DAY IN THE LIFE OF A RANGER

LONG SERVICE: DoC biodiversity officer Jamie Quirk is in his 42nd year of conservation service this year. Pictures by Rebecca Grunwell

Jamie Quirk pulled up outside the Gisborne Herald office last Tuesday in his cream-coloured Toyota Hilux with the Department of Conservation label on either side.

“So, we’re going to Puhi Kai Iti which is Cook’s landing site. The contractor there needs to know a bit of information, so we’ll go there first.”

As the truck came to a halt, Jamie was greeted by the orange-vested contractor who guided us to the road-side place marked with yellow dotted lines and purple circles to indicate some kind of measurement.

“Presently we are making a bridge over the Rakaitane Road to Titirangi maunga. It’s called the 1000-year bridge,” he said.

Jamie explained that in 2019 the site was upgraded to celebrate the Maori side of the story, and the work being done now was finishing touches.

As a truck passed us on Kaiti Beach Road blaring its horn, Jamie took me around the towering monument and showed me pictures in a document of what looked like pear-shaped structures.

“These are hue gourds that represent the story of Polynesian navigation, that will be first blessed by the local iwi and then installed on all corners of the garden.”

After handing back some documents to the contractor, we made our way to the vehicle.

“So, that’s our first job out of the way.”

As we drove to the next destination, passing cars of all sorts going in different directions, I asked him, “Why a ranger Jamie?”

He paused, then replied, “After school I did jobs I never expected to do, like being paid to go and count crayfish.

“I was 18 years old when I worked for a government agency called the Lands and Surveys Department, as DoC did not exist back then. We did a lot of fence building, weed eradication, and all sorts of stuff.

“Marine awareness didn’t kick off until 1990 when people were figuring out the importance of the sea. DoC had come over by then and I had already moved to it . . . this year will mark my 42nd year in conservation.

“So you could say it just evolved into my dream job,” he said with a smile.

As a child he said he was always interested in nature and was involved in activities like planting trees and being outdoors nearly all the time, exploring.

Before he became a ranger, his family did sawmilling and farming — with roots reaching back to his great-grandfather Thomas Quirk who had opened a sawmill in the 1900s.

“So why not carry on the family business?” I asked.

He started to say something and stopped. It was a momentary pause and even the car stood still as we gave way to vehicles moving down the highway.

Then he continued, “Due to a whole lot of stuff the business had fallen apart and we went farming.

“My grandfather died suddenly and the government had a lot of death duties on the properties, so we basically didn’t continue with it. There are no sawmills now.

“He didn’t have any trusts or anything in place. He was 52 when he passed away so we had to sell up and have moved on ever since,” said Jamie.

The road ahead was now clear. We took a right turn and headed for Te Tapuwae o Rongokako marine reserve.

“The highlight of my career started here,” said Jamie, as we crossed a long stretch of fences with sheep grazing on the other side and a lofty hill overlooking the reserve.

“When I first started working in reserves and national parks, marine conservation wasn’t a big thing.

“So to be involved in setting up and managing the reserve has been a privilege. It’s been a kind of new thing really, since the 1990s,” he said.

“In Aotearoa, we are really good at looking after our land but when it comes to the sea it’s a very different story.”

The reserve was established in 1999 as a joint application between local hapu Ngati Konohi and the Department of Conservation, covering 23 square kilometres of ocean. At the time it was the largest marine reserve in the country.

While still in the car he told me a couple of signs at the reserve had been stolen.

I asked why that might be.

“Oh, God knows why.

“Maybe they want to use the sheet of aluminum to fix their trailer.

“It’s not even good to use for a barbecue plate. I tell you, it’s a real random one and hasn’t happened in the marine reserve for some time,” Jamie said.

He brings out an information signboard almost a metre wide from his truck which reads “Marine Reserves”, printed in white, and placed it on the empty wooden frame next to three other signboards.

After drilling eight screws in the frames, Jamie brought another signboard out.

“This is the tsunami sign. We as DoC have high safety levels for members of the public.”

Jamie said that since the Cave Creek disaster in 1995, DoC was extremely careful with safety measures.

“The tsunami sign was most probably a reaction to the Indonesian tsunami I believe.

“In fact, we once had an old bridge washed down by a tsunami in 1947. It’s a sign to tell people that they need to be aware and get up on one of those hills.”

After fixing the signs, we walked towards the beach for our third job, to investigate possible sightings of northern dotterels.

“These are small and short birds with a population of little more than 2000. They nest on the beaches here and we have arranged a DoC volunteer who will come and monitor these birds for us.

“Our job is to simply report back if there are some of these little creatures around.”

For a brief moment, I felt like a DoC trainee with Jamie as the head explorer.

He pointed to a pile of driftwood nearby.

“Can you see it?”

I tried but couldn’t.

He glanced at me, smiled and said, “Hey, I have been doing this for many years now.”

Within minutes we found more than five of those tiny beings on the sand around the logs. Some were still while others moved about.

“You see the plain white ones, they are the females. The males are the ones with orangey colour below their beaks.

“Like humans, the pretty ones are the males,” said Jamie with a chuckle.

Bending, he scraped up the sand a bit as he demonstrated how the birds would nest and lay three eggs only, which would take nearly 30 days to hatch and another 30 days for the chicks to grow up and start flying.

“So in October the wind blows through here and covers up some of these eggs. With people walking on the beach and pests like cats, mice, stoats and hedgehogs, it makes it extremely difficult to nest and breed.”

After our 11th sighting of these birds, Jamie had a big smile on his face.

“Will have to tell DoC to send in the volunteer it seems,” he said.

With that we headed for Tatapouri Bay to check on a DoC sign that had washed away due to erosion. Jamie showed me the area where a chunk of land had eroded due to “some storm” and there was no “sign” of the two signs that had been there.

“The council has got a resource consent to rebuild this place,” he said. His eyes focused on the affected area where waves now crept up on the wet sand.

On our way to a last job, a monthly check of the DoC boat, I asked Jamie what his most challenging experience had been.

It was the death 11 years ago of Moko the dolphin, much-loved by the public over his time interacting with people in the waters of Tairawhiti. Moko was found on a beach at Matakana Island near Tauranga, having been scarred by boats and a fish hook.

“I don’t understand that, when you can swim around the whole ocean but still choose to come and hang around people.

“I really don’t get it.

“But that’s the thing. One day we have these little jobs like things to fix and the other we have to go and rescue a whale . . . No one day is the same. That’s what makes my work so interesting.”

When we arrived at a boatshed near the harbour Jamie said that although the job had been done last week, “It’s worth checking it twice.”

After joining him on the boat, sitting on a trailer hitch among 14 other boats, he showed me a checklist which included the engine, life jackets, lights and an emergency radio beacon called Epirb, among others.

“We have to have a set of checks for our maritime operating standards that all DoC vessels have every month,” he said after we climbed down from the boat.

As he dropped me off, Jamie said, “The thing is I have fun doing my work. Every day is interesting.”