Cust School supports WIL biodiversity project

Over 350 native plants were donated and planted by Cust School students at a Waimakariri Irrigation Limited (WIL) biodiversity project site along Hunter’s Stream near Cust last month.  Environment Canterbury supplied additional native plants to fill in any gaps.

The site is part of Waimakariri Irrigation Limited’s (WIL’s) biodiversity project. It is one of fourteen projects currently underway across the scheme with two projects at the Cust River, three projects at Burgess Stream and one project each at the Old Eyre and Hunter’s streams.

Twenty-one year seven and eight students spent three hours planting native plants at the 350m2 site adjacent to Hunter’s Stream on Cust farmer Steve Tallott’s land.

Year 7/8 Cust School teacher Nerissa Thompson says the students’ interest in improving water quality and stream health started last year when a group of students wanted to clean up a Waimakariri District Council water race that runs behind their school.

“With the help of Siobhán from Enviroschools and Dan from WIL we cleaned up the water race and then entered and won the Youth Award in the Waimakariri Environmental Awards last year. The students decided to use the plants from the nursery voucher they won along with native seedlings they had grown in a school greenhouse to improve another local waterway.

“After brainstorming ideas with Dan and Siobhán, they chose this site as it is close to the school, and they wanted to make a positive impact on their local environment. It’s all interconnected and Steve Tallott has also been very supportive.”

Year 7 student Evie Winson says learning which plants should be planted near the edge of the stream and further back along the riparian planting strip was an interesting experience.

“Before we came to the planting day, we had been learning which plants go where when you are planting around a stream. We learned why certain plants go close to the verge of the stream and the qualities they bring to help improve the water.”

While one group of students were planting native seedlings with WIL biodiversity project lead Dan Cameron and landowner Steven Tallott, another group of students were carrying out a macro-invertebrate water quality survey with Enviroschools facilitator Siobhán Culhane to check the health of the stream.

Cust School has been an Enviroschool for over fifteen years and Siobhán says during the last two years since she has been working with the school, the students have focused on connecting with their local environment and implementing meaningful change in their community.

“We investigated what is happening in this section of Hunter’s Stream to see what is living in the water and to get a baseline measurement for future stream surveys.

“Today’s survey indicated that there weren’t as many invertebrates as we had expected and there is quite a bit of sediment. However, we did have some exciting moments when we found two mayflies in the stream so that indicates that there is a better habitat and it’s what we are aiming for.

“We hope to visit the stream again once the riparian planting is established to carry out more surveys and we hope to find many more mayflies. Today has been a great example of student-led environmental change in action.’’

Year 8 student Leo Wright says he was surprised at how many creatures the stream contained.

“I didn’t know how much life there could be in one stream. When you just look at it from the edge you can’t imagine how many little creatures are living in there. I hope when the plants grow, we will see a bigger variety of insects with less sediment and healthier water.”

Both Leo and Evie hope to continue working on the biodiversity project with the aim of seeing thriving healthy native plants and better water quality.

“If we come back here in 20 years hopefully, we will see native bush and clean water with lots of insect life and birds.”