Di Lucas height - How tall is Di Lucas?

She initially worked for the Ministry of Works and Development, but resigned during the Robert Muldoon era saying she could not work under a government whose policies adversely affected New Zealand’s biodiversity and natural rural landscapes. She set up a practice in Geraldine advising rural landowners on sustainable management, and is the director of Lucas Associates Limited, now based in Christchurch. For decades, her projects and publications have informed and improved urban design, native plantings, waterway restoration, Resource Management Act (RMA) planning, forestry and high country management.

From 1995 to 1997, she researched native plant species suitable for home gardeners to grow in their neighbourhood. Together with the Christchurch-Otautahi Agenda 21 committee, she published her research in a set of four booklets on several different areas, entitled Indigenous Ecosystems of Otautahi Christchurch. The booklets include a street map of Christchurch overlaid on a map of the Canterbury Plains ecosystems and soil types. The ecosystems range from old wetlands to forest, through to younger tussock grasslands. In addition, the booklets provide a guide for nurseries and the public about which native trees, shrubs, climbers and groundcovers naturally belong in different areas.

Lucas grew up on Bendigo Station in the Otago high country, and learnt about conservation early from both her parents and the rugged landscape. In 1971, she achieved a Bachelor of Science in botany at University of Otago and went on to complete a postgraduate diploma in landscape architecture at Lincoln College.

Diane Jean Lucas ONZM (born 1950) is a New Zealand landscape architect and environmental planner known for her conservation works, and particularly in and around Christchurch, Banks Peninsula and the Canterbury Plains and South Island High Country. She is a strong advocate for the protection of natural and indigenous ecosystems, and sustainable rural management.

At the time of the Christchurch earthquakes, she warned that old streams have 'memories'. A map of the city drawn up in 1850 showed a number of old waterways that had since been filled in with gravel and built on. Many badly earthquake damaged buildings were sited on top of these old streams.