Marco School pupils help plant 4000 natives in Whangamōmona paddock

Marco School pupils and staff helped to plant 4000 natives in Whangamōmona on Friday, November 1.

Rural pupils swapped pen and paper for gumboots and shovels and the classroom for a paddock.

On Friday, November 1, Marco School pupils, staff and other volunteers planted 4000 native plants in Whangamōmona.

“If you want something done, this is the community that’s going to help,” said Whangamōmona Republic president John Herlihy.

The native planting day came after 3000ha of land in the area had been converted to pine, said Herlihy.

“This land is out the back of the Whanga’ pub. I knew a friend of the landowner, so we started talking and asked if instead of pine trees, we could use native plants in the paddock directly behind the pub. It is still beneficial to the owner as it’s all carbon credits. We wanted to do something that would be good for the environment and look nice. It does look pretty good.”

Marco School pupils and volunteers were on the hills in Whangamōmona planting 4000 natives on Friday, November 1.

The community was the driving force behind the planting project, he said.

“I had spoken to the principal, Anna Stockman, to see if the school would be interested in helping to plant the native bushes. We had all of the school pupils there and it was great to see the kids running up the hills, carrying the plants and then helping to put them in the ground. From what I’ve heard, the kids were quite chuffed, and I think it’s great they will see those plants in the future and think, ‘Hey, I helped put those there’.”

Herlihy said they had plenty of help from Horizons Regional Council and MPI’s On Farm Support with the initiative.

“We had received the plants for free – we just needed to plant them. It was great to see volunteers and the school kids getting stuck in and planting the natives.”

Marco School pupil Jack McFarlane digging a hole at the planting day.

Marco School pupil Jack McFarlane was there on the day. He said he liked helping plant the native plants.

“I like digging and I like to plant stuff. I used my spade, which my dad bought for me. It was sort of hard because it was on a hill and the ground was hard and I had to dig through grass. I worked with Paige and Will and we dug 53 holes together.”

Herlihy said he’s grateful to everyone involved in making it happen.

“I’d like to thank the landowner for letting us do this – it looks a lot better having those natives there. We had a lot of help to get this done. There’s still a few left to plant, but I know it’ll get done because we’ve got a great community out here that just gets on with it and gets it done.”