One of Queenstown’s living classrooms was put under the microscope by a group of primary school children yesterday.
Shotover Primary School has spent the past seven years working with Queenstown Lakes District Council, the Otago Regional Council, Whakatipu Reforestation Trust, Southern Lakes Sanctuary, Mana Tahuna and Queenstown Airport to rehabilitate the Shotover Wetlands, simultaneously enabling pupils to take part in a hands-on, meaningful learning programme around conservation and climate change mitigation.
Yesterday, pupils from Shotover Primary School, Arrowtown School and Te Kura Whakatipu o Kawarau participated in a hui with Otago Regional Council’s Enviroschools Otago regional co-ordinator Robyn Zink, of Dunedin, and representatives from the Whakatipu Reforestation Trust, Southern Lakes Sanctuary and Forest & Bird, looking at progress in the wetlands, in particular.
The hui began at Shotover Primary School, where pupils gave a tour of the school, including their vegetable garden, fruit trees and native plant propagation, where they also learned about food resiliency in the area.
"[We] discovered that when European settlers came, they grew all the food that they needed here, and now we import about 98% into the Basin," Ms Zink said.
At the wetlands pupils were involved in testing the water quality and looking for macroinvertebrates in the water, examining tracking traps to see which predators were present, looking at the history and rehabilitation of the wetlands, and were involved in a five-minute bird count, assisted by the free Merlin Bird ID app, to see if all the hard work was paying off.
Unlike snails and worms, which would "live in anything", water boatmen and damselfly were more picky, and needed high-quality water to survive.
While the tracking testing showed the presence of mice, rats, hedgehogs, stoats and weasels, those tests were set up near predator traps, to help rid the area of pests.
That, along with the other work, including planting, had led to an increase in birdlife.
During one five-minute bird-watching exercise yesterday, pupils found blackbirds, sparrows, chaffinch, a mallard and some ducklings and a European greenfinch.
Ms Zink said, from a Queenstown perspective, the Shotover Wetlands were "a really important site".
"All the stormwater from the Shotover area comes through the wetlands here, so this acts as the lungs, so to speak. It captures the stormwater and then releases it slowly.
"In terms of student learning, it’s really, really important because they get to see the evolution of their work over a number of years."
