About Andy Spence

About

Andy Spence & Cut’n’Paste

About Andy Spence. Cut’n’Paste is the brainchild of Andy Spence. Andy has a 16 year history as a Ranger at ARC’s Whakanewha Regional Park and as biosecurity officer on Waiheke Island.

Andy Spence has an Honours Degree in Zoology from Leeds University and a Post Graduate Diploma in Education.

Andy taught Secondary School Science in New Year and England and then ran his own business in England for four years employing up to 10 people, before emigrating to NZ in 1989 where Andy worked for DoC for 7 years in Wanganui as the Taranaki Wanganui Conservation Board Executive Officer gaining a good foundation in NZ conservation upskilling Board members, organising inspections, writing reports, and working on New Zealand’s first Conservation Management Strategy.

The Cut’n’Paste business was formed in Feb 2010, working from his home on Waiheke, like many good businesses . For the last two years the company has been based at DGL in East Tāmaki. The products are now sold from one of NZ to the other including all the offshore island and some products have made it to the Pacific Islands for work on their major weed infestation problems.

Andy at Whakanewha Park

When Andy started at Whakanewha Regional Park it was a weed-infested long abandoned farm with regenerating Kanuka forest and a few patches of old forest. Within 16 years Andy, with a lot of help from volunteers and friends, turned it into one of the most beautiful parks in the network. Andy really knows his weeds! He moved to Waiheke Island in 1995 and worked for the ARC as the Senior Park Ranger at the newly created Whakanewha Regional Park where he learned what weeds are really about. Waiheke Island is said to be the second most weedy place on the planet after Hawai and is fondly called Weedheke by those in the know