A RANGER’S DUTIES

Forest and Bird, Issue 142, 1 November 1961, Page 12

A RANGER’S DUTIES

The many and varied duties of an acclimatisation-society district ranger were described to the members of the Dunedin Branch of the Forest and Bird Protection Society at its recent meeting by Mr. H. A. Sinclair, who occupies that position in the Otago district, which covers about 1,000 square miles extending from the east coast up to Central Otago. It appeared that instead of a 40-hour week a ranger was likely to put in anything up to a 70-hour week when such work as checking on fish poachers and others necessitated being on duty at night and in the early morning, and much time was spent travelling, 25,000 miles being covered in an average year.

A good deal of time was spent on various forms of checks—on fishing and shooting licences, bag limits, suspected pond feeding

to attract game, poaching, and so on, and a great deal of detail was involved in these tasks. Much patience and ingenuity, as well as not a little courage at times, were needed in order to catch those breaking the laws governing these matters, and the speaker described a number of incidents, some serious and others rather humorous, in which he had taken part. A good all-round type of person was necessary for these positions as he needed to be good at the field work -and also efficient in following through the court proceedings when a case was brought. Native-bird poaching was also an important part of the ranger’s concern, pigeon poaching being the most common offence. Mr. Sinclair emphasised that the public could help greatly in the apprehending of culprits by giving immediate information and particularly the numbers on vehicles used by those seen taking the birds. Information given immediately could be followed up, but so often people only mentioned the matter after a delay of days or weeks, when little or nothing could be done. A ranger with so much territory could not be in all places at once. Honorary rangers appointed by the Wildlife Branch had the same powers as he, and could be of great assistance, especially at busy times such as the fishing and shooting seasons. Duck and quail banding, investigating pollution of streams by industrial waste, sheep dip, dead-stock dumping, etc., were other duties undertaken by the ranger. Conservation being so much the business of a ranger, he hoped that it might be increasingly inculcated through education from school days upwards. The Wildlife Branch had issued many good articles and pamphlets. Articles written for the School Journal were also of great value.