by Shane Sody

A tree advocate, who's captured memorable images in your Adelaide Park Lands, has been honoured by the Conservation Council with a special award for environmental protection.

Yuri Poetzel has worked tirelessly in recent years, contributed stunning images of native trees, and meticulous supporting details in several recent environmental campaigns.

On World Environment Day, 5 June, Yuri was the winner (picked from four finalists) in the 2024 Jill Hudson Award for Environmental protection.

Each year, the award goes to "an individual living in South Australia who, in the past 18 months, has made an outstanding contribution to protecting the state’s environment."

Yuri Poetzel was honoured for his advocacy and photos of trees that were either destroyed, or threatened with destruction to make way for major infrastructure projects.

This is an example of his work - a 39-page submission to the Planning System Implementation Review, featuring dozens of tree photos.

In 2022, Yuri Poetzel contributed these stunning images of trees that faced likely destruction in Helen Mayo Park, when the previous Liberal Government was proposing to destroy them to make way for a proposed 15,000-seat stadium.

In that same year, Yuri's photography also played a role in protecting these two threatened plane trees off Frome Road in Park 11 (pictured below).

Shortly before receiving his award, Yuri expressed disappointment that he hadn't been able to save the hundreds of trees that the State Government has recently destroyed in Denise Norton Park / Pardipardinyilla (Park 2) or in Kate Cocks Park and Bonython Park / Tulya Wardli (Park 27).

Other finalists and other awards

I was one of three other finalists, nominated alongside Yuri Poetzel, for the Jill Hudson awards.

Read more about each of the finalists, and the winners of the Conservation Council's other environmental awards: https://www.saenvironmentawards.org.au/2024