He works voluntarily, nearly every day, sometimes for 14 hours a day scaling cliffs and dealing with dead carrion. His dedicated approach has earned him a Pride of New Zealand Award nomination in the environment category.
"Brian is doing a stunning job with pest control at Opito Bay," his nominator said. "In addition he has been instrumental with dog control on the beach which has seen a great increase in dotterel chick survival."
Mr Thompson had been visiting Opito Bay, near Whitianga, since 1970 and decided to retire there with his wife Yvonne in 2004.
He originally helped DoC look after the dotterels, mostly to "give them a break". Then he noticed the decimation of the coastal pohutukawa.
"Some ... that would have seen Captain Cook go sailing by were being overgrazed by possums and they were dying," he said.
Over one long, tiring day, he set up 25 traps along the cliff face. The next day he found 24 dead possums, and one dead feral cat.
"I thought to myself, 'how scary is that'."
He now tends about 6000 traps a year. Pohutukawa are "flourishing" and the community comes back with reports of 15 quail walking through their gardens.
Mr Thompson hopes he will help set a good example for the next generation, acknowledging that he wanted to walk the walk when it came to educating his own daughters.
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Nominations for the 2015 awards have now closed.
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