NZ Institute of Forestry Announces Award

NZ Institute of Forestry Announces Prestigious Award

The New Zealand Institute of Forestry Inc (NZIF) presented the Kirk Horn Award to Peter Berg of Auckland at its annual conference in Rotorua last week.

In announcing the recipient of the Institute's supreme award, the President of the Institute, Dr Andrew McEwen, noted that the award, which is only made every second year, recognises outstanding contributions in the field of forestry in New Zealand.

Mr Berg, who was made an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to forestry in 2004, is currently Chairman and executive director of the Auckland based Pentarch Forest Products (NZ) Ltd and NZ Forestry Ltd. He has previously held senior positions in Rayonier NZ Ltd., NZ Forestry Corporation Ltd., and the New Zealand Forest Service. He has been President of the NZ Forest Owners Association since 1999, on the Board of Woodco since 2005, Chair of the NZ Section of the Commonwealth Forestry Association, Deputy Chair of Tane's Tree Trust, a member of the Board of NZ Forest Industries Training (FITEC), a Member of the Auckland Conservation Board since 2005 and a director of Scion since 2006.

Mr Berg has recently retired from the Institute's Registration Board, a position he held for 12 years. He is a former President of the Institute (1998-2002) and was awarded the Institute's Forester of the Year in 2006.

"I am delighted that the Institute has been able to recognize the achievements of this outstanding member" said Dr McEwen. "Few people in recent years have put as much time and effort into forestry outside the job they are employed to do than Peter. The list of organisations that he is contributing to span the breadth of New Zealand forestry including the profession, training, indigenous forestry, conservation and plantation forest growing. The fact that he has been accepted, appointed and reappointed to these roles demonstrates the respect that he has earned, the ethical standards that he has followed and his commitment to the profession and to the sector."

The Kirk Horn Award consists of a medal and the awardee has temporary possession of a 133-year old drinking horn. The Kirk Horn Flask is the most historically valuable award in all New Zealand science.

1. It commemorates the recipient - Thomas Kirk - a man with no formal schooling but who became one of New Zealand's foremost botanical explorer/scientists and teacher at the Auckland Institute and Museum.

2. It commemorates the donor - Captain Inches Campbell-Walker - a member of the Indian Forest Service who came to New Zealand in March 1876 as the first Conservator of Forests on a year's trial.

3. And it symbolizes the start of forestry in New Zealand, not tree-felling but forestry - for Campbell-Walker read the first forestry paper in New Zealand to the Otago Philosophical Society in 1876 - "State Forestry: its aims and objects".

Thomas Kirk and Campbell-Walker travelled the length and breadth of the country together inspecting and studying the forests and, as a first step towards a system of conservation, Campbell-Walker recommended that all the forests at the headwaters of all rivers in Canterbury be reserved.

At the end of his stay in 1877, Campbell-Walker commemorated his association with Kirk by presenting him with a silver-mounted flask suitably engraved. It was presented to the Institute by the Royal Society of New Zealand in 1988.

ENDS

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