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Braided Rivers Conference 2026 Speakers
Nick Ledgard (Ashley Rakahuri Rivercare Group and BRaid) is a retired forestry researcher (Scion/NZFRI) returning to ornithological roots put out as a youngster. He is a long-time OSNZ member. Currently, he spends most of his time trying to improve the lot of native birds on braided rivers (particularly on the Ashley-Rakahuri River) and pursuing his interests in farm forestry and wilding trees. He is a member of the Ashley Rakahuri Rivercare Group and Chair of BRaid.

Amy-Grace McIlraith (Environment Canterbury) works in the Braided River Revival team and has a focus on fauna and in-braid habitat, including large-scale fairway clearance and bird island enhancement work. She delivers complex, large-scale projects with a holistic approach and commitment to improvement and collaboration. Having studied soil science and resource management, she has worked in multiple roles in councils throughout her career she is a true ‘jack of all trades’, her background and experience spans compliance and flood protection, project management and geospatial analysis.

Shaun McCracken (Environment Canterbury) is a Chartered Engineer leading a team of river engineers and planners at Environment Canterbury. This role involves the delivery of flood protection to Canterbury communities through the design and management of stopbanks, vegetation, riverbed topography, and related works. Shaun is part of the national River Managers Special Interest Group which is a collection of Regional Council senior staff working in NZ rivers and is a committee member of the New Zealand Society on Large Dams.

Dr. Philip Grove: (Environment Canterbury) has worked at Environment Canterbury Regional Council since 2001 as a terrestrial and wetland ecologist in the Science Group. Amongst other things, this job has involved survey and monitoring of the region’s wetland and braided river floodplain habitats, and their birdlife.

Andrew Crossland (Christchurch City Council) is a park ranger and ornithologist. He has been researching and monitoring riverbed and wetland birds since the mid 1980s, and since 1995 has been periodically escaping to SE Asia and studying shorebirds there.

Niall Mugan (Keystone Ecology) i.

Dean Nelson (Department of Conservation) is currently Senior Ranger Biodiversity with a focus on the Kakī Recovery Programme and threatened freshwater fish and plants in the Twizel District. He was also previously the Senior Ranger for Project River Recovery for eight years. Dean oversaw the implementation of the large-scale Tasman River Predator Control Project in 2004 and has helped manage kakī numbers in the wild to increase slowly but steadily. His other passion is the management of threatened non-migratory galaxiids using trout exclusion barriers in small spring fed streams.

Jennifer Schori (Department of Conservation) is currently a Senior Biodiversity Ranger with Project River Recovery. She has spent the past 9 years studying and working in braided river ecosystems, primarily in the Upper Waitaki Basin. Her work focuses on monitoring of populations of threatened river birds, lizards, and invertebrates to understand trends and measure the benefits from conservation actions.

Dr. Anne Schlesselmann (Bioeconomy Science Institute – Maiangi Taiao) is an ecologist with interests in population ecology and conservation (including movement, demography and population dynamics of migratory birds), wildlife ecology and management (specifically developing, testing, and optimising management outcomes for threatened species) and conservation of braided river ecosystems.

Greg Stanley (Environment Canterbury) is the Team Leader of Braided River Revival and brings over a decade of experience as a Regional Park Ranger and Biodiversity Officer. Greg is a highly regarded restoration ecologist and is very focussed on making change on-the-ground. Greg is passionate about Canterbury’s ecology, the betterment of our immediate environment, and safeguarding wild habitats for future generations.

Ailsa Howard (Forest & Bird / Hutton’s Shearwater Charitable Trust) has a lifelong passion for NZ’s biodiversity. Her interest began with a love of botany and wild places as a young child. She is the chairperson of the Kaikoura branch of Forest and Bird, a Hutton’s Shearwater Trustee and her current focus is using scientific rigour to increase our knowledge of banded dotterel while advocating for its protection. She has studied the species for ten years, most intensively at South Bay, Kaikoura.

Dr. Colin O’Donnell (Department of Conservation) a Principal Science Advisor for DOC based in Ōtautahi. He’s been working on braided river wildlife since the late 1970s, particularly on fauna surveys and habitat use studies of river birds. He maintains a number of long-term monitoring databases for braided river bird populations. Colin’s research focuses on threatened species and threatened ecosystems, especially the ecology of rainforest bats and birds, developing predator control techniques for forests, wetlands, braided rivers, and alpine ecosystems, and developing monitoring methods for lizards and invertebrates.

Dr. Sarah Edwards (Bioeconomy Science Institute: BSI) is an environmental social scientist in the interdisciplinary field of environmental management. Her research has focused on a range of complex environmental management issues, including the risk management of GMO research, food resilience, social licence to farm, and biosecurity technologies. In recent years, Sarah has been exploring the complexities of cat management in Aotearoa New Zealand, ensuring that social science research is integrated with ecological research to influence regional conservation issues and broader national-level conversations surrounding cat management.

Dr. Sze-Wing Yiu  (Bioeconomy Science Institute: BSI) is a wildlife ecologist whose research focuses on applied science for invasive species management. Her work spans a broad range of topics, from improving monitoring methods to manipulating animal behaviour to enhance management outcomes. In recent years, her research has focused on developing non-lethal deterrents for cats, as well as understanding feral cat population density and detectability. She also has a growing interest in the human dimensions of wildlife management, recognising that many conservation challenges are fundamentally complex social (“wicked”) problems.  

Grant Morriss (Bioeconomy Science Institute: BSI) is a senior research technician based at Lincoln. Grant started working for the Forest Research Institute in the early 1990s then it soon changed to Manaaki Whenua – Landcare Research and more recently has been absorbed into the BSI. His research has focussed on vertebrate pest control. Grant has been carrying out National Animal Welfare Committee (NAWAC) testing of vertebrate pest traps for the last 20 years.

Dr. Vikkie Smith (Wildlands Consultants) is a Senior Invertebrate Ecologist at Wildlands and is committed to providing expert advice on terrestrial invertebrate ecology. Vikki’s role involves surveying and reporting as well as advising on invertebrate-related ecological issues. Vikki works with a large team of ecologists throughout Aotearoa New Zealand, integrating their skill sets to cover all areas of ecology. Vikki frequently works in the MacKenzie Country and other parts of Canterbury on braided river beds, surveying and providing advice for safeguarding values, such as Threatened and At Risk grasshoppers and other invertebrates.

Ted Howard   TBA

Grant Davey (Ashley Rakahuri Rivercare Group) has been a mineral exploration geologist in six countries and was a hydrogeologist at Environment Canterbury for four years. He has a PGDip in Environmental Science. For more than eight years he’s been an active member of the Ashley Rakahuri Rivercare Group and committee member of BRaid.

Emily Wium (Ashley Rakahuri Rivercare Group) Following a degree in geography and environmental science and Master’s in disaster risk and resilience, Emily’s interests moved to conservation where she aspired to work with Aotearoa’s endangered species. She subsequently worked as a ranger for the Christchurch City Council, primarily in pest plant control and restoration. Her current role as a ranger with the Ashley Rakahuri Rivercare Group is monitoring and reporting on the Tarapirohe/Black-fronted tern breeding season and running their predator control programme.