Award Nominee

Students and staff at Konini Primary School, Glen Eden, have become dedicated Weedbusters over the past year.

Konini Primary School is fortunate to have a large (4 ha) and diverse area of native forest in the school grounds, including a stream and a waterfall. While many at the school were aware that they had a treasure in the school grounds, the School s appreciation and understanding of how precious and threatened their bush is has increased over the last year since their involvement in a project to Sustain Our Stream .

Sustaining Our Streams is a one year funded project to help properties in Glen Eden restore their streamside areas. When the School heard the project was happening in there are they were keen to get the school involved in the project and take advantage of the advice and support on offer.

The forest on the school property is large, diverse and relatively healthy, however there are numerous environmental weeds such as tradescantia, Chinese privet and ginger that are hampering the natural regeneration of the bush. Sustaining Our Streams worked with the school to develop a weed management plan for the school, focusing on restoring the streamside near the waterfall as a first step. This area had a carpet of tradescantia that was covering the forest floor and preventing native plants from being able to regenerate, as well as some pockets of ginger, woolly nightshade and Chinese privet that were waiting for their chance to take over the bush.

The School held a number of weeding bees in the final term of 2009 to remove the tradescantia - picking it off the ground by hand and placing it in huge weed bags where it could rot down safely on site without spreading elsewhere. At the same time, the students learnt how to identify weeds and native plants and why weeds are bad for the forest. At one weeding bee there were over 90 children working in teams to clear the tradescantia and they found that many hands do indeed make light work! Throughout Term One 2010, the school s Eco-group has continued to care for the site, led by the school caretaker and two enviro-teachers spending a lunch-time every week pulling up any tradescantia that has re-sprouted. There is another group of students who are visiting the site weekly to monitor the quality of the water in the stream.

Meanwhile, Mr Milo , the school s caretaker, has been organising Community Workers to tackle some of the more physically demanding weeds like ginger and Chinese privet, and removing the weeds from areas the children can t safely access. Mr Milo is so passionate about getting every last weed that he pops down to the site almost every lunch-time to pick up any last bits of tradescantia that may have escaped the children s keen eyes!

There is already some lovely parataniwha and native grasses in the area and it is pleasing to see that it is these species, and some annual weeds, rather than the tradescantia, that have been growing back in the area cleared. The children will be planting some more small native plants in the area this winter to help speed up the natural regeneration of the site.

The commitment of Konini School to restore their streamside area and control the weeds on the school recently supported their application to become an Enviroschool. Konini has been incorporating weed issues throughout the school with the eco-group having weed identification sessions with the WeedFree Trust and teachers extending lessons to include material on weeds and the problems they create throughout the year in their class programmes.

The local community has been impressed and inspired by the work the children have done some of the adjacent properties are also hard at work trying to rid their part of the bush of invasive weeds and many locals visit the site for some tranquillity on the weekends. The children are taking what they are learning about weeds back to their homes and have already noted that they have some of the same weeds at home. The children are also able to relate what they are doing at their school with other areas the children are involved in a local project, Project Twin Streams, to re-plant an area on the larger Waikumete Stream that their own school stream flows into.

The school is already looking for another part of their school to restore once they have got on top of the waterfall area - the next area they plan to tackle is a wetland area on the school grounds. The school caretaker has already had Community work gangs in to help him clear the area of some of the weeds there s no stopping the enthusiasm and commitment to Weedbusting at Konini Primary School!

Nominated by: Leigh Marshall, Sustaining our Streams Community Coordinator, Ecomatters Environment Trust.