Come to Lord Howe Island for the beauty and help protect it too

For the past four decades it has also been the habitat of Ian Hutton, a meteorologist turned conservationist who has played a key role in preserving the precious dot two hours from the mainland.

The 72-year-old also leads citizen science programs where enthusiastic visitors - many of them seniors - volunteer their time to help nurture the island and its inhabitants.

"I came here in 1980 for a two-year posting with the weather bureau - we had to move around about 50 different stations but I got Lord Howe. I never thought I'd be here 40 years."

Ian arrived at an important junction in Lord Howe's history.

The impact of humans introducing non-native plant samples to the island was just becoming evident, as outlined in 1974 by an Australian Museum report, which he read before he came.

Mice had been on Lord Howe since 1850. Rats arrived on a shipwreck. Goats were chewing up the vegetation. Plants brought as crops - cherry guava, for example - proliferated. Weeds arrived in hay bales for horses or as garden plants.

"So I was sort of aware of the issues," Ian said. "But I came just at the time of the World Heritage conservation projects.

"I was able to get involved in some of those early, as well as just enjoying going out and discovering all these plants."

Particularly satisfying was his role in the island's highly successful rodent eradication program.

It followed Ian's attendance at the 2001 Island Invasives Conference in Auckland, where he was sponsored by WWF Australia.

As a result of his report, the organisation funded a feasibility study that led the Lord Howe Island Board to carry out the eradication plan.

With the help of a team of international experts, all rats and mice were removed in 2019. The program was acclaimed both at home and around the world.

Ian said his proudest accomplishment is being able to promote the value of the island - "to talk with scientists, people of influence and to be a bit of a catalyst for some of the programs that have been rolled out".

For instance, Ian raised awareness of weed infestation on the island. Today, 20 years later, the nuisance is harder to find.

Island restoration groups and committees also come to Lord Howe to see what's been achieved.

Ian said a "wonderful conservation ethos" runs through the whole island community.

"Everybody who lives on the island is behind it and tourists can come here and walk around and see no weeds.

"They can see no rubbish, they can see our renewable energy, they can see our waste system.

"And it sort of inspires people, I think, to go back and maybe in their area, talk about it or even start up a small working group in their community."

Citizen science projects include tours where people pay to stay for a week and help with the island's weed eradication program.

After a morning spent weeding, Ian then leads visitors on walks in the afternoon.

"It's probably been the most successful eco-tour program in Australia about 25 years," he said.

To date there have been 93 of these weeks, with two planned for this year.

Ian has also worked alongside Australian Museum scientists, including beetle expert Dr Chris Reid.

Last August, the pair ran a citizen science week that included the first beetle survey since rats and mice were removed. They also did counts before the program, again helped by vistors.

Lord Island has 530 beetle species, most of them unique to the island. "We get people down on their hands and knees looking for beetles and it's a great thing and people really appreciate them."

Visitors also get involved by counting sea slugs, supervised by Dr Stephen Smith, from Southern Cross University.

This is the sixth year the census has taken place on the island as part of a nationwide program tracking the movements of the Nudibranch subgroup of sea slugs.

"This is a really big citizen science project in Australia because sea slugs are very sensitive to ocean temperature and as the oceans are warming up, sea slug species are moving south."

Each year visitors photograph sea slugs, Ian says, providing quantitative data to politicians and lobbyists that climate change is having this impact.

Plus people love the colourful gastropods. A Facebook group named Nudibranchs has a huge following and Instagram has more photos of sea slugs than fish, coral or any other marine animals.

"And you don't have to be a scuba diver to see them," said Ian. "You can snorkel or even just walk around the rock pools."

Ian said global impact is having an impact on Lord Howe.

"We had three extremely hot, dry years. The last was the summer of 2018-19.

"I bought my first drone not long before that and I noticed there are a lot of dead trees and brown canopies appearing in our forest."

Six months later it was the same. Rainforest trees possibly 200 or 300 years old had perished, especially on the summit of Mount Gower.

"It is so fragile. And I think this is the message.

"I do a little presentation on climate change in my regular lecture at the museum (which Ian curates) and at Capella Lodge each week.

"We see on TV big-picture things about climate change at glaciers and the Arctic ice sheets melting, maybe the big floods in NSW.

"But even a World Heritage property that is valued because of its biodiversity and has got government protection and funding it is being impacted."

However, Ian remains hopeful.

"I think there are changes happening in Australia and around the world and it just needs to keep spreading and perhaps we have to keep being optimistic.

"We can't have all bad news stories in the news or people just turn off.

"I read here and there that a lot of young people, because of all these catastrophes, just say, look, let's just give up. We're not going to try and buy a house, we're not going to try and do anything about climate change, it's all too bad and too late to get it.

"But I think we need to sort of promote how wonderful planet Earth is and that we have to be optimistic that we can inspire everybody to make the changes."

Ian has also made some discoveries of his own.

While assisting the late Peter Green, former curator of Kew Gardens in London, with his writing about the island's flora, Ian found seven new plant species.

"Going around getting specimens and observations on where things grow, what the flowers smell like, all these type of things, I got to know the flora very well."

When he found something that was different and wasn't named in any report, he would send it to Mr Green, who would formally describe it.

"On one occasion I was on my own on a spot called the Razorback, which is pretty wild, and I saw this plant and I said, that's nothing that's been seen before."

Today it's known as Coprosma huttoniana. Geniostoma huttonii is also named after home.

Ian says his work keeps him fit. "I'm out a lot of the time walking. Once, sometimes twice a year, I go up for a four-day research trip on the top of Mount Gower and camp up there."

He says it's a magical spot, six degrees cooler than ground level.

"I've camped up there in August and the temperature during the day could have been around 8 to 10 degrees.

"I remember one time being up there and walked out and the cloud was below the summit of the mountain, so everywhere was just this blanket of white below us as far as you could see.

"But we're sitting on this rainforest plateau and just surrounded by a white cloud. That was one that stands out."

Originally from North Curl Curl on Sydney's northern beaches, Ian studied at Macquarie University. He said his interest in nature probably began as a boy scout from the age of about 10 to 20.

His lifetime achievements were recognised last year when Southern Cross University awarded him an honorary doctorate in natural and physical sciences.

"A big thing for me was my two children both live at Coffs Harbor, so they were able to come along and even their children."