It was great to have a group visit the community nursery again, and the weather meant a lovely day for meeting Southland natives. Using senses we smelt, looked at and felt the bark and leaves of tī kōuka, kōwhai, miro, rimu, tōtara, kahikatea, mānuka, broadleaf, lancewood, horopito, kōtukutuku, hebe, harakeke and many more as we wandered around the pond track and through the kahikatea swamp forest. As well as meeting all the native plants there was spotting fungi and heaps of noticing. It was great to see adults and children alike being inspired out in nature. A quick look inside the education centre and some potting up finished the visit.
Bronwyn
Posted: 1 June 2022
Volunteer Fridays are becoming busier and busier with 15 people attending last Friday. A range of jobs are being done at the moment from track making, to potting, plant moving, weeding, track clearance, seed sorting and cleaning. Most of the seed collection has finished and the next major projects will be seed sowing and cuttings workshops. These will be done mainly on Friday mornings but if there is interest in specific workshops for particular groups we can hold specific workshops on other days of choice for those groups. Email Chris [Enable JavaScript to view protected content]. Lots of plants are going out to planting projects at the moment – this week a Tramping Club order for the Oreti Totara Dune Forest and the Waihopai James Hargest/ES planting project amongst many others.
Chris
Posted: 30 May 2022
Four days of workshops on Plant ID and Weeds were held at the Education Centre from 23-26 May 22. The workshops were arranged by Nelson Marlborough Insitute of Technology (NMIT) through the Department of Conservation - https://www.doc.govt.nz/get-involved/training/field-based-courses/ and involved a range of participants from Te Tapu o Tāne and DOC Biodiversity rangers. The Education Centre venue provided the opportunity for inside and outside learning provided by Becs Gibson from NMIT and DoC’s Lynne Huggins.
Chris
Posted: 30 May 2022
I joined the tamariki and whānau at Roslyn Bush Playcentre and worked alongside them as we planted some NZ native plants at their place of learning. We planted broadleaf, red tussock, cabbage tree, Pittosporum and mingimingi. The children carried the plants and the spades to the planting area behind the big tree - what great helpers. I showed them how to dig a hole big enough for the plant to fit in, and how to test that our hole was indeed big enough, and then showed how to take the bag off, put the plant in, replace the soil and stomp to give the plant a new home. The children persisted with the hole digging, and were amazed to see the roots the plants have once the bags were removed. There was great careful stomping around the base of the plants once they were in the ground. All of the tamariki were interested in what was going on at their place and there was great teamwork and helping of each other. Tumeke!
Posted: 28 May 2022
Having been inspired by the giant map at the Southland Community Nursery, staff at Otatara School decided to paint their own on the school grounds. Contributing my ‘know how’ from the time the first version of the map was created, we painted and rolled ready for the start of term 2. I was then invited to join in with the senior classes of Otatara School (Mānuka, Akapuka, Tī kōuka, Pōkākā and Tarata) to work out what the graffiti like squiggly lines on the concrete represented and the stories that can be told about our local places.
We distinguished between land and water and located Oreti River, Sandy Point, Oreti Beach, Otatara, the school, New River Estuary and where Invercargill would be. We noticed the roads, and encountered the concept of reclamation, looking closely at the changes that have occurred to the New River Estuary. It was great to hear the wondering of these students and make links between what Otatara and the estuary were like, and what they are like now. I look forward to hearing how this map is used in future learnings and the commission these classes have for future New River Estuary work.
Bronwyn
Posted: 7 May 2022
