‘Awesome’ life of a ranger
Monday is World Ranger Day, a day to acknowledge the critical work of rangers on the front line of conservation across the globe. Unlike rangers in Africa, New Zealand Department of Conservation rangers don’t carry guns but they play a vital role in carin
WHEN Matt Hellmann found out he had a seasonal job as a Department of Conservation (Doc) ranger for the summer in Franz Josef, on the West Coast, he had to go on to Google maps to find out where it was.
‘‘I pointed it out to my flatmates and thought ‘wow, I’m in for a really big adventure’.’’
A graduate of the University of Applied Sciences in Eberswalde (a university dedicated to the sustainable development of rural areas), near Berlin, Mr Hellman had completed an internship with Doc in Canterbury and was keen to return to New Zealand.
‘‘The rain was a bit overwhelming at first but there were beautiful sunny days on the beach. I’d never been in a helicopter before and we frequently were dropped off by chopper to work in wild rugged places.’’
Mr Hellman was offered a trial for a permanent position in Haast and stayed three years.
‘‘Haast was a great opportunity for me. I always had a dream to live on an island and this was the closest I’ve ever got. You’ve got one highway, which is your ferry, and it takes two hours either way to get to the nearest town and there was no cellphone coverage.’’
Mr Hellman said the job was ‘‘tricky’’ when heavy rains flooded rivers but that was also part of ‘‘the beauty’’ of the West Coast.
Mr Hellman transferred to Wanaka Doc office last summer and I caught up with him and fellow ranger Ed Astin clearing wilding pines on a Dublin Bay Doc reserve.
‘‘A lot of people come to Wanaka for the mountain biking and walking tracks so we do a lot of track maintenance and hut maintenance work. We’ve got all the tracks scheduled for chainsawing, scrub cutting and marking, so if people venture out into the back country they should find the track in a really good state and shouldn’t get lost,’’ Mr Hellman said.
Mr Astin has been a ranger in Wanaka for many years and said the restructuring of Doc several years ago changed the nature of the job.
‘‘When I first started doing this job I was focused only on track and hut maintenance, but now a ranger can do anything.One day we might be setting traps on Lake Wanaka’s Mou Waho Island, the next day we might be repairing a bridge,’’ he said.
‘‘It gives us a good variety of work. I enjoy that,’’ Mr Hellman said.
Both rangers agreed the increasing number of tourists was increasing their workload.
‘‘It’s making it different, creating challenges as more and more people use the campsites and walk popular tracks like the Rob Roy glacier and Roys Peak,’’ Mr Astin said.
He said the Roys Peak track had received a lot of social media coverage and now so many walked it, ‘‘people were having to queue to take the same view from the Coromandel Ridge’’.
Taking care of amenities was part of a ranger’s job but both rangers agreed the time spent cleaning toilets and removing human waste had significantly increased.
‘‘It would be hard to say that it didn’t bother me but the way I look at it is that we try to maintain the facilities to the highest standard to encourage people to use them,’’ Mr Astin said.
Both rangers said World Ranger Day was a good way ‘‘to make the public aware of what we do’’.
‘‘It’s an awesome job; you have an adventure just about every day you are out here,’’ Mr Hellman said.
‘‘New Zealanders are really fortunate. Only 1.9% of Germany is wilderness or in a wild state but here about a third of the country is in the conservation estate. It’s really important to keep it because lots of other countries lost their wilderness a long time ago; that’s why so many people are coming here now,’’ Mr Hellman said.
Doc will be hosting Facebook Live Q&A sessions with rangers on Monday.
kerrie.waterworth@odt.co.nz