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#2506 Environmental Patriots

Speaker: Mary McEwen and Simon Nathan

Date:        Saturday 5th April 10am - 1pm

Venue:        Waikanae Presbyterian Church, 43 Ngaio Road, Waikanae

Dr Mary McEwen, daughter of Sir Charles Fleming has a PhD in Botany, and worked at the Forest Research Institute, the Department of Conservation and as an ecological consultant. She began researching her father’s life in 1995 and published his biography ten years later.  Dr Simon Nathan (see #2502) has published biographies of scientists Harold Wellman and James Hector.

Mary will talk about Sir Charles Fleming and Simon will talk about Harold Wellman. Sir Charles Fleming has been described as a scientist, a geologist and an ornithologist and he published many papers on biogeology, birds and insects. He was a leader in the Save Manapouri Campaign in the 1970s, he fought to protect the land against logging of native forests and supported campaigns against housing developments around Waimeha Lagoon in Waikanae. One of his colleagues at the Geological Survey of the DSIR was another geologist, Harold Wellman, known for his work on plate tectonics and his discovery of the South Island’s Alpine Fault.