Conservation Week 14 - 22 September 2019

History of Conservation Week

Conservation Week was originally launched by the New Zealand Scout Association in 1969. This was done with the goal of promoting interest in the environment and encouraging the public to be able to learn practical ways in which they could participate.

Later the Nature Conservation Council took over the campaigns with educational resources provided  by Post Office Savings Bank, Caltex Oil New Zealand and the Todd Foundation.

In 1987 the Department of Conservation was formed and they then took over the promotion of Conservation Week, working with groups, businesses and councils. Many poster, badges and bookmarks were produced over these years. See here for more information about the history of Conservation Week 

Community Events in Rotorua 

Kiwi aversion training for dogs 

This will be held at the Blue Lake, Saturday 14 September, 9-4, $25

Thanks to Department of Conservation and photographer Erin Patterson

Small efforts worthwhile results

Steve is restoring the native bush reserve behind his property at Millar Road, Lake Okareka, Saturday 14 September, 9-11.30

Let's get planting

Department of Conservation Office, 99 Sala Street, Monday 16, Tuesday 17 and Thursday 19 September, 8-3.30

Thanks to Department of Conservation

Sulphur Point Lakeside Clean-Up

Sudima Hotel, Wednesday 18 September 1 - 3 pm

Thanks to Sudima Hotel

Te Arawa Catfish Killas and Bay of Plenty Regional Council

A talk about the Arawa project to rid the lakes of catfish will be held at the Library, Thursday 19 September, 6.30-7.15 pm

Thanks to Abby Tozer and the Bay of Plenty Regional Council

Nocturnal by nature

Looking and listening for nocturnal creatures at Okere Falls Scenic Reserve Trout Pool Road, Saturday 14 September, 6.30-8.30 pm

Thanks to Department of Conservation and photographer Catherine Noble

Photo Competition

This is open to all living or studying in the Bay of Plenty. There are 3 categories; Scenery, NZ creatures and critters, and People in the outdoors

Thanks to Department of Conservation

Further details and reservation for any of the above events may be found here

Events in the Library

Workshops

Displays in the Library

There will be displays in two areas of Te Akara Mauri, Rotorua Library. On the ground floor will be a display of endangered birds. and on the 2nd floor the display will consist of pests that threaten our native species of both birds and small animals.

This blog was written by Trish. With thanks to Department of Conservation,  Bay of Plenty Regional Council and Sudima Hotel.

Family Photographs for Genealogists

Portraits, Family Gatherings, Christenings...

These are all important items to keep and digitize wherever possible and NAME everyone in the photograph! In 10 years, 20 years whose going to know who they are or remember names? This is one of the most often things we hear at the Heritage & Research Help Desk, "this photo was taken sometime in the 1920,s or 1890,s  Mum/Dad are gone/cannot remember their names".

Family is how we figure out who we are and where we came from, and increasingly this means genealogy research is becoming our only way to find out especially as family members grow older and forget or in some cases choose not to pass on the family stories. With Ancestry.com and other genealogy resources growing bigger and better and privacy laws changing it means we now have access to millions of records from all over the world.

Family photographs are often lost or destroyed through house fires, floods and other natural disasters so now is the time to record these for future generations. There are many technology tools available to save these precious items, here are just a few...

• Use your smartphone as a scanner and save the image to the Cloud or pen drive, read this blog post by Dick Eastman for more ideas. Eastman's Online Genealogy Newsletter
• Scan to email at your local library Rotorua Library Services
• Use a digital camera and download all photographs to an external hard drive or USB, from there you can pay an online Photograph Book service such as SnapFish, Diamond Photo or PhotoBox, there are many to choose from, and this allows you to share with family via a password secured service or printed copy of the book.
• Use genealogy software to record your family tree. Again there are lots to choose from, a great resource to figure out which one is best see Eastman's Blog or Cyndi's List

• DON'T put precious photographs on Facebook or other social media, because when you read their fine print conditions you will find they own the digital image and can do what they or anyone on the WWW want to do with it.

Alan Lord kindly allowed Rotorua Library to add this photograph to
our online archive Kete Rotorua

Any one of the people in the photograph could be You! or your parents, brothers, sisters, cousins. Kete Rotorua and DigitalNZ are safe repositories for photographs like this one as they are secure sites which always give the copyright owners their rightful place.

Rotorua has had many professional photographers and here are a few that allowed their images, mostly weddings, engagements and coming of age photographs, to be published in the Rotorua Photo News 1963-1971.

Arawa Studios - Michael Burton
Bachelor Photographics - Alan Wilkinson
Camera Craft - Unknown
Fenwick Photographers - Peter Fenwick
Rotorua Home Portraits - Wyn Lambert
Michael's Portraits -  Mick Coebergh, Richard Krall & Russell Robinson
Modern Age Photography - Richard Krall
People Publishing Studios - B.J. O'Neill

Charles E. Jones ; Clarke Mahoney ; Louis Edwards ; Jack Lang as well as lots and lots of proud Mum's and Dad's  :)

The Rotorua Photo News can be viewed in the Heritage & Research area of Rotorua Library.