News

5 days ago

BY EVIE WILKINS, TBK Student Leader, Media and Events Subgroup Deputy, Year 6. Last month, Town Belt Kaitiaki had our first monthly meeting. We met at our role model site to do some planning.The first thing we did was introduce ourselves like we always do. Soon after we explored the role model site to check the grass length. The longer the grass was the more insects/invertebrates were living there.We had lunch and then about half of us did birdwatching. We saw Piwakawaka, Silver eye and Bellbirds. It was amazing to see how well NZ wildlife is thriving in our role model site.Then we packed everything up and walked down to Otago Girls Highschool. We arrived and broke up into our two main groups. Media and Hands-on. We discussed and planned our stall at the Wild Dunedin festival. Trapping and planting were also concepts of our planning, but our main priority was the Wild Dunedin festival. We were writing down ideas and brainstorming about what stall we would do for the Wild Dunedin Festival.Near the start of the year, TBK also had a Hui. This was for the new people to get to know each other and learn what TBK is all about. After the first TBK meeting of 2026, there was also a senior meeting.We all can’t wait for the next monthly meeting. ... See MoreSee Less

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4 weeks ago

TBK'S EXPERIENCED TRAPPERS' TRAP LINE!The Student Leadership Team of TBK have a new trapline in Robin Hood Reserve. This seven station trapline is targeting possums and rats. Experienced students who have prior experience with trapping will create a roster to keep it checked every week / two weeks.Students got trained on the trap line a week or so back and we did our first check yesterday! One catch - a possum - in the NAWAC approved Flippin Timmy trap. We are helping Predator Free Dunedin's very achievable mission to eliminate this species from the Town Belt (as well as keep the Otago Peninsula possum free!). No rats were caught which is very good news too. Ship rats are keen tree climbers and think nothing of predating birds on the nest. Soon we hope to start monitoring again, this is just as important as catching to make sure we are not missing any. Thanks to City Sanctuary for setting up the trap line for us and training our TBK Volunteers and students on it! We are incredibly grateful!CAN YOU HELP? We need a few more TBK Volunteers for this role - if you have been trained with City Sanctuary and would like to help - please email Maureen at townbelt.edcoordinator@gmail.com. ... See MoreSee Less

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1 month ago

IT'S ALL GO FOR THE TBK STUDENT LEADERS!At the weekend we had our annual Hui - this year at Jubilee Park and at Chingford Park! This is the most important weekend of our year - when new and returning students come together to bond, plan, learn and organise how they want their team to run this year. Importantly this is when they do their speeches and voting in of roles within the team! Congratulations to all our new office holders, to everyone who did speeches and to all of our students for being part of the Student Leadership Team! I especially enjoyed walking safely with a group of students along the car free trial area enjoying the birds and trees, I was amazined at the beautiful invertebrate ecoart the students created and it was lovely to see several of our seniors taking juniors under their wing. Warmed my heart!Thanks to Te Hou Ora Whānau and the DCC for venues, to our positive and very helpful TBK Volunteers - Robyn, Te Aumoana, Yuna and Madeleine - and to our students for throwing themselves with passion into being part of TBK.I can tell the Town Belt is going to get lots of TLC this year! ... See MoreSee Less

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3 months ago

TAKING ACTION TO BOOST OUR BIRDSWe had a lovely afternoon yesterday at Tolcarne in the Town Belt attending the City Sanctuary / John McGlashan / Town Belt Kaitiaki Trap Training. This is a Seniors Group of Year 12 students organised by their TBK Link Teacher Brendan Porter and trained up by City Sanctuary. The students will be looking after this part of the Town Belt, to remove possums and rats. Rats in particular predate on chicks in the nest, and this is very good habitat for birds such as piwakawaka, korimako and riroriro. In fact last year, we saw a titpounamu / rifleman in here (the only one recorded by eBird in the Town Belt in the last 10 years or so! Very exciting. TBK is very proud to be involved to help this happen and to help connect these keen students with our native bush. Thank you City Sanctuary for a fantastic training day! ... See MoreSee Less

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4 months ago

REFLECTIONS ON THE YEAR AND LOOKING AHEADThe end of the TBK year is drawing to a close. And what a roller coaster of a year it has been! From shutting down the programme at the beginning of the year to getting fully up and running again on secure footing - we're so grateful to our financial rescuers - the ORC and in particular the DCC. 🤗What has also been fabulous is that all of our schools and ECEs stuck by us and that quite a few of our student leaders returned. We're very grateful to you all! It's also been marvellous to get to know our new Student Leaders and Link Teachers. And we've made some new friends too - like Balmacewen Lions!Now after 6 months of busy times with students and schools, the students have achieved quite a few of our goals for the year. Such as ... drum roll! 🥁🤳Promoting the Town Belt with a stall, submissions and a podcast. 🌳Restoring our Town Belt to better health with planting trees, weeding, pest monitoring, picking up rubbish and monitoring birds. 🐝Connecting to nature and learning about it.Crucially none of our activities would have been possible without our Volunteers and supporting organisations.2026 is looking like a busy and fun year already for our 12 participating schools and four early childhood centres (welcome again City Heights Montessori!). (Watch this space!)Thanks to you all for supporting us! Here's some photos from the year to enjoy again.WISHING YOU ALL A WONDERFUL BREAK AND SUMMER CELEBRATIONS ... See MoreSee Less

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