New Vice President – Ian Armitage
June 10th, 2024
Ian has enjoyed an interest in birds from childhood and being a Wellingtonian three of the locations he best remembers watching and learning about birds in the 1950s were when tramping in the Tararua and Remutaka Ranges and at the Pencarrow lakes near the entrance of Wellington Harbour. A keen interest in birds and forests led Ian into a career in forestry with the former NZ Forest Service. During the 1980s Ian was appointed to advisory positions for forestry development and conservation in Samoa and elsewhere in the South Pacific, also in South East Asia. Since 1991 he has been an independent consultant in forestry development in Asia, especially in China.
Ian joined the OSNZ in 2001 and was Regional Representative in Wellington for six years. He became a life member of the society in 2004. He contributed to the organisation of the 2006, 2011 and 2019 society conferences that were hosted by Wellington Region and he led the organisation of the 2008/10 Wellington Harbour Bird Survey, and surveys of the Pauatahanui Inlet between 2012 and 2024. Ian joined Council in 2012. He has been an enthusiastic contributor to and supporter of the eBird system since it was introduced. Ian contributed to the design and construction of a new digital database for Beach Patrol records that aims to systematically document the identity, location and numbers of birds found dead on New Zealand beaches. More recently, Ian contributed within council of a comprehensive review and reconstruction of the Society’s constitution, adopted at the 2024 AGM in Nelson, to ensure that it is compliant with the requirements of the Incorporated Societies Act 2022.