Tony Dwane

Environmental Advisor

Taylors’ Environmental Advisor Tony Dwane wouldn’t call any day a ‘normal’ day.

It’s his job to monitor Taylors’ environmental performance across all its earthworks, rivers, and quarry jobs, as well as some of its forestry work.

As part of his role, Tony coaches others, leading the company on how it can improve and ensure compliance across all the different environment-related regulations and legislation.

“I’m here to uphold the values led by Taylors’ CEO, Charlie Taylor, making sure that the Taylors name is held in high regard because we always do a good job, and we’re professional in how we go about it. I help to make sure the company’s reputation isn’t damaged by uninformed practices, or enforcement by councils or other agencies.”

A typical job involves Tony making sure that Taylors has “the right people, doing the right things”.

“It sounds simple enough, but everyone coming onto a job site has a different filter that they’re viewing the work through. We all deploy our expertise to work together to make sure the job gets done properly – and I am the one who oversees that from an environmental perspective. I have my biosecurity and biodiversity filter on, thinking about aspects such as how we can protect any native species and stop spreading weeds or other pests like didymo.”

Tony says a recent Moutere weir job is one of the most interesting and challenging projects he has ever worked on.

“We had to fish out the stream before we started work, so I brought in an independent ecologist who looks after stream and catchment health. That freed me up to concentrate on biodiversity and biosecurity concerns. This job saw the relocation of 1600 fish (tuna, bullies, galaxiids) further downstream, while being mindful not to spread weed pests downstream or create disturbance of sediment – no mean feat!”

Tony previously worked for 12 years in the forestry industry; his former Northland company was the owner of Tasman Bay Forests, so he was already well familiar with the Te Tauihu Top of the South landscape. Before that, he worked for a regional council for nearly 10 years as an ecologist in both freshwater and marine. Tony has also worked on a lot of kiwi recovery projects in his time.

Now heading up biosecurity and biodiversity management on Taylors’ jobs, Tony is constantly looking at ways to stop any inadvertent weed spreading via machinery. The crew needs to be particularly careful travelling to and from areas like St Arnaud as they do not currently have broom or gorse and these weedy pests are common in Nelson and its surrounds.

“Our guys are really good at reporting any sightings that might be important. If they spot some fish or other animal, they will report it to me and then I will often seek further advice from an ecologist.”

An example of this was the recent discovery of a native powelliphanta snail while stripping out a gravel pit. The worker stopped his digger immediately, put road-closed tape around the area and called his supervisor. The supervisor reported through to the client’s harvest planner and to Tony as environmental manager. A Department of Conservation rep visited the site, checked for other snails, and then the snail was relocated to the Brook Waimārama Sanctuary before approval was given for work to recommence on site.

Tony says that people at Taylors are open to his ideas and any improvements.

“Taylors would rather do the right thing than cut corners.”