Cam Speedy earns the Peter Nelson Award
Category: National. Posted: 6 March 2026
Dedicated to getting the balance right:
Cam Speedy earns the Peter Nelson Award
Cam Speedy’s dedication to getting the balance right, and sharing his knowledge in an engaging and memorable way, has rewarded Cam Speedy with the 2025 Peter Nelson Award for achievement in Vertebrate Pest Management. Here is the citation prepared by his colleagues:
Cam Speedy has been passionate about ecology and wildlife both native and introduced all his life.
During one of his first jobs carrying out kiwi surveys throughout the Bay of Plenty he camped in his car adjacent to various stream mouths so he could fish the mornings and evenings targeting trout on his fly rod before heading out into the bush for the night.
Likewise, his early career with the New Zealand Forest Service in the Kaimanawa Forest Park kindled his interest in forest ecology and sika deer management.
The demise of the Forest Service saw Cam transition directly into the newly formed Department of Conservation where he provided technical support around pest animal management for the Tongariro/Taupo Conservancy.
As a DOC staff member Cam was a champion for recreational hunters and he walked a fine line because his personal views on deer management were a little too radical for his employer. Around three decades down the track, Cam’s theories on leaving the stags and harvesting the
hinds being better for the deer herd and the forest are now being voiced by more and more hunters and forest managers alike.
After leaving DOC, Cam joined EPRO, one of New Zealand’s largest professional pest control companies. In his new role, Cam helped plan and deliver more hectares of pest animal control in any one year than most DOC pest control staff achieve in their whole career.
Cam’s next career change saw him working for Genesis Energy, setting up a private consultancy company, Wildlife Management Associates, while playing a pivotal role in establishing the Sika Foundation, combining his passion for the mountain ranges, the rivers flowing out of them, and the wildlife living within them.
Cam lives and breathes rivers, forests, trout, deer, native wildlife and introduced predators - presumably he finds time for his much-loved family and friends in there as well.
Anyone who has witnessed one of Cam’s presentations on deer management or predator control, quickly realises his greatest gift is his ability as an orator. He can share knowledge in an exciting way that is engaging, understandable and memorable.
Cam is quick to point-out that his kōrero is an accumulation of learnings from many people, and he uses the word “we” to acknowledge, in one of his catch phrases, that “There’s no IP in Predator Free”
With an entire career dedicated to getting the balance right with introduced animal management to achieve healthy habitat, Cam is a worthy recipient of the Peter Nelson Award.
The Peter Nelson Memorial Trophy is awarded annually by the NZ Biosecurity Institute to individuals or organisations, for achievement in Vertebrate Pest Management within New Zealand.
The trophy is a carved kokako standing on a limb above the skulls of small predatory mammals - a rat, a possum and a stoat.
Pictured: Cam Speedy (R) with the Peter Nelson Memorial Award with Warren Wright from Key Industries