Amateur field observations of species can be priceless. A local Dunedin man (Peter Thomson, 1823-1879), using the pen-name ‘Pakeha’, wrote several accounts …
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Green Island Bush is a prime example of a large patch of New Zealand indigenous forest that was essentially annihilated in the …
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Biogeography & Vegetation
The Lost Ecosystem of the Leith Swamp Forest, Dunedin
by Mike Poleby Mike PoleOne part of Dunedin is different from the rest…. The Dunedin area is an old volcano. It’s formed mostly from the molten, …
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Autobiography & Travel
Ten Years Trapped in Mongolia – Time to get Mo Munshi home to Australia
by Mike Poleby Mike PoleIn 2007, I started work in Mongolia as a geologist with the company, Gobi Coal and Energy Limited. The Chairman was Mohammed …
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Biogeography & Vegetation
The Ancient Footpath from Otepoti-Dunedin to Moeraki
by Mike Poleby Mike PoleHow old is the oldest cultural feature on Aotearoa-New Zealand? Imagine being around when the only way to get anywhere was to …
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Today is the three-year anniversary of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. On that day, pandemonium struck. People fled with a …
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Autobiography & Travel
Ukraine: War and Wonders – The Dnipro – Ukraine’s ‘National River’
by Mike Poleby Mike PoleRivers, big rivers. They can be political borders – think of the Rhine – when it marked the ‘civilised’ Roman Empire to …
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When a forest is dead, but somehow still there – either as bleached stumps, and felled, and possibly burnt trunks, I call …
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We owe so much of what we know of early Dunedin to just a few artists! Up till 1850, there’s only a …
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Biogeography & Vegetation
Deans Bush–Pūtaringamotu and the Mystery of the Missing Tree Ferns
by Mike Poleby Mike PoleTree ferns are indicators of a consistently pretty wet climate. In New Zealand-Aotearoa, if you look closely (and not too closely if …