Reserve to be named after conservationist

Press, 26 June 1989, Page 4

Reserve to be named after conservationist

PA Auckland A lifetime spent saving New Zealand’s native bush has ensured Mr Steuart Russell’s name will live well into the next century. The Greenhithe resident, aged 87, will have a native reserve at Awakino, north Taranaki, named after him in recognition of his conservation work. He has spent many years organising tree planting in New Zealand and overseas and when he was younger replanted

many areas of bush ruined by logging. Mr Russell now takes things a little easier, although he is still writing to the Government, urging it to save what remains of New Zealand’s native bush. i “Without our native for- ] ests New Zealand could ] become just another of the world’s concrete jun- i gles,” he says. < Mr Russell was born in < England but as a young < man decided to come to i New Zealand. 1 “I came to hear about x

the country, the beauty of its forests and the beauty of the people in it. With no profession, I planned to buy a plot of land and live off what I grew myself.” He is a life member of the Royal Forest and Bird Protection Society and Men of the Trees. “This tribute means more than anything I’ve ever done, because unlike a list of important letters after my name, the forest is something I’ll leave behind for others to enjoy when I’m gone.”