Force Of Nature Te Aumangea O Te Turoa

Force of Nature Te Aumangea o te Turoa, written by David Young and Naomi Arnold, is the inspiring history of New Zealand’s oldest and most successful conservation organisation. Forest & Bird. It has been at the forefront of environmental protection for over 100 years, and to mark their centenary in 2023 this book was commissioned to document their remarkable history. Beginning in 1923, Forest & Bird have been involved in all of the significant environmental campaigns of the last century, starting with efforts to protect native birds and their forest habitat. As public awareness grew, Forest & Bird was central to the campaigns to save the last remaining kauri forest in the 1940s and 50s, Lake Manapouri in the 1960s and 70s, and the pivotal and successful efforts to save native forest from being logged on the West Coast of the South Island, and in the Central North Island in the 1970s and 80s. As well, Forest & Bird has been involved with the creation of many national parks, the protection of large areas of the high country in the South Island, efforts to protect our marine environment, and in recent decades, attempts to tackle climate change, and the move to become predator free. It is an incredible legacy, and unsurprisingly, A Force of Nature is the most significant book about conservation to have been published in decades. With a strong focus on the remarkable men, women and children who have devoted their lives and energies to our environment, this highly readable, and totally inspiring story will be a must for anyone who cares about protecting our natural heritage.

Author Biography

David Young is a conservation historian who finds inspiration in personal and community regeneration efforts in coastal Tasman. His interest began in the late ‘60s as a young journalist with the emergence of modern environmentalism, continuing at The Listener in the 70s and 80s. He edited the resource management journal Terra Nova and freelanced in research and advocacy in essays, reviews, television documentaries and hearings, including Treaty work. He was president of the Professional Historians’ Association of New Zealand/Aotearoa.His books include Faces of the River 1986; Woven by Water: Histories from the Whanganui River 1998; Our Islands Our Selves: a history of Conservation in New Zealand 2003; Whio: Saving New Zealand’s Blue Duck, 2005; Rivers: New Zealand’s Shared Legacy, 2013. A Creative New Zealand–Fulbright enabled Wai Pasifika – Indigenous Ways in a Changing Climate in 2021. 
Naomi Arnold is an award-winning freelance journalist who has been exploring science and environment stories since she began writing in 2008. She is the author of the critically-acclaimed illustrated New Zealand astronomy history Southern Nights and has published stories in most New Zealand magazines and newspapers, as well as The Guardian, The Washington Post, Pacific Standard, and the BBC. She lives outside Nelson on a few acres of hilly land that she and her husband are trapping and regenerating to encourage birdlife. A keen tramper, she walked the length of New Zealand on Te Araroa in the summer of 2024.