$12,000 given in environment grants

Press, 24 September 1979, Page 16

$12,000 given in environment grants

More than $12,000 has been awarded to 19 recipients throughout New Zealand under this year’s Mobil environmental grants. Five grants of $lOOO each were made to applicants in Wellington, Christchurch and Dunedin.

Two of these were for support of New Zealand’s national bird. The Royal Forest and Bird Protection Society plans to transfer kiwis from land under development to safer homes, while the Orana Park Trust Board will build a kiwi breeding unit. Dr P. Forer, of the University of Canterbury’s geography department, will develop computer simulations of land use; the resulting information will be available to the public. The Otago Peninsula Trust

will produce a booklet outlining its aims, and a Wellington woman will go to a year-long textile conservation course in Britain. The rest of the awards ranged from $3OO to $750 and covered projects throughout New Zealand. Among those in the South Island were $5OO to the Royal New Zealand Institute of Horticulture at Lincoln College to support its programme of cataloguing historic trees; $5OO to Mr J. Davidson, of Nelson, to record photographically the remnants of goldfields; $5OO for a seed and seedling house in the Abel Tasman National Park: and $3OO to the Native Forests Action Council in Nelson to produce a travelling display of forest education.