Media Release

18th November 2016

Canopy Meg, the world’s first Arbornaut, heads to New Zealand to talk about conservation

Meg Lowman, aka Canopy Meg, is a pioneer in the field of forest canopy science. National Geographic nicknamed her “a real-life Lorax” and the Wall Street Journal hailed her “Einstein of the treetops.” For the past 30 years, she has travelled the world studying forest canopies and working to preserve forest health. She has even designed hot-air balloons and walkways for treetop exploration to reveal the mysteries of the world’s forests.

This weekend Canopy Meg is in New Zealand to give a keynote speech at the Ecology and Restoration, Australasia (ERA2016) conference, which is jointly run by the Society for Ecological Restoration Australasia (SERA) and the New Zealand Ecological Society (NZES).

It is Meg’s first trip to New Zealand and she is impressed by our amazing trees, and extraordinary coastlines.

“The vistas encountered remind me how important ecological restoration, and also ecological conservation, are to the economy and health of this country. I am honored to be part of the upcoming Ecological Restoration Conference next week,” says Lowman

Meg describes herself as the world’s first ‘Arbornaut’ and has authored numerous books on canopy ecology. She is currently Director of Global Initiatives and Lindsay Chair of Botany at the California Academy of Sciences. Her keynote speech at the ERA Conference on Sunday is titled ‘Citizens and Communities, Canopies and Conservation – innovation required for Mother Nature!’

The theme of the conference, which is being held at Hamilton’s Claudeland’s arena from the 19th to the 23rd November, is "RESTORING RESILIENCE ACROSS ALL ENVIRONMENT". The conference headline signifies the organisers’ aspirational goal to restore resilience to all environments (land and sea, urban and rural) by upscaling efforts from the local to regional and national.

Other speakers at the ERA Conference include Wendy Henwood from Massey University’s Whäriki Research group and; Alan Featherstone, founder of Trees for Life, a conservation charity working to restore the Caledonian Forest in the Highlands of Scotland.

www.era2016.com

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