Members of Turitea School Garden Club (from left) Ada, 10, Ariki, 9, and Chris, 9. Photo / Judith Lacy
Members of Turitea School Garden Club (from left) Ada, 10, Ariki, 9, and Chris, 9. Photo / Judith Lacy
For Turitea School students catching rats is more real than the Pied Piper of Hamelin legend.
And instead of a magic pipe, they use Goodnature traps to catch pests.
The school bought five traps using an Environmental Initiatives Fund grant, administered by Environment Network Manawatū.
School caretaker Meryl Butler said the children can’t wait to check the traps. She was one of four speakers at an information evening for the fund last month.
Butler also runs the Turitea School Garden Club. Its projects enhance the environment and teach children about sustainability and pest control.
Butler installed tracker tunnels provided by Horizons Regional Council for the children to identify pests around the school. The tunnels have ink pads the pests walk over, leaving their footprints for identification.
A father built the school’s garden beds with the PTA paying for the wood. Parents donated seedlings.
The school is running a giant pumpkin growing competition and growing pumpkins for a Matariki hāngi. Students will also carve Māori designs into pumpkins and put candles in them.
Principal Troy Duckworth said Butler is the reason why the school’s gardens are thriving. Her work helps the school live by its value of kaitiakitanga - guardianship of the sky, sea and land.
Duckworth has been the principal of the semi-rural school since 2022. It has 149 Year 1-6 students.
This year, the school wants to develop a micro forest by planting native trees that attract birds, lizards and other wildlife with a boardwalk for the children.
It would provide a calming space in nature and real-life science for the children, Duckworth said.
Turitea School students (from left) Alexa, 9, Kerian, 10, and Milana, 9, in front of the apple tree with fruit the size of saucers. Photo / Judith Lacy
Another project is investigating what the children can do to improve the quality of the nearby Turitea Stream and increase its tuna (eel) population “What can we do at our end to make it thrive?”
Duckworth said the community wants to help.
“Our community out here is unreal, we’re very lucky.”
Another project for 2024 is designing and planting a garden for the front of the school.
Turitea School caretaker Meryl Butler with some of the school's keen gardeners. Back row (from left) Alexa, Milana and Kerian. Front row (from left) Chris, Finn, Ariki, Ada and Cooper. Photo / Judith Lacy
At the information evening, Precycle material development engineer Caleb Payne spoke about the Palmerston North company’s work. Precycle used its grant for paper towel collection bins.
Precycle is a waste minimisation consultant and green tech company.
ReFib is its paper towel-based sustainable insulation panel. The product is undergoing research and development, Payne said.
For the past six years, Leana Hamlin has been on a personal journey to achieve food sovereignty. This has involved growing kai, fishing, diving, eeling, fruit harvesting and hunting.
She shares her journey on Facebook as Walk With Larnz.
Hamlin used her grant to teach people seed saving and planting and installing māra kai (food gardens).
Composer and music teacher Kane Parsons used the money he received for seed cubes that were given to people who attended The Legend of Okatia last May. The Plant a Legend cubes contained a native plant seed.
The show told the Rangitāne story of how the Manawatū Gorge was formed.
Applications for the Environmental Initiatives Large Grants Fund close on March 14. Applications for small grants can be made at any time. Visit enm.org.nz for details.
Judith Lacy has been the editor of theManawatū Guardian since December 2020. She graduated from journalism school in 2001 and this is her second role editing a community paper.
