Farewell to a much-loved conservation science leader

Imagine the vastness of Australia and the complex web of diversity within its landscapes. Now, imagine being responsible for designing conservation programs that build resilience into our extraordinary ecosystems – and then leading a team of scientists and experts across the country to bring those plans to life.

Since 2017, that’s what Dr Rebecca Spindler has done in her role as Bush Heritage Australia’s much-loved Executive Manager of Science and Conservation every working day for the past eight years. Known as the brain and the heart behind our knowledge strategy and conservation science approach, we’ve been so lucky to learn from and be inspired by ‘Dr Bec’. But the time has come for us to wish her all the best as she prepares to leave the organisation for new adventures.

Her years leading our conservation work have coincided with intensifying climate change impacts across our reserve network and on partners’ lands. Increasingly severe heatwaves, droughts, storms and floods are making conservation science and landscape management ever more difficult – and urgent. But Bec’s rigorous knowledge, passion for collaboration, visionary creativity and determined optimism have allowed her to develop impactful solutions to these enormous challenges.

She’s given her all and helped set our organisation up for success as we work to deepen and double our impact by 2030. Back in 2017 when Bec joined Bush Heritage, we were contributing to the protection and management of 6.2 million hectares of land through our reserve network, and in partnership with Traditional Custodians and other landholders.

Bec’s passion for Australia’s landscapes exists alongside a truly global vision. Her influence and experience reach far and wide, and she has many stories to tell. From working on Giant Panda conservation programs in China, Jaguars in Brazil and leading conservation science teams at Toronto Zoo in Canada and Taronga Conservation Society in New South Wales, to almost a decade of senior leadership at Bush Heritage. Bec has been a globally respected conservation leader for decades, and she truly embodies big-picture thinking.

At every stage of her career, she has demonstrated a sound understanding of how the micro and macro are interlinked, delivering holistic outcomes for nature and everything that depends on it. She's just as brilliant rolling her sleeves up in the field as she is devising visionary conservation strategies and presenting them in boardrooms or in front of her favourite audience – Bush Heritage supporters.

Bec has always recognised the giants whose shoulders she stood on, and the great work that preceded her in programs like the development of our Priority Landscapes. During COVID she and the team took a deep dive into the CSIRO’s extraordinarily detailed climate data and modelling, starting to develop plans for the worst-case scenarios, overlaying that data across our network of reserves and emerging with landscape-level solutions for Bush Heritage. This work is now feeding into a large-scale project, funded by the NESP Resilient Landscapes HUB and a private family foundation to make sure these solutions are culturally appropriate and will avoid perverse outcomes in the future. This body of work ensures our conservation actions are suitable for generations to come, focus on the areas we care about most, and that we put our supporters’ generous dollars to the best use possible.

When asked to reflect on the work she is most proud of, Bec cites a related project grounded in one of her passions: learning from and collaborating with First Nations peoples on their Country.

“I’m incredibly proud of a project in collaboration with The University of Melbourne and funded by The Ian Potter Foundation that has developed a digital tool for integrating and storing Traditional and Western Knowledge. The Integrated Knowledge System brings knowledge from multiple systems together and allows sharing in a way that is solely under the control of the knowledge holder. This shifts the power back into Traditional Custodians’ hands, letting them share their knowledge on their terms, ensuring it’s respected and appropriately elevated.”

This project has now led to the development of an Aboriginal-owned and managed corporation ‘Conservation Futures’, who will take the Integrated Knowledge System forward.

“But really the best thing I can take credit for at Bush Heritage is building and supporting a fantastic team. They work hard every day, across Conservation Planning, Systems and Data, and Science to support everyone across the organisation. I am so grateful to every one of them for their expertise, diligence and humour,” she says.

Despite the scale of the challenge to protect vast landscapes and biodiversity in the face of climate change, Bec leaves Bush Heritage full of optimism.

“I am addicted to the impact that Bush Heritage can have,” she says. “It is genuine, deep and generational. The outcomes that arise from our on-ground work will be felt for decades into the future.

“None of it can be achieved without our people. I am full of respect for Bush Heritage people and am constantly amazed at their generosity of spirit, knowledge, hard work, and dedication – including those we partner with and our amazing supporters.”

Bec admires Bush Heritage’s commitment to bringing together a mosaic of approaches, knowledge systems and perspectives to take a solution-oriented approach to building healthier landscapes and ecosystems.

“With this focus on connection and collaboration we are ensuring that animals and plants can adapt to a changing world and be as resilient as possible into the future.”

Footnote:

From everyone associated with Bush Heritage, an enormous thank you, Dr Bec. We are proud to be building on your extraordinary legacy – still guided by your vision for what we can achieve for the biodiversity we love and work to protect. We know this isn’t goodbye and look forward to staying connected ... perhaps welcoming you back to a Bush Heritage reserve soon, maybe as a volunteer at Edgbaston or Tarcutta Hills – the only two you’re yet to visit!