You are here
Join the Ōtari-Wilton's Bush Trust for their annual seminar series. It's a chance to hear from people doing amazing things in conservation and learn something new.
Speaker: Colan Balkwill
Aotearoa New Zealand is on a zealous drive to restore its natural habitats, and ensuring its species can adapt to changing stresses in the future needs to be part of this. In this talk, Colan Balkwill will discuss his PhD work focussed on ensuring the complete genetic diversity, and by proxy adaptability, of a taonga wetland tree species is captured in restoration projects. He will also reflect on how these findings relate to the conservation and restoration of the plant species in Aotearoa as a whole.
Speaker: Jane Humble
The talk will include a brief history of botanical illustration with particular reference to the flora of New Zealand, and brief histories of some New Zealand botanical artists, both well-known and not so well-known.
Speaker: Julia Kasper and William Brockelsby
The Entomological Society of NZ, Wellington branch, is partnering with Ōtari-Wilton's Bush to generate a species list for moth and butterfly fauna in the sanctuary. Our efforts will be compared to historical lists generated by eminent entomologist George Vernon Hudson 100 years ago, with the ultimate aim of using moths and butterflies to tell the story of land use change and restoration in the wider Wellington region.
Speaker: Leon Perrie
We will begin with an introduction to ferns and how their biology compares with other land plants. We’ll then have an overview of the ferns in New Zealand, and discuss the characteristics that are useful for distinguishing different species of ferns. From that background, we’ll turn to looking at the weedy ferns in New Zealand – 64 exotic species have been recorded as present in the wild, of which 27 are fully naturalised. The 13 that are most problematic will be detailed by their distinguishing characters and distributions.