Nominations are now open for appointments to the Game Animal Council. For more information and a nomination form please go here.
Grant Dodson (Chair) is the Chief Executive of City Forests Limited, current Chairman of the Southern Wood Council and is a member of the Forest Owners Association Executive and a Board member of Forest Growers Research Ltd. Grant has an extensive background in land management and recreational hunting in New Zealand and Australia. He shares a passion for the outdoors, hunting and shooting sports and is an advocate for future generations of New Zealanders.
Steve McFall is current Vice President of the NZ Pig Hunting Association, a Past President and life member of the Te Kuiti Pig Hunting Club and has given considerable time to supporting pig hunting including as an inaugural member of the GAC. Having been involved in judging competitions since 2001 Steve was a founding member of the Ridgeline Judging System. Steve also represented pig hunters at a government-led 1080 hui in Kaikoura in 2005. Steve spent 20 years managing dry stock farms and is a trustee and Past President of the Oparau Station Trust. Steve and wife Marilyn are now directors of their own septic tank cleaning business.
Sharon Salmons is based in Queenstown and is a self employed business/marketing consultant specialising in tourism and outdoor activities. She has been secretary for the NZDA Southern Lakes Branch since 2012 and also sits on a number of outdoor related committee groups. She is a keen hunter and tramper and brings marketing and tourism skills to the council. Sharon has experience and a strong commitment to good communication/education on all hunting aspects in particular access and the more complicated bureaucratic issues.
John Cook has been a self-employed dairy farmer for the last 35 years and is the current President of the Central North Island Sika Foundation. He is a keen recreational hunter of deer and pigs, and has enjoyed getting into bow hunting over the last 5 years. John sees both game animals and the environment as resources that, if managed correctly, can be there for future generations to hunt and enjoy.
Eugene Rewi (Ngāti Manawa, Ngāti Whare, Ngāti Rangiwewehi, Ngāti Ranginui) is passionate about improving health outcomes for Māori and currently works at Te Aka Whai Ora: Māori Health Authority. His interests include whānau, travel and he enjoys many forms of mahi kai, especially hunting, fishing and diving.
Kevin Eastwood has been involved in the university and research community for the last 10 years as a relationship manager. He is keen 
to see more young people in the outdoors making use of our fabulous environments and all of the benefits that come with this. A self-employed environmental and freshwater consultant in his day-to-day life he enjoys working with communities to help them realise a potential that fits their vision. Kevin sees hunting as an opportunity to work hand-in-hand with looking after the environment and the people who enjoy our surroundings.
Tui Keenan (Ngāti Porou) is a Māmā to 5 girls and lives in Tūranganui a Kiwa (Gisborne). In 2018 she was introduced to hunting by her husband Comrie and is now a strong advocate for connecting communities to the land and their food source. The start of her hunting journey was documented on Maori Television show ‘Hunting with Tui’. Her journey hasn’t stopped as she continues to pass on the matauranga (knowledge) she has received on this journey. Tui is a director of Kaiwhakangau™ (hunter) Connect and Kai Connect where she supports communities to connect with other hunters/farmers and helps to distribute MPI certified wild meat to various community groups, schools and foodbanks.
Peter Swann (Ngāti Porou, Rongowhakaata East Coast, Tairāwhiti, Tūranganui a Kiwa) has a passion for Āotearoa’s outdoors and with over 40 years as a hunter gatherer, putting kai on the table for whānau, friends, or those in need, as well as working to ensure sustainable hunting for future generations, has always been his primary motivation. As a past president of the Poverty Bay East Coast Pig Hunters Club, and a current NZDA member, he also manages the hunter-led ROMA conservation project for the Mangaotane Trust in the southern Raukumara Range. ROMA’s mission revolves around protecting native flora and fauna and connecting people to the whenua through mahinga kai. Peter is also a member of the Mates of Tairāwhiti work place suicide prevention programme which enables life supporting conversations in the workplace.
Melissa Jackson (Uenuku, Ngāti Rāhiri Tumutumu, Ngāti Maniapoto) is a former lawyer, turned local government strategic planning and policy professional. She lives in Taumarunui with her husband and two daughters. Melissa is Secretary of the Central King Country branch of the NZDA and a Kaitiaki Hunting Instructor with Taumarunui based Te Awanui a Rua Charitable Trust, where she leads hunter education wānanga teaching wāhine and rangatahi the basics of safe ethical hunting practices. While hunting is her main focus, she also enjoys diving, fishing and gardening.
Callum Sheridan is the current Vice President and board member of the New Zealand Deerstalkers Association National Executive. He is also an Auckland NZDA branch committee member and the branch’s Immediate Past President. Callum owns a residential construction company and is passionate about New Zealand’s backcountry and conserving our flora, fauna and game animals for generations to come.
Andrew Simpson is a Canterbury-based lawyer and academic. He brings to GAC forty years’ experience as a hunter and twenty years’ experience as an advisor to statutory bodies. Andrew is committed to the scientifically principled conservation of wildlife and wild places.
General Manager
Tim Gale has a long standing involvement in biosecurity and professional hunting both commercially and as a government employee. He has experience in ground operations through to policy and governance. He has been a recreational and professional hunter for over 25 years. He is involved in and passionate about game animal management, and training and equipping hunters to be safe and successful. Tim has published magazine articles, co-authored a hunting book, co-produced a hunter education DVD, produced digital hunting content and leads firearm and hunter training courses. His vision for the GAC is to continue to represent the interests of the hunting sector and improve the management of New Zealand’s unique hunting resources while contributing to positive conservation outcomes.Next meeting of the Game Animal Council
North Canterbury Fish & Game Office, 595 Johns Road, Harewood, Christchurch, 9 May 2024.