• To volunteer for the first time, or to find out more about the next volunteer day, contact the Volunteer Coordinator.
• To volunteer from overseas, or if you wish to discuss conservation issues relating to the Ark, contact John.
• For general inquiries, including those from the media, or when Phil and John are not available, contact the Project Manager.
Volunteer Coordinator
Arrangements for the position of Volunteer Coordinator are currently under review. Ms Laurence Béchet and Jane Ferguson are kindly providing interim management of volunteer activities, assisted by our former Volunteer Coordinator, Karen Colgan.
For all enquiries regarding volunteering at the Ark, contact Laurence or Jane at the email address below.
email: nature.project@forestandbird.org.nz
Project Manager
Maj de Poorter comes to this project from the Invasive Species Specialist Group of IUCN's Species Survival Commission, based at the University of Auckland. For the last ten years she worked on advocacy, networking, awareness and education on invasive species at an international level. She is by training an ecologist, having done an undergraduate at the Free University of Brussels (Belgium), and a PhD on snowshoe hares in the Canadian Yukon territories. She is particularly pleased to be part of the Ark in the Park project and its community based approach.
email: arkinthepark@forestandbird.org.nz
phone: 64-9-302-3902
postal address: C/- Forest and Bird, PO Box 108055, Symonds St, Auckland 1150
John Sumich (Ark Management Committee Chairman)
Born and bred in West Auckland, John’s first memory of native wildlife was of a pigeon feeding on nikau berries at the Cascades. Fifty years on the nikau is bigger; so is John and his life long passion for wildlife became focused on conceiving and developing Ark in the Park. As a day job he’s a GP with other interests of family, bicycling and macadamia nut growing.
email: cjnk@xtra.co.nz