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Town Belt Kaitiaki
Town Belt Kaitiaki (TBK) is a student-led education programme for Dunedin schools and ECE centres. I
BRACKEN LOOKOUT CLEANUP AND VEGETATION SURVEY![]()
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Just look at all that mahi in the field! ![]()
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Yesterday, around 50 students from Ōpoho Primary School joined Town Belt Kaitiaki to do two activities. Firstly, another big cleanup of rubbish from the bush next to the schools' native plantings there. The children loved the hunt - and our native flora and fauna will appreciate having clean bush again! Well done tamariki - your kaitiaki is so important! (Note - we have left glass and other tossed-away nasties for the university Student Volunteer Army to pick up - thanks guys!)![]()
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Secondly, the children created nearly 20 vegetation survey quadrats in the area that's planted out and in the established bush to see what different species grow there. We hope that over time, as our planted native trees grow and the canopy closes, we will see a return of native ground cover to replace the exotic ground cover there now. ![]()
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One lovely thing about this exercise is seeing the children look hard at what is growing beneath their feet. Through our senses we deepen our connection to nature.
Last weekend while at Southern Conference, I took the opportunity to meet with the students from Dunedin who are members of Town Belt Kaitiaki. I was impressed by the great work they’re doing in conservation around Dunedin and also excited by the leadership learning opportunities the structure of the project provides. Thanks for your time.
May has been a busy month so far for the Student Leadership Team and our TBK schools in general. Much of it in planning. ![]()
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For example, getting ready to plant native trees next month, some of our schools have been busy planning what species they want to put in at the sites they are looking after in the Town Belt.![]()
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I've been especially impressed with the passion of the George Street Normal students, and their mathematical prowess for working out how many trees they can put in, as well as their understanding of what helps our native forests thrive! Planting will add to the great work they are doing at their lower Prospect Park site where they've been cleaning up and surveying the species there.
All of SLT was out at our role model site as part of our first meeting of term two. While there we focused on weeding out aluminum weed and ivy, and checking in on our traps. After lunch we then walked down to Otago Girls' High School where we took the opportunity to plan and prepare for upcoming events!![]()
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#townbeltkaitiaki #weeding #townbelt
The Student Leadership team has been busy over the last week, culminating in our iNaturalist Workshop as part of the Wild Dunedin Festival. ![]()
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We were very pleased with the enthusiasm of our participants and hope to have shared some useful knowledge. It was great to see how much everyone improved! We are already planning some exciting future events so stay tuned!