Frequently Asked Questions

At Instream Consulting, we work with our clients to protect fish. We do more than that too, though! We're freshwater ecologists, which means we work in rivers, lakes, and wetlands, and we study living things and what affects them. Our clients range from the public sector, such as councils and the Department of Conservation, through to a range of industries such as irrigation, land development, and mining, and professional services companies. We pride ourselves on being technical experts that provide practical advice. We are upfront and honest, working with our clients to identify any issues early, rather than later in the piece, and we work with them to get the best environmental outcome.

If you're planning a development anywhere near a stream, a drain, a piece of wetland, a lake, the ocean, native vegetation – pretty much anything other than a grazed paddock suburban street – you’re likely going to need to engage an ecologist. That ecologist can tell you whether the natural features present are something that you need to work with and protect, and how to do that. It's important to get advice from an ecologist early because that helps avoid costly redesigns later in the process, and the associated time delays.

Yes, but you usually need to do a site visit too. It's good to think of this from a risk perspective, both in terms of ecological values from low to high value, and the likely impacts of your development from a low potential impact to a high impact. If you're dealing with a simple system, say a “Los Angeles-style” concrete drain and you simply want to install a culvert, it's likely that you will only need to do a desktop assessment. However, if you're looking at a more complex environment, such as a stream or wetland, where there's a range of habitats and it's clearly more natural, you're much more likely to need some field work and some sort of ecological sampling. We generally do a site visit unless we have personally done some sampling in that area within the last couple of years. In such a situation, we’d be confident we've got enough information to understand the ecological values at that site, so we can advise how to protect them.

How do I find a good ecology consultant? It all comes down to being an informed buyer. There's three ways you can do this. The first is by getting referrals from your peers. Referrals are a great way to get good information quickly. A second way, if you're going through a regulatory process, is to ask those regulators for referrals. Their help desk may be hesitant to provide recommendations, as they may have a policy of not recommending one consultant over another. If that happens, you could ask to speak to one of their in-house ecologists because they'll often be a bit more forthcoming. Thirdly, ask the consultants any tricky questions before you've engaged them. Questions such as, “How do you deal with changes in scope or if things crop up that we haven't discussed now?” A good consultant will identify issues early, so their advice can inform the design process, rather than just giving you the answer you want hear, which might lead to delays in the design process later on when things crop up.

Should I involve a small specialist ecology consultancy or a large multi-service company? There are advantages and disadvantages to both, and it depends on your requirements. Advantages of large multi-service companies include that they're “one-stop shops” and they may have multiple locations that can service your needs. Advantages of smaller companies include that they are often technical specialists, they can be quick to respond, and they have lower overheads. So, where should you go, big or small? Ultimately, the choice comes down to the project. If it's likely to be quite technical and there's a lot of natural waterways involved, you’re best to engage technical specialists, and small companies should be able to help you there.

No, ecologists don’t need professional accreditation in New Zealand. Ecologists can get professional accreditation, but it's not a requirement for them to work. In general, greater emphasis is put on their level of university training and how many years of experience they have. The pathway for professional accreditation for ecologists in New Zealand is via the Environmental Institute of Australia and New Zealand. It involves some minimum requirements such as level of training and experience. It's not a minimum requirement for ecologists in New Zealand to be accredited, and it's something that's still relatively new, but it's a growing area of interest. There are potential benefits to accreditation, particularly on projects where a lot of compliance is required. That’s because it provides assurance to regulators that certain minimum criteria have been met. So, it's something we may see more of in future years in New Zealand.

One of the main problems with consultants is that they can be expensive, and they may not answer the question that you've asked. For example, we recently reviewed a technical report by an esteemed scientist that was over 100 pages long and didn't answer the question that the client asked, but it did have a whole raft of recommendations for further work! The reason this is a problem is that you're simply not getting what you've paid for. At Instream, we avoid that problem by making sure that the client’s question is clearly stated up front in our report, that it's answered in the report, and that we have an executive summary with the question and the answer up front. We review every piece of advice that goes out to ensure this is the case.

The cost for engaging an ecologist in New Zealand largely depends on project complexity. For a simple project, such as sampling a small stream, it might cost in the order of $2,000. With increasing complexity, it becomes more expensive. So, if it involves sampling multiple sites, it might be in the order of $5,000 to $10,000. If you need to sample multiple sites in remote locations, the costs might be more in the range of $10,000 to $30,000. If the ecologist needs to appear as an expert witness, in say a council hearing, it's often in the order of $10,000 to $20,000. 

Why do some ecologists charge $100 an hour while others charge $300 or more an hour? It comes down to their level of training and experience. A recent graduate with a bachelor's degree and no experience will be closer to $100 an hour, whereas someone with a PhD and say 25 years’ experience is likely to cost closer to $300 an hour. For many projects, you'll be engaging an ecology company that uses staff with a range of charge rates. For example, graduates might help with fieldwork and data entry, because it doesn't require too much training and experience. Whereas, when it comes to providing expert evidence or evaluating the results of that fieldwork, you're likely to have people with more experience, so they'll be more costly. While they will have a higher hourly rate, the more experienced staff will be familiar with the work, so it will probably take them a lot less time than a recent graduate.