Haydon Jones

I was born in Cambridge and grew-up on the family farm at Kaipaki situated just to the south of Hamilton City, on soils formed in the volcanogenic alluvium of the Hinuera Formation in the Waipa District.

An interest in physical geography at high school led me to study Earth Sciences at Waikato University. It was there that I discovered a passion for Soil Science and was inspired to pursue a career in the field. I completed an MSc thesis on soil-landscape modelling and soil classification in a planted forest in Southland and followed up with a PhD on the impacts of forest harvesting on the performance of soil-landscape modelling techniques in a planted forest north of Auckland.

After completing my PhD, I began employment as a Soil Scientist at Forest Research (now Scion), Rotorua, in early 2005. While at Scion I worked on aspects of soil carbon stock assessment, forest management impacts, soil erosion, and land use capability assessments. In 2012 I returned home to the Waikato (and back to the family farm) to take up a position as a Soil and Land Scientist at Waikato Regional Council (WRC). In 2019, I took on my current role of Team Leader – Soil and Land Science at WRC.

I’m currently the Convenor of the Land Monitoring Forum (LMF), a Regional Sector Special Interest Group, and I also lead the Land Project within the Environmental Monitoring and Reporting (EMaR) initiative. EMaR began as a joint LGNZ Regional Sector-Ministry for the Environment initiative that aims to provide integrated regional/national environmental data collection networks and widely accessible reporting platforms.