Di Lucas

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Diane Jean Lucas ONZM (born 1950), known as Di Lucas, is a New Zealand landscape architect and environmental planner. She is known for her conservation work around Christchurch, Banks Peninsula, the Canterbury Plains and the South Island High Country. She campaigns for protecting natural and Indigenous ecosystems and for sustainable rural land management.

Lucas grew up on Bendigo Station in the Otago high country and learned about conservation from her parents and the land. She earned a Bachelor of Science in botany from the University of Otago in 1971 and a postgraduate diploma in landscape architecture from Lincoln College.

She briefly worked for the Ministry of Works and Development but resigned during the Muldoon era because she disagreed with policies that harmed biodiversity and natural landscapes. She started her own practice in Geraldine, advising rural landowners, and is the director of Lucas Associates Limited, based in Christchurch.

Her work spans urban design, native plantings, waterway restoration, and planning under the Resource Management Act, as well as forestry and high country management. She has held many roles with groups such as the Natural Heritage Fund, the Department of Conservation, the New Zealand Conservation Authority, the New Zealand Environmental Council, Ngā Whenua Rāhui, the New Zealand Institute of Landscape Architects (NZILA), Federated Farmers, the New Zealand Farm Forestry Association, and the Christchurch City Council Urban Design Panel. She has been president of NZILA, a commissioner at RMA hearings, and a Canterbury Heritage Awards judge.

From 1995 to 1997 she researched native plant species suitable for home gardens. With the Christchurch-Otautahi Agenda 21 committee she published Indigenous Ecosystems of Otautahi Christchurch—a four-booklet guide showing Christchurch’s ecosystems and soil types and offering guidance on which native trees, shrubs, climbers and groundcovers belong in different areas.

During the Christchurch earthquakes she said old streams have “memories.” A map from 1850 showed streams that had been filled and built over, and many earthquake-damaged buildings sat on top of these old waterways.