09 September 2013

Kaipara district schools win $3100 environmental awards

Thousands of student-grown native trees destined for Kaipara Harbour waterways will soon be growing in a new shadehouse at Ruawai College thanks to support from a Northland Regional Council Environmental Curriculum Award.

Ruawai College is using its $1400 of Environmental Curriculum Award (ECA) funding to help pay for a schoolground shadehouse which will be used to grow the trees from locally sourced seeds.

About 5000 trees a year will eventually be grown for planting out along waterways flowing into the Kaipara, one of the largest harbours in the Southern Hemisphere.

“The sooner more people get involved in doing something about the health of the Kaipara Harbour the better because it’s been so badly degraded,” says Liz Haines, Ruawai College’s head of science and shadehouse project leader.

The enterprise is being run by students involved in the school’s NCEA Education for Sustainability courses.

Students have started gathering locally-sourced seeds to begin the production of native riparian trees which will be sold to the local community. They will also be using the shadehouse to grow endangered plants such as kaka beak to improve local biodiversity.

Mrs Haines says riparian planting can positively impact on waterway quality in a relatively short time and help stop damaging sediment from reaching the harbour.

Ruawai College is one of four Kaipara district schools sharing a $3100 slice of this year’s overall $20,000 ECA funding.

The annual awards aim to foster excellence in environmental education, with schools eligible for up to $2000 each for their efforts to educate children ‘in, about and for’ the region’s environment.

Regional council Environmental Education Officer Susan Botting says the council began presenting ECA cheques in the Kaipara district last month at Tangiteroria School and will deliver the last cheque to Maungaturoto School shortly.

Ms Botting says this year 23 award winners across Northland will receive between $200 and $1700 each for their 25 projects.

Four of those winning schools are based in the Kaipara district;

· Dargaville Intermediate ($700)

· Maungaturoto School ($800)

· Ruawai College ($1400)

· Tangiteroria School ($200)

Ms Botting says this year the ECAs recognise and support the environmental education efforts put in by more than 2200 Northland students in more than 140 classes and/or school student environmental groups.

She says of the remaining winners this year, eleven are based in the Whangarei district and eight in the Far North.

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