Individual Award
Sponsored by Forsyth Barr
Winner - Pat Turnbull.
The Guardian of Sherwood Forest.
On just about any day of the week, you'll find Pat Turnbull welcoming visitors to her home at Sherwood Forest, Tussock Creek.
They might be students from Hedgehope School come to pot up native seedlings, or members of CCS ready to tackle pest plants, or it could be residents of Rowena Jackson Retirement Village, come to check the bait in the pest traps and then maybe whip up a batch of scones in her farmhouse kitchen.
Pat has enlisted young and old in the maintenance of Sherwood Forest to ensure that the native bush will always be well tended, but she remains the driving force behind the project now that her life's partner, Derek, has passed on.
Pat has also developed her own pet project – the Sherwood Heritage Museum – which has become a repository for many treasured items of Southland’s social history including rare books, all freely shared with the community.
Her willingness to share her home, her skills and her vision for the environment led to her being named winner of the Individual Environment Award.
Highly Commended - Reg and Shirley McLeod.
Reg and Shirley McLeod never sought the limelight, but when the clear air in their beloved home suburb of Clifton became harder to breathe because of foul odours from the Invercargill sewage plant and neighbouring industry, Reg and Shirley spoke out.
They became the rallying point for a community campaign that lasted 10 years to get the Invercargill City Council to take the air quality problem seriously. On the way they have received a lot of support from South Invercargill residents and they've also copped criticism from people who lived too far away to suffer what at times could only be described as a “stench” – particularly in hot summer weather.
With continued lobbying from the community, the City Council committed significant funding to address the issue and over the last summer the air quality was greatly improved. Thanks to Reg and Shirley McLeod, the Clifton community can open their windows again and the judges of the environment awards highly commended the couple for their efforts.
Other Nominees
Alan Mark
Dr Alan Mark is an eminent botanist and a passionate conservationist who has influenced thousands of Kiwis to think about the impact of man's activities on our environment. He has been active in Southland since the Save M anapouri Campaign in the 1960s and he’s still going strong.
Doug Speden
Doug Speden is a one-man pest destruction society, and in the last 15 years he's single-handedly killed over 8,000 pest animals on properties around Eastern and Southern Southland. It's not his job – Doug's been retired for years – he looks on it as a community service.
Environment Southland is the brand name of Southland Regional Council.