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About Us
Ecoland Ltd aims to meld the practicalities and common sense gained
from a lifetime of living and working on the land with the principals and
theories of sustainable land management to assist others convert to
sustainable land use practises

Shane and Jitka Hyde

"My wife and I have a small slowly growing
company called Eco-land Ltd.

We are "hands on" experts in sustainable land management, sustainable land use design, indigenous/ exotic revegetation and harvest, pest management.

Sustainable Land Management includes most of the principles that make up the Permaculture philosophy.

We are currently based on our property at Kaeo which we are slowly developing into a sustainable farming unit and on which we plan to build an eco friendly house, as our finance allows.

I grew up on New Zealand farms. The expertise I have gained in agriculture and forestry has been varied and broadly based covering both practical and theoretical training in livestock farming, horticulture and forestry.

I turned from conventional commercial farming to sustainable farming as I searched for answers to solve some of the problems facing the modern world. My most recent qualification is Auckland Unitec's 1999 Sustainable Land Management diploma.

After graduating I worked for 2 years at Dragon Hill Farm (Allen & Michelle Jones) at Russell,planning and directing the conversion of their 64 ha coastal property from conventional to sustainable land use . This involved in depth facilitation, landuse designing then the implementation of the design.

One element of the property plan was the development and establishment of a storm water/ sediment retention plan. This was combined with the native natural enhancement plan and resulted in the planting of 67,000 native trees whilst working within the property's organic status, hence no chemicals.

Horticulture, forestry, timber and earthworks are other areas that I have had substantial training and work experience in.

Jitka is a qualified mechanical engineer/quantity surveyor. Following her dream she came to N.Z to experience farm life, found me and is now a resident. The Czech people are strong supporters of self-sufficiency, similar to that of New Zealanders of 30 years ago. Jitka is happiest when working with animals, plants and in the open air. She is skilled in many other areas including book keeping and computers."

Interests:

• Learning and sharing knowledge
• Sustainable design theories and practices (permaculture)
• Building biology and ecology principles
• Creative crafts and sculptures
• Experiencing the great outdoors
• "Hands on" creating an interesting happy lasting environment

Qualifications:

• Sustainable Land Management Dip. 1999
• N.Z Horticultural cadetship & practice cert.
• School cert.- passes in Horticulture, Economic studies, Geography, English, and Mathematics
• First aid cert. (1994)

Licenses:

• Drivers A/B ( no driving offenses)
• Poisons license
• Firearms

Work Experiences

• Self employment 
• Eco-land Ltd, specialising in:Sustainable land management advice, design, implementation and maintenance

Forestry, including aspects of:

• management
• tree maintenance
• pest control
• weed control

Attended the following conferences:

• Productivity seminar for Kiwifruit Growers (1998)
• New Zealand farm forestry (1993)
• Forest Industrials ( Rotorua 1994)

Attended the following course:

• Tissue culture ( night courses ) Northland Polytech ( 1997)
• Earth Building, Aug 97 Northland Craft Quarry 2 day course
• Earth Building , Jan 98 "summer course"