Educating our future conservationists

Our  Whakatipu Hub Coordinator – Bonnie, teamed up with Jo from Wakatipu Reforestation Trust to teach a group of Year 7 and 8 Enviro Leaders and some of the younger Enviro Team members from Shotover Primary School about monitoring pest and predator species.

This group are involved in restoring a Wetland near their school. To compliment their planting work, the group made tracking tunnels and chew cards and put these out around the wetland to get a better understanding of what is going on down there, and to help inform which traps are needed in the area. After a month, Bonnie returned to Shotover Primary and with the Enviro Team kids, checked the tracking tunnels and discovered mice and hedgehogs. They also found prints from a skink. The Enviro Team have now deployed ten DOC200 traps which they plan to check weekly with their teacher.