David Young

David Young is an author and journalist whose working life agenda was set as a student newspaper editor in 1970, the year that the Save Manapouri campaign became, and stayed, national news. His interest in environmentalism, combined with his urge to be a story-teller, has been refined over the years into helping to define New Zealand and its people in relation to the land.

His twenty years as a journalist includes twelve years with the New Zealand Listener and as editor of the resource management magazine, Terra Nova. Since 1992 he has researched and written largely in the field of history and the environment, people and landscape. This includes work for the Department of Conservation, Ministry for the Environment, museums, local and regional government, for iwi in Treaty of Waitangi claims as well as for a number of television documentaries.

His books include Faces of the River, a unique New Zealand historical geography, and Woven By Water: Histories from the Whanganui River, a study of relations between Maori and Pakeha on the historic river. Our Islands, Our Selves: A History of Conservation in New Zealand was published by Otago University Press in 2004.