David Cade, AKA Didymo Dave, has received a King's Service Medal recognising his biosecurity and conservation efforts.
David Cade, AKA Didymo Dave, has received a King's Service Medal recognising his biosecurity and conservation efforts.
David Cade, KSM has a nice ring to it, but that is not how most in the Taupō district know one of the recipients of the latest round of King’s Birthday honours.
Mentioning Didymo Dave to a local, however, is more likely to strike a chord.
Everyone has a story about Didymo Dave; perhaps they remember being given a “Check, Clean, Dry” bumper sticker while out fishing, or how he taught their children the biosecurity basics.
Remarkably, the visible work Cade does is just the tip of the iceberg, and all of his endeavours are on a completely voluntary basis.
For his decades of service to the environment of the Central North Island, he has been recognised with a King’s Service Medal for services to conservation and biosecurity awareness.
Didymo Dave Cade explains the problems of water weed to a boatie at Lake Taupō. Photo / John Cowpland
Cade’s love of the environment began when aged 6.
His father liked to fly fish, so the family would holiday in Waitahanui.
There, he met a local kaumātua, Tom Marama, who fostered his passion for Lake Taupō and its rivers.
“Tom Marama used to talk to me about the kaitiakitanga of the water.
“He told me that if we looked after the river that was the golden goose, then we’d get the golden eggs.”
As an adult, he never lost his focus, spending five years working with the Department of Conservation as a freshwater threats ranger before becoming a fulltime volunteer.
Now, Didymo Dave is world famous in Taupō, a regular presence in carparks and on roadsides where he picks up rubbish and chats with locals, tourists and fishers about biosecurity.
His first target was the invasive freshwater algae Didymosphenia geminata, or didymo.
Now, alongside trapping introduced mammals and lessening the impact of human behaviour, he is spreading awareness of the golden clam.
It’s exhausting work, and often thankless.
“It has been an awful lot of work - up the rivers on summer nights and Saturday afternoons when people are at the beach or on holiday, and we’re cleaning filthy rat traps.”
Working with young people is what keeps him going.
“For motivation, all I’ve got to do is see some children. Then, I’m a motivated lunatic.
“It’s all about what are we going to deliver? What [future] are those children going to see?”
Among the most important motivators are his two grandchildren, who often see him hard at work with his donated ute and Check, Clean, Dry billboard, even if they do not always understand the context.
“I spend so much time on the side of the road with the Check, Clean, Dry, that’s where [my grandson] thought I lived.
“He tried to build a house for Koro!”
His two sons have always been his biggest supporters; they encouraged him to devote his life to the environment, and are proud to see him recognised.
“They said ‘we want a legacy, we don’t want an inheritance, Dad’.
David Cade has been recognised with other accolades, including the New Zealand Biosecurity Minister's Award in 2019. Photo / MPI
The King’s Service Medal is not the first accolade he’s collected for his work. In recent years, he has scooped an Environment Leadership Award, a New Zealand Biosecurity Minister’s Award and a Kiwibank Local Hero Award recognising his efforts.
In his typically modest fashion, Cade said he was living proof that the most important quality a person can have is passion.
“I’m not a person with a lot of natural talents; I can tie flies but there are others who are better, and I can play the piano, but not well.
“Someone in that situation can still come out of it and make a difference.
“I’m rapt that a lot of the young ones I work with will be able to say ‘jeez, if Dave can do it, we can do it too’.”
