Conservation hero to talk in Tākaka

JO RICHARDS

As part of Forest and Bird’s centenary celebration, the Golden Bay branch is hosting a public talk by highly respected conservationist Cam Speedy.

The visiting VIP will speak about how individuals and community groups can the effectiveness of predator control, and encourage more people to get involved in pest trapping.

Cam is a vastly experienced wildlife biologist and predator control specialist who has spent over 40 years working extensively with both native and introduced wildlife species. Working through Massey University, Department of Conservation, the Forest Service and private and corporate sectors, he has developed a deep understanding of New Zealand’s unique ecosystems.

During his long career Cam has worked with a wide range of fauna, including kiwi, takahē, kākā, and kōkako, as well as introduced mammals such as deer, goats, and possums. His understanding of their needs, and the challenges they face in their natural environments, has contributed to the design and implementation of management plans to protect and conserve wildlife.

Cam has published numerous scientific papers and magazine articles and is also involved in community education and outreach programs, helping to raise awareness about the importance of conserving and protecting New Zealand’s wildlife.

Every week, Network Tasman is carrying out planned maintenance somewhere on the power line network. This requires us temporarily turning the power off to some houses or businesses.

We let your electricity retailer know well in advance when a power outage caused by planned maintenance is due to happen. They will let you know, usually via email, that your power is going to be turned off while we carry out the work.

Sometimes customers phone us after the power has gone off to say they were not notified of a planned power outage. Not knowing about an outage can be hugely disruptive for customers, which is not what we want. We want you to know in advance so that you can make plans for the outage.

There can be a number of reasons why you might be unaware that the power will be temporarily turned off for maintenance work, but there are some things you can do to make sure you get planned outage notifications:

Î Check the contact details that your electricity retailer has for you, and make sure they are correct.

Î Check your email settings to make sure emails from your electricity retailer don’t accidentally end up in your ‘junk’ folder or somewhere else that you don’t usually look.

Î If you are not the electricity account holder, make sure the person or company who is, knows to pass outage notifications on to you. For example, if you are a tenant and the landlord gets the power bill, the landlord will get the outage notification, not you.

Î Ask your electricity retailer how they let you know about planned power outages, and think about whether this will be okay for you.

Î Some electricity retailers can provide outage notification by text message. If you want this, ask your retailer if they can do it for you.

Î Keep an eye out for more than one outage notification from your electricity retailer. Sometimes we need to have two or more outages in the same area to get the work done. Each outage is notified separately by your electricity retailer.

Contact your electricity retailer if you want to know more about how they notify customers of planned outages.

If you want to know more about how Network Tasman plans maintenance work, get in touch with us at info@networktasman.co.nz