Student scholarship for noted conservationist

Date:  16 August 2018 Source:  Department of Conservation and Waikato Regional Council

Noted Whenuakite farmer, the late Arthur Hinds, is to have a Work Placement Scholarship established in his honour by DOC and Waikato Regional Council.

Mr Hinds, who was killed by a falling tree on his own farm in September 2017, served many years as a Waikato Conservation Board member in a strong association with DOC. He was a Waikato regional councillor and chair of its Advisory Committee for the Regional Environment (ACRE).

He was instigator of the Whenuakite Kiwicare Association in 2001, an area where the kiwi population grew from about 20 to more than 200 under his chairmanship of the locally-based community group.

DOC’s Hauraki-Waikato-Taranaki Operations Director, David Speirs, said Mr Hinds would be long remembered for his unstinting dedication to conservation and the environment.

“Arthur was a man of many strengths but foremost among them was an ability to recognise hard work, roll up his sleeves and get stuck into whatever needed doing. For that reason, both DOC and the regional council consider it most fitting to establish a scholarship providing practical work experience opportunities, rather than something more academically or research focused.”

Waikato regional councillor Dal Minogue said: “Arthur was passionate about conservation and supporting young people’s learning around it. This jointly-sponsored scholarship recognises that, providing annual opportunities between 2018 and 2023 for a student based at the council’s Whitianga office to work over the 10 -12 week summer holiday period.

“From there the student will work with the Coromandel Catchment team as well as DOC staff at Whitianga. The scholarship will be open to tertiary students studying natural resource management-related programmes who can demonstrate a strong connection to the Coromandel,” Cr Minogue said.

Mr Hind’s family welcomed the tribute. “Arthur was always very proud of the work these two organisations did, so he would have been humbled to have a scholarship like this set up in his honour,” said his wife, Diane.

“He would be very pleased that part of his legacy will be supporting future guardians of our environment to contribute something to the Coromandel he loved so much.”

The scholarship will be open for first applications from 31 August 2018 with the successful applicant to be chosen by an evaluation panel comprising DOC and Waikato Regional Council representatives and a member of the Hinds family.

Find out more about the Arthur Hinds scholarship.

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