Penny Baker

Penny Baker is passionate about both forestry and farming. Penny recently joined Pāmu as Forestry Business Manager.

Penny’s mahi takes her across the motu to the Hawkes Bay, East Coast, Northland and Lower North Island. As Forestry Business Manager, it’s Penny’s job to find practical solutions to the challenges farmers face through trees and forestry practices and support the Pāmu strategy. 

“When not working from home at my Hawke’s Bay sheep and beef farm, I’m getting around the regions talking to farm teams and foresters, checking on the trees to see how they’re growing and where they’re growing. It’s about creating a lasting asset for Pāmu supporting our strategic focus of diversification of earnings.”

Penny started as a forestry contractor, completed her environmental science degree and later worked as a forest manager for PF Olsen, and eventually returned to Pāmu due to her personal alignment with our strategic focus of stewardship of natural assets and resilience to climate change and the integration of farming and forestry.

As a farmer herself, Penny brings an empathetic approach to her mahi with farm teams, and as she says it’s all about being grounded.

“The Pāmu value of grounded resonates with me — I’m the other half of a farming partnership, and I am always thinking 'would I make the same decision I am making for this farm on my own farm?'.”

“Part of this role is about finding solutions to problems and working through difficulties that farmers face using trees as a one possible solution”.

Conversations around the complex intersection of farming and forestry aren’t always easy, that’s why Penny also sticks to her other favourite Pāmu value of being bold.

“When it comes to those challenging conversations around farming and forestry, you’ve got to be bold, speak up, and name the elephant in the room and then work through it.”

Talking of espousing our values, maybe Penny’s approach best demonstrates shoulder-to-shoulder. Penny values collaborative problem-solving, where ideas are exchanged between farmers and foresters leading to solutions neither party could have achieved alone.

“I really enjoy working with others — supporting other people’s ideas and then working through the practicalities and possibilities. It's happened a few times when I've been having a conversation with a farmer or business. We’ve started bouncing ideas off each other that have led to solutions that work for both farming and forestry with the ultimate solution being something that neither one of us may have come up with on our own. By working together we’ve created something far better.”

The land that Penny oversees is as varied as it is extensive, presenting an exciting but mighty challenge that can only be solved with team-work.

Penny perceives the forestry excellence as “the right tree for the right reason to solve the right problem and planted in the right place.”

Further down the track, Penny hopes to be “still walking the hills, dreaming, and finding solutions. I’m continually thinking about and implementing solutions to problems faced by New Zealand's primary sector, particularly where forestry can play a role in sustainable farming practices.”