After dedicating 15 years of his professional life to Ōhiwa Harbour Tim Senior has retired. From the Bay of Plenty Regional Council's Ōpōtiki office Tim made sure the Ōhiwa Harbour Strategy actions were implemented. Key to his success was his ability to bring people together. Tim worked tirelessly building relationships both between agencies and iwi/hapū involved in the partnership, as well as between the people on the ground doing the work.
From when he started in 2009, a year after the Ōhiwa Harbour Strategy partnership had been established, he became the glue between the different parties involved. But Tim’s care for the harbour goes back much longer, to the early 1980s when he and other environmentalists recognised the harbour as a special place. They were concerned it wasn't being looked after appropriately as its management was splintered across many different agencies and nobody had overall responsibility. Tim was part of a group trying to develop a coordinated management approach for the Harbour. At the time the initiative did not succeed. However, decades later his role at the regional council meant he became deeply involved in the process in doing exactly that – bringing people together – for the multiagency approach that is now key to the Harbour’s management. Some years ago, he said that that was ‘a marvellous culmination’ of one of the threads of his life's work.
Supporting the care groups around the harbour was one of his key priorities. Meg Collins recalls that ‘Tim was instrumental in setting up the Ōhiwa Reserves Care Group over 20 years ago, the first group on the Ōhiwa Harbour’. She and her group are very grateful for his advice, especially on animal pests and weeds. In 2010 Tim secured the funding for the production of the first ‘Discover the birds of Ōhiwa Harbour’ book which has just been released in its third edition (for more information and how to buy go here).
Nikki Slade-Robinson from the Hurike Care Group said: ‘We have been exceptionally lucky to have Tim over the years supporting our care group work on both Hurike and further afield, on the Dunes Trail. He has navigated the sometimes complex systems and approvals and made them easy and user friendly for those at the grass roots level. He has enabled volunteers to harness their enthusiasm, and helped strengthen communities. He is incredibly humble about the role he has played in this. Such an enabler! For that we are grateful. He also makes the best sausages and fried onions ever’.
Tim’s support, patience and knowledge was also praised by Ruatuna-Pukeruru Care Group member Toria Radley who acknowledged that he was ‘always being enthusiastic and encouraging about what we were achieving’.
No doubt, if one was to ask each of the now nine care groups at the harbour Tim’s passion for the harbour environment and its people would be similarly celebrated. Though care groups can now almost ‘hold hands’ around the harbour, a fact that Tim strived for, his regular presence will be missed.
