Wild times in Waikawa for enviro students

Many hands made light work as Queen Charlotte College students brought “great gusto” to a working bee designed to assist an award-winning ecological project.

Forty Queen Charlotte College year eight students spent Thursday at Wild Waikawa, in Boons Valley near Picton, with the Marlborough Environmental Award category-winning organisation giving students hands-on experiences behind the scenes of their ecological project.

The day saw 150 metres of trapline trail built, 200 plants potted, 200 plants planted and 3km of trail walked with 20 pests caught.

“It’s only ten minutes from their school, but you get the feeling of isolation like you’re in a National Park, it’s as close to the mountain as you get and the impact we have here flows on down to the entire community,” said Wild Waikawa’s Mish Clark.

“All of the teams headed off to their tasks and just came back looking so alive from their purposes, and so it was a process for them to see not just the practical skills, but the community effort that it takes to complete these projects.

“Having students get hands-on is great to build a sense of community morals and show the process by which we can have thriving native bush, and the levels of interest and eagerness to get stuck into what can be hard, technical and monotonous jobs was excellent.

“We were really impressed by both the students’ work ethic and our connections with the new principal Brendon Carroll, who’s just as eager as us to build collaborations with a local mountain to sea learning approach.”

Trapping team volunteer Sophie Whittall and trail building team lead Nigel Muir were equally as impressed by the efforts of the students.

“I had ten girls alongside Di Huntley, and found them all to be amazing learners, great listeners and respectful of the dead animals we found in the traps”, said Sophie.

“The kaupapa behind their mission is awesome, with a community-based team making a huge difference in the environment up there.

“Nobody necessarily likes killing things, we were able to switch them on to understand it’s all for the greater good and by the end they were showing great teamwork in clearing and reloading the traps which is a pretty technical task.
“Getting hands-on helps people connect more with the environmental mission, because people see the outcomes of more native birdlife but not the behind-the-scenes work, so for me it was empowering to see students catch on so quickly in becoming kaitiaki of their homes.

“It’s much easier to care about something you understand, and easier to understand something when you experience it”, added Nigel.

“Having the next generation learn about their environment and the steps it takes to look after what we have here at Wild Waikawa.

“The students had great gusto and I couldn’t be prouder of their efforts, and we’re looking forward to the next crop we have.”

To learn more go to www.wildwaikawa.co.nz