the Department of Conservation (DOC). She is supported on a part-time basis by Nadine Maue, who combines her conservation work with study. They are helped ably by Tamo’s specially-trained kiwi detection dog, a Border Collie / Heading cross called Spur, who Tamo describes as essential to their work with the birds.
This local ‘two women and a dog’ team plays a pivotal role in the Forest Lifeforce Restoration Trust’s kiwi conservation endeavour, the Maungataniwha Kiwi Project.
Together with extraordinarily-dedicated volunteer Sheryl Collins, the Trust’s chairman Simon Hall and kiwi expert Dr John McLennan, along with trapping, mapping and data collection specialist Simon Anderson and a raft of other volunteers, they oversee the ‘Circle of Life’ that is kiwi conservation; retrieving kiwi eggs from the forests that the Trust stewards, speeding them to specialist facilities for incubation and hatching, delivering the hatchlings to protected ‘crèches’ for rearing until they are old enough to defend themselves in the wild from a host of predators, and then finally relocating the large juvenile birds back into the forests from which their eggs were recovered originally.
The Maungataniwha Kiwi Project has been labelled one of the most prolific and successful kiwi conservation initiatives in the country and Tamo enjoys being an integral part of the Trust’s small but dedicated team, committed to implementing a top-quality kiwi species and population recovery plan.
The work is not without its challenges. As the number of kiwi chicks produced by the project each year continues to increase, an important part of Tamo’s role is to ensure the welfare of the Trust’s juvenile birds.
“There is a good deal of micro-management involved. It can be particularly tough for chicks that are crèched from early December through until January, when conditions are dry and food hard to find. Some chicks may need supplementary feeding with food drops, huhu grubs or worms.
“It's my job, with my Save the Kiwi hat on, to manage this, along with crèche teams, until the juveniles are large enough to be taken back home to the forest.”
That hat is an important one for Tamo. The bread-and-butter of the Wild Solutions business is the work she does for Save the Kiwi, the only national charity dedicated to protecting kiwi.
She is Save the Kiwi’s eastern region coordinator for North Island Brown Kiwi. The job involves supporting community-led projects working to save the national icon, connecting projects and populations and ensuring that conservation initiatives are ready to launch.
“Quite often, kiwi conservation groups can't find the skills they need to do the work so I help plug that skills gap by providing opportunities for them to train,” she says. “Part of my role is to advise when people are starting kiwi conservation because, as a result of my work, I'm all over what's going on nationally in this field and understand what is needed to establish kiwi in areas where they are now absent, or grow existing kiwi populations.”
A significant part of her work involves facilitating training opportunities, enabling more people to contribute effectively to kiwi conservation.
One of her most challenging responsibilities is writing the Eastern Brown Kiwi recovery plan, a project driven by Save the Kiwi in collaboration with community and iwi groups, and DOC. It’s immensely fulfilling, she says.
“I feel really privileged to do this work as it's quite specialised. You get to the point where you feel you are being quite useful.”
Tamo’s work isn’t limited to kiwi conservation. She also undertakes seabird restoration work with both the Cape Sanctuary near Napier and the HealthPost Nature Trust, an organisation reintroducing species like the Diving Petrel, Pakahā (Fluttering Shearwater), and Flesh-footed Shearwater to the Wharariki Ecosanctuary near Cape Farewell.
One of the aspects of this work that Tamo finds most fascinating is rebuilding the local population of Pakahā at Cape Farewell near Farewell Spit in the South Island. To do this the team must collect chicks from established populations elsewhere before they leave their nests for the first time.
“These birds nest in underground burrows and when the chicks emerge for the first time they bond immediately with their location—it becomes home to them forever.”
Wild Solutions also conducts habitat surveys for district and regional councils. These surveys focus on indicator species such as spotless crake, bitterns and fernbird, and often take her to some remote and beautiful locations.
“This work is fascinating, it takes me in my little truck to places I didn't know even existed,” she says. “Report writing and attending conferences is interesting too, it satisfies my academic side.”
One of the greatest perks of her work is the flexibility it offers. She has the freedom to pick and choose what she does and when. One day she might be surveying wetlands and on the next she could be spending the night in a forest retrieving kiwi eggs for incubation. This variety keeps her work exciting and allows her to witness at first hand the dedication and passion of some of the unsung heroes in conservation and species restoration.
Reflecting on her journey, Tamo feels incredibly fortunate to have made a career out of something she’s so passionate about.
When she first started working with kiwi, the thrill was all about tracking and health checking birds. As she’s gained experience, she’s come to appreciate the simple knowledge that they’re out there, quietly going about their lives, at arm’s length from humanity and entirely unaware of the role humans play in ensuring their survival as a species.
The value of quiet observation. Just like her dad said.
