School took part in the WBC programme with coordinator Kim Jones in Term One and Two of 2011. They wanted to restore the stream at the bottom of the school field and their Enviro Team had already started to grow native plants for planting alongside the stream.
Read the strategic evaluation here
Four classes learnt about freshwater and catchments with Kim before venturing out into their local school stream to see what they could find. We were delighted to find a great diversity of macroinvertebrates including Dragonfly, Damselfly and Mayfly Nymphs! Check out their results by clicking here. One parent told us that there used to be Koura in the stream when he went to the school back in the 1970's, so we have a new goal to get the Koura back to the Glenbervie School Stream! The students did some great class work on Koura and other freshwater critters. To check out some pictures of their work click here.
Next we went down to one of the students farms to check out a stream further downstream where there were Whitebait and Koura living. This stream was surrounded in native bush and was an example of a healthy stream and what we strive to create at the Glenbervie School Stream. Check out the adult Whitebait (Inanga) and one of the Shrimps and Koura we found!
Inspired by what we had found we set out to start planting the school stream. Plants were donated by Alter-Natives and WaiMarie Nursery. So far we've planted around 400 plants and plan to cut down the Pine trees in the summer holidays and continue planting and monitoring in 2012 - you never know - we might see Koura back there soon and maybe even Whitebait!
