Members of the Logan Park High School Town Belt Kaitiaki team (from left) Anya McKinney, Felix Pettigrew, James Fagerlund and Envirogroup leader and liaison teacher Heike Cebulla-Elder reading the disappointing news the group will go into hibernation this year. PHOTO: LINDA ROBERTSON
The Town Belt Kaitiaki (TBK) education and conservation programme will not be offered in 2025 because of a lack of funding.
At its peak, 17 schools and early childhood education centres were involved in the programme.
Logan Park High School year 13 student Felix Pettigrew, 17, said he had learned a lot about leadership since becoming a member of the group.
He was excited about this year and the lack of funding was unfortunate.
"I'm very passionate about ornithology, which is the study of birds, and I was going to start a birding group where we would go to the site we work at and do five-minute bird counts.
"That was something exciting I was going to start up ... it's unfortunate we don't have enough funding," Felix said.
Year 12 student Anya McKinney, 16, said she had had the opportunity to help start a podcast as part of the group to share its message.
She worked in a team with her peers from other TBK schools to put the podcasts together.
The podcast, which airs on Otago Access Radio, had six episodes so far and she was not sure what would happen to it.
Year 10 student James Fagerlund, 14, enjoyed being a part of TBK's trapping group.
He said he had gained confidence learning how to set traps and felt he could give back to the environment.
The students were hopeful an organisation would take on the responsibility of looking after the Town Belt.
TBK Strategic Leadership Group chairman Taylor Davies-Colley said the student-led project needed about $50,000 to run every year.
This year, it had fallen short by about $20,000.
Contributors were not in a position to give more money, he said.
"Everyone's feeling kind of the pinch at the moment and projects are more expensive to run than they have been."
It was hard to know if it was the end of the programme forever, he said.
"I'm very hopeful there is a future [in which] Town Belt Kaitiaki comes back, but it's dependent on if there is money out there for it.
"I think there is a real drive because the response from the student leaders was that this was really saddening," Mr Davies-Colley said.
