Bay Conservation Alliance and Renaturing Katikati teaching students about wetlands

Local schools are learning about local wetlands with Bay Conservation Alliance and Renaturing Katikati.

Mud, mud and more mud was all part of the fun and learning for 150 students from three schools who participated in field trips last month at Tamawhariua/Beach Rd wetland in Katikati.

The field trips, delivered by Bay Conservation Alliance through their nature education programme, provide hands-on experiential conservation education.

Students discover how unique New Zealand is, gain insight into its conservation challenges and learn a set of practical conservation skills.

This term, the focus was on wetlands and the role they play in the ecosystem.

Mucking in were Years 5-8 students from Pahoia School, Ōmokoroa Point School and Katikati College, to coincide with their in-class learning in activities such as water-quality monitoring, pest animal identification, a nature scavenger hunt and getting stuck into a real wetland to do planting.

Renaturing Katikati volunteers worked alongside the students on the activities.

A spokesperson says the students were surprised at how wet and muddy a wetland actually is and that not all plants are suited to living in this kind of habitat.

Renaturing Katikati volunteers have been meeting regularly for two years to restore the small wetland back to a healthy state. The focus is on managing invasive plants, nurturing new native plantings and pest animal control.

INFO Renaturing Katikati email Sharon kea@projectparore.nz