A tōtara has fallen

A tōtara in the great forest of Tāne has fallen. Roger Gaskell botanist, ex biodiversity officer DOC, supporter of community and catchment restoration projects.

It is with great sadness I let you know that last week Roger Gaskell died suddenly. We have lost from our region a great conservationist.

Roger started his career with DOC as a ranger, ending it as a DOC botanist with a passion for preserving rare native species. He was credited for saving coastal pepper cress from extinction. The Sherry River sub-catchment in the Motueka catchment is one of the national strongholds for the tree daisy and for 15 years Roger has worked with landowners with covenants now protecting the three best tree daisy populations in the Sherry catchment.

He established and worked in the local DOC Motueka community nursery every Monday morning, along with a keen group of volunteers. This nursery provides volunteers with plants for projects across Tasman. It also supports people wanting to learn about growing native plants.

After retirement Roger supported the Moutere catchment group by providing seed and knowledge to community nurseries. He was an active and very much respected member of the Biodiversity and Restoration Group of the Motueka Catchment Collective and on the Brooklyn weed busters group. He was very generous with his time running seed collection workshops, potting up events (including the one pictured in the photo), and native planting workshops for landowners in the Motueka catchment.

We were shocked and saddened by his passing.

Annette Litherland, member of the Biodiversity and Restoration Thematic Group