Peter Taylor | Team Leader: Catchment Management 2015 – 2022 | The Catalyst Group

In January 2022 we lost ‘our Pete’ – long-serving TCG colleague, mentor, and mate.

Pete started out as a young buck in the Wildlife Service protecting our threatened species; then went on to fight for the protection of natural habitat and fisheries with Fish & Game; and spent the latter part of his career driving for environmental limit-based, sustainable land use.

None of these roles were without their challenges and tensions but Pete never wavered. Solid in his principles, objective in his analysis, good humoured and compassionate in his approach; Pete had a deep intellectual understanding of natural resource management and an equally solid grasp of the on-the-ground challenges. Pete was both ‘old school’ in his depth and breadth of knowledge and respect for first principles, and a ‘change leader’ in his recognition that current land-management models and approaches weren’t going to adequately address contemporary challenges.

Pete made a sustained and substantial contribution to natural capital-focused approaches to nutrient management in the farm environment. His legacy work is not well known, simply because Pete just got on with the job, delivering without fanfare or a desire for personal acknowledgement. He detested working with bureaucracies or appearing before the decision makers. But he was bloody good at working in those spaces, and with some very difficult people, to deliver results that most of us only dream about.

Pete didn’t suffer fools and had no time for bullshit, but was relentlessly generous in sharing his time, knowledge and thoughts. He was the absolute best of mentors, and there is no doubt that his legacy will live on in the next generation of land management experts he taught and nurtured.

As much as Pete was a true expert professionally, he was an absolute demon as an adventurer and outdoors man. From Fiordland to the East Cape, Pete hunted, fished, rafted, walked, and played in almost every wild place Aotearoa has to offer. Much of this he did with his friends and fellow adventurers, but always bringing stories back to share with his amazing wife Mouse, and sons Sam, Ben, and Jack. Everyone benefited when Pete’s taste in beer got a little more bougie in his later years, and the move to canned craft beer was a major breakthrough for his back-country trip planning. Once again, Pete was shown to be an early adapter of good ideas!

We miss Pete and his insights, knowledge, expertise, and unwavering support; and we also miss him as the fantastic friend and part of our TCG whānau that he was. Pete’s influence on us as a team and as individuals has been immense and will stay with us forever. That won’t stop us regularly blaming him for everything missing and broken around the office, or for anything that hasn’t quite worked out as we planned – and we know he wouldn’t have it any other way.

Rest well old friend.

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