Role of a catchment officer

Regional councils employ science teams to work in a variety of environmental positions. Alice Trevelyan tells us about her job as a catchment management officer.

Question for discussion:

Alice requires science knowledge in her role as a catchment officer. What other skills do you think she needs to do her job effectively?

Transcript

ALICE TREVELYAN

I’m a catchment management officer at Waikato Regional Council. We work with individual landowners, community groups, iwi and schools to inform them about best practice. We also help them to facilitate environment restoration works, so that could be fencing, planting, stabilising erosion-prone land, protecting native bush.

I studied geography at university and I also did a master’s in hydrology. It’s quite a cool role. You need a bit of varied background information. So in our team, we have people of varying experience, so we have soil scientists, farmers, people that have worked in industry – like Beef and Lamb, Dairy NZ – so there’s quite a range of ways to get into a role like this.

Acknowledgements

Alice Trevelyan Waikato Regional Council Keith Watson AS Wilcox & Sons Limited Footage of farmer checking poplar for erosion control, Dairy NZ Healthy Farms Healthy Rivers and Waikato Regional Council