October 20, 2025 • 5 mins
Simon Stokes talks about his new role with Environment Southland.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:09):
Welcome back to the muster. I'm Andy your and our
next guest is Simon Stakes, land sustainability manager with Environment
South and this and have you sponsored by Environment South
and Simon, good afternoon, welcome to the Muster and more importantly,
welcome to the Deep South.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
Yeah no, Jordy, Andy, No, thank you very much. That's
awesome and yeah, no really enjoying my what is it
six weeks now? It's been pretty awesome.
Speaker 1 (00:35):
Just been a little bit cooler than what you're used to.
You're based in the Bay of Plenty originally, yes.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
Yeah, yeah, that's true. I've spent quite a bit of
time up in the Bay of Plenty, living near Fan
but I'm actually actually Hawks Bay born and bred, so
Hawks Bay can have it have its cold moments as well.
But yeah, no, I'll get used to it now.
Speaker 1 (00:56):
Simon, you're the new land Sustainability manager at Environment so
offland your background to search for the role? What have
you got?
Speaker 2 (01:03):
Yeah, it's a long title, isn't it. Well, actually, I'm
just about creeping into my fourth decade of work in
this area of work. I've well, we sold the farm
way back around the mid two thousand, so I was
essentially in a farming career, but then went to work
(01:24):
in the regional council system as a land management officer
and started my career in Toma Denui in the center
of the North Island. And then I suppose twenty three
years later i'd made my way through to Hawk's Bay
and up to buy a Plenty and just been heavily
involved and working with farmers in the industry all that
time through regional councils. Then I went working on my
(01:48):
own actually because I had a bit of a role
at beef Land New Zealand running their environmental management strategy
for a couple of years, and then decided to just
have a crack on my own because I ended up
with two good pieces of work. One was looking at
land use change and revitalizing Ta Taile, which went for
(02:11):
about four and a half years with the science challenges.
And then I was also developing or I put in
place a pretty the free project eradicating or eliminating possums
working for Natiawa, which is an e wee based around
the Bay of Plenty or based near Fokatano basically, and
that was an awesome project. Yeah, And anyway, this role
(02:33):
came up and I wanted to challenge, and I wanted
to find a different part of the world to work
in and what a place to come to.
Speaker 1 (02:42):
So what would you say is a big focus for
the Land Sustainability team during the spring and heading into summer.
Speaker 2 (02:49):
Well, the main focus is working with farmers and getting
out and talking to as many farmers as possible because
the guys have got plenty of knowledge about the activities
that occur on farm through spring and summer, particularly around
any of the cultivation, sewing crops, etc. And also one
of the key things is that we've got funding in
(03:11):
our Catchment Improvement fund and we'd like to spend it,
so we're looking for farmers who want projects with us.
Those projects can range from your kind of your standard
by peer and work through to wetlands wetlands and erosion
control planting as well, So there's a few options here,
(03:31):
but mostly it's just getting out of the office and
getting out and being a part of the farming community
and helping them with whatever they need advice WITHSS.
Speaker 1 (03:39):
So that's basically your cool focus in the role. They're
just getting out and giving advice to farmers. Regarding oursion
with likes as you alluded to, Yeah.
Speaker 2 (03:48):
Yeah, look at I've been working in this type of
work for a long time and we've got to have
really strong, solid relationships not with our farmers but also
the community they live and work in. The best way
to do that is to be out there and amongst
it all all the time as much as possible, because
technically the guys are really well trained. They know a
(04:09):
lot of technical things about land management and biodiversity and
they can offer up as much support and guidance to
farmers as possible. And there's there's a really key focus
at the moment too on planning or farm planning you
could breshwater farm planning, whatever you want to call it.
(04:29):
And the team are very well trained to be able
to help farmers with getting those those sort of thinking
required to future proof them in place. And they're available
and I suppose a good thing is that they're free,
so you know, that's what we're designed to do.
Speaker 1 (04:48):
So if somebody wants to get in touch, so i'mon
with the team regarding land sustainability, what's the best way
to go about it?
Speaker 2 (04:55):
Well, the basic way is to give an eight hundred number,
eight hundreds seventy six eighty eight forty five and ask
to speak to one of the one of the team
and they'll come back to you straight away. And of
course there's always the email service as well, which is
service at es dot govt dot z. You can tell
(05:16):
I'm reading that off a page for sure. But also
there's a lot of people out there who know know
the team, and so if you're talking to some of
the real professionals or agencies who know us, they may
be able to help get in touch with the right
person as well.
Speaker 1 (05:30):
So yeah, good on your Simon, appreciated your time on
the muster and trust me, the sun does come out
in Southland eventually.
Speaker 2 (05:37):
Yeah, no, I believe you all right mate, Thank you
very much.
Speaker 1 (05:42):
Simon stakes Land, Sustainability Manager for Environments Southland. You're listening
to the muster before we wrap up? Hebby White out
of Clinton Young Farmers
Welcome back to the muster. I'm Andy your and our
next guest is Simon Stakes, land sustainability manager with Environment
South and this and have you sponsored by Environment South
and Simon, good afternoon, welcome to the Muster and more importantly,
welcome to the Deep South.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
Yeah no, Jordy, Andy, No, thank you very much. That's
awesome and yeah, no really enjoying my what is it
six weeks now? It's been pretty awesome.
Speaker 1 (00:35):
Just been a little bit cooler than what you're used to.
You're based in the Bay of Plenty originally, yes.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
Yeah, yeah, that's true. I've spent quite a bit of
time up in the Bay of Plenty, living near Fan
but I'm actually actually Hawks Bay born and bred, so
Hawks Bay can have it have its cold moments as well.
But yeah, no, I'll get used to it now.
Speaker 1 (00:56):
Simon, you're the new land Sustainability manager at Environment so
offland your background to search for the role? What have
you got?
Speaker 2 (01:03):
Yeah, it's a long title, isn't it. Well, actually, I'm
just about creeping into my fourth decade of work in
this area of work. I've well, we sold the farm
way back around the mid two thousand, so I was
essentially in a farming career, but then went to work
(01:24):
in the regional council system as a land management officer
and started my career in Toma Denui in the center
of the North Island. And then I suppose twenty three
years later i'd made my way through to Hawk's Bay
and up to buy a Plenty and just been heavily
involved and working with farmers in the industry all that
time through regional councils. Then I went working on my
(01:48):
own actually because I had a bit of a role
at beef Land New Zealand running their environmental management strategy
for a couple of years, and then decided to just
have a crack on my own because I ended up
with two good pieces of work. One was looking at
land use change and revitalizing Ta Taile, which went for
(02:11):
about four and a half years with the science challenges.
And then I was also developing or I put in
place a pretty the free project eradicating or eliminating possums
working for Natiawa, which is an e wee based around
the Bay of Plenty or based near Fokatano basically, and
that was an awesome project. Yeah, And anyway, this role
(02:33):
came up and I wanted to challenge, and I wanted
to find a different part of the world to work
in and what a place to come to.
Speaker 1 (02:42):
So what would you say is a big focus for
the Land Sustainability team during the spring and heading into summer.
Speaker 2 (02:49):
Well, the main focus is working with farmers and getting
out and talking to as many farmers as possible because
the guys have got plenty of knowledge about the activities
that occur on farm through spring and summer, particularly around
any of the cultivation, sewing crops, etc. And also one
of the key things is that we've got funding in
(03:11):
our Catchment Improvement fund and we'd like to spend it,
so we're looking for farmers who want projects with us.
Those projects can range from your kind of your standard
by peer and work through to wetlands wetlands and erosion
control planting as well, So there's a few options here,
(03:31):
but mostly it's just getting out of the office and
getting out and being a part of the farming community
and helping them with whatever they need advice WITHSS.
Speaker 1 (03:39):
So that's basically your cool focus in the role. They're
just getting out and giving advice to farmers. Regarding oursion
with likes as you alluded to, Yeah.
Speaker 2 (03:48):
Yeah, look at I've been working in this type of
work for a long time and we've got to have
really strong, solid relationships not with our farmers but also
the community they live and work in. The best way
to do that is to be out there and amongst
it all all the time as much as possible, because
technically the guys are really well trained. They know a
(04:09):
lot of technical things about land management and biodiversity and
they can offer up as much support and guidance to
farmers as possible. And there's there's a really key focus
at the moment too on planning or farm planning you
could breshwater farm planning, whatever you want to call it.
(04:29):
And the team are very well trained to be able
to help farmers with getting those those sort of thinking
required to future proof them in place. And they're available
and I suppose a good thing is that they're free,
so you know, that's what we're designed to do.
Speaker 1 (04:48):
So if somebody wants to get in touch, so i'mon
with the team regarding land sustainability, what's the best way
to go about it?
Speaker 2 (04:55):
Well, the basic way is to give an eight hundred number,
eight hundreds seventy six eighty eight forty five and ask
to speak to one of the one of the team
and they'll come back to you straight away. And of
course there's always the email service as well, which is
service at es dot govt dot z. You can tell
(05:16):
I'm reading that off a page for sure. But also
there's a lot of people out there who know know
the team, and so if you're talking to some of
the real professionals or agencies who know us, they may
be able to help get in touch with the right
person as well.
Speaker 1 (05:30):
So yeah, good on your Simon, appreciated your time on
the muster and trust me, the sun does come out
in Southland eventually.
Speaker 2 (05:37):
Yeah, no, I believe you all right mate, Thank you
very much.
Speaker 1 (05:42):
Simon stakes Land, Sustainability Manager for Environments Southland. You're listening
to the muster before we wrap up? Hebby White out
of Clinton Young Farmers
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