54 LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE AOTEAROA
Blake and Hillary Carlile , scientists with the soil and water division of the Ministry of Works .
Their case study was carried out using what they referred to as a ‘ U . S . System of assessing aesthetic properties of a landscape …’.
Their field study was twelve river sites in northern Northland and were published as : ‘ Can We Quantify Our Landscape ?’ in , Soil & Water , December 1973 . They applied the United States ecologist , Aldo Starker Leopold ’ s ( 1913-1983 ), landscape classification which adopted ‘ uniqueness ’ parameters of ‘ physical , biological and human interests ’ that were then considered ‘ objective ’ and importantly ‘ eliminating personal bias ’.
Blake and Carlie said Leopold devised the VLA technique that culminated in the environmental impact statement written before a development project began .
From national parks , rural and coastal waterways and contested urban roads , environmental reports were commissioned that lie forgotten in library basements and archives that reveal modern insights of seeing New Zealand beyond the picturesque .
3 . Master Plans - Advocating the employment of landscape architects .
During 1964 Myron D . Sutton from the Dept . of Interior , National Parks , Washington DC . visited New Zealand leading a group of American tourists ‘ sponsored by PAN AMM ( sic )’.
Myron visited the Tongariro National Park and met VP McGlone who was the newly appointed chairman of the Tongariro National Park Board . Sutton discussed with McGlone that 1972 was to be celebrated as the centennial of Yellowstone National Park and that was the same year New Zealand ’ s Tongariro National Park reached 50 years .
Their discussions dwelt on the idea of preparing a master plan for Tongariro National Park tentatively to be named ‘ Plan 72 ’ to be written over the years from 1964 to 1972 .
An Appendix to the Journals of the House of Representatives of NZ reported about National Parks in 1969 and 1970 [ C-1 , P13 and P21 ] explaining that Sam P . Weems came from the National Parks Service Division of International Affairs based in Washington DC on a six week ‘ study tour ’ with a NZ government brief to report on all of our National Parks .
The 1969 report said that “… the Tongariro National Park Master Plan had been a valuable guide [ Page 13 ]” meaning that there was a planning document already in circulation before Weems visit and that would have been that initiated by Sutton and McGlone .
Then in 1970 an AJHRNZ park report said that plans were underway for both Mount Cook and Urewera National Parks that incuded planners and landscape architects – including Helmut Einhorn ( Mt Cook ) and Harry Turbott ( Urewera ). One of the planners associated during this decade was WA Robertson who wrote that :
“… The first major step in overall planning in New Zealand parks occurred when the Tongariro National Park Board produced its master plan in 1964 . This plan was an impressive document and served to highlight the need for planning in National Parks . Its production … provoked considerable thought about the need for planning and co-ordination of park activities and the consequences that could result without it .”
Conclusions From national parks , rural and coastal waterways and contested urban roads etc . environmental reports were commissioned that lie forgotten in library basements and archives that reveal modern insights of seeing New Zealand beyond the picturesque . They provide a primary resource that could be applied to conserve these potential modern heritage landscapes . The public record that retains the names of the historic designers , community groups and politicians who supported the landscape projects deserves serious recognition . �