Charles Ethelbert Foweraker

In 1914, Foweraker accepted the position of demonstrator in biology at Canterbury College, being responsible for a good deal of undergraduate laboratory work, lecturing on botany, and conducting field excursions with students at the newly established Cass Mountain Biological Station; "his enthusiasm encouraged the first wave of research by Botany students at Cass and around Christchurch."[12] In 1916, following the completion of his MA, his thesis, "The Mat Plants, Cushion Plants and Allied Forms of the Cass River Bed"- dealing with the morphological biology of these plants- was published in the Transactions of the New Zealand Institute as part of the "Notes from the Canterbury College Mountain Biological Station" series. Many photographs taken by Foweraker were included in other papers in the series.[13]

Foweraker served as a private in France with the New Zealand Expeditionary Force from 1916 to 1918, initially in the 1st Canterbury Infantry Regiment, then, following a hand injury, in the New Zealand Medical Corps, leaving with the rank of corporal having also served in the Near East. Whilst recovering from his injury, he had taken botany lectures at Birkbeck College, University of London; after the war, he was awarded a NZEF scholarship for advanced research in botany at Downing College, Cambridge. Charles Chilton encouraged Foweraker to take an interest in forestry, aware that Canterbury College intended to establish a School of Forestry.[14][15][16]

In 1921, Foweraker returned to Canterbury College, lecturing in botany. From 1924 to 1934, he was the founding lecturer of the School of Forestry, of which he later became director. He went on to be senior lecturer in botany at Canterbury University College, retiring in 1950.[17][18][19] His assistant lecturer was Frank Hutchinson, forming a "good, balanced team"- "the former [Foweraker] conscientious, dedicated, scholarly, and kindly; the latter energetic, incisive, forthright, and reportedly an inspirational teacher."[20]

From the early 1920s, Foweraker was employed by the New Zealand State Forest Service- alongside Leonard Cockayne, William Roy McGregor, and Charles Chilton- to conduct and supervise studies on indigenous forests of New Zealand. One of Foweraker's specific areas of research was the Westland rain forest. Foweraker's research led to the conclusion that regulated forests of the valuable but rapidly diminishing silver pine (Manoao colensoi), useful for its light-resisting qualities, could be established in Westland, instead of using kahikatea (Dacrycarpus dacrydioides) and rimu (Dacrydium cupressinum); a related ecological discovery was that silver pine was a successor to rimu as a forest species, the latter observed to be dying out in areas of dense silver pine growth. Foweraker's work was identified by Leon MacIntosh Ellis, Director of Forests in the State Forest Service, as an "important study, which will provide the economic key to the re-establishment and practical management of the South Island rain forests." By 1925, Foweraker had also completed a report on the prospect of using indigenous forests as timber supply, according to Ellis's intention to pursue sustained-yield (i.e. renewable) management, but in the event it was decided that exotic afforestation would take precedence. Foweraker, wanting to present his findings to a wider audience, published them in Te Kura Ngahere (since 1936, the New Zealand Journal of Forestry), a journal newly founded by the Forestry Club of the Canterbury College School of Forestry, and gave lectures on the subjects he had researched. The SFS's move away from ecological considerations and shift towards a forestry practice based on exotic afforestation meant that eventually only Cockayne continued to produce reports for them.[21][22][23]

Foweraker undertook research into and wrote on the subject of the vegetation of the Cass Valley, and produced government reports and articles on forestry. He was not a very prolific author of work for publication, being more focused on his students. He was however noted for his "great skill as a photographer"; a large number of photographs- mainly taken between 1914 and 1930, including of the area around the Cass Field Station but also of other botanical subjects- were preserved on glass plates at the University of Canterbury School of Botany; forestry photographs were given to the university's School of Forestry. An archive of originals and copies of Foweraker's personal papers and diaries was created at the University of Canterbury Library.[24][25]

Foweraker was an active member of the Canterbury Philosophical Institute and was a fellow of the Linnean Society of London. He served on the controlling authorities of Riccarton Bush, Peel Forest, and Arthur's Pass National Park.[26][27]