By Daniel Henderson  February 4, 2012

If the frustration of dealing with inane bureaucracy wasn’t outweighed by the pleasure his nature reserve gives visiting groups of school children, Russell Langdon would have given it away, long ago.

When a royal spoonbill bird landed at Mr Langdon’s Lagmhor Riverbridge Nature Reserve in November, he came up with the idea to ask DOC (Department of Conservation) for a breeding pair from the wild to start up a colony of the birds, at the predator-free wetland bird sanctuary.
The bird has a spoon shaped bill and swishes it back and forth in the water to filter its food.
“So many people have never even seen them, it’s just a matter of having the habitat for them,” he said.
But as the bureaucratic process slows down Mr Langdon is becoming increasingly frustrated with DOC which he feels hasn’t got any better despite politicians’ assertions it would improve.
“The honourable Jo Goodhew said she would cut all this red tape with DOC. All she’s been cutting are her toenails.
“She’s so far out of her depth, but most members of Parliament are. These bureaucrats carve them up.”
The member for Rangitata does sympathise with Mr Langdon’s plight but says she has done her best for him.
“I have met with DOC and the environmental minister and passed on Mr Langdon’s concerns, but I am not in a position to tell them to change their processes. But I do understand his situation. He did receive a pair of blue ducks from DOC in July 2010, and I know the female died soon after arriving, which must have been very frustrating for him.”
And instead of getting his current wish for royal spoonbills, Mr Langdon instead received copies of forms entitled the Standard Operation Procedure of Captive Management and Captive Management Document.
“I sent a request away over two months ago, and get this, they hand deliver me two 40-page documents to fill out, they could have posted them – it’s unbelievable.”
And while Mr Langdon grapples with paperwork another year is lost getting some royal spoonbills established.
“It’s too late now for this year as the birds will be fully fledged. The site is already suitable for a colony, we’ve had one spoonbill there for three months, we just needed a couple of juveniles to go with him.”
Langdon has a QE2 covenant on the land which helps land owners protect their land for purposes like his, and he says the 50 hectare space with thousands of flax bushes is, “pretty special”.
The honourable Jo Goodhew agrees with this assessment.
“I encourage anyone who can, to visit Mr Langdon’s property and see what he’s done. It’s an amazing place and when they meet him they’ll understand why he gets frustrated, because he’s so passionate about it.”  
Mr Langdon says he will “wade through” the hand delivered documents from DOC and hopefully have some spoonbills for next year.
“I’ve got far better things to do with my time than deal with bureaucracy but we get a lot of school groups visiting and they enjoy it. But these DOC guys, they all need a check-up from the neck up.”