Lake Taupō Christian School- Native Seedling Collecting
Thanks so much to Jackie (centre) from New Zealand Forest Managers for supporting our programme and making this happen. KGT coordinators Rachel (left) and Heidi (right) loved the experience and can’t wait to do it again!
For many years we have talked about how great it would be to collect the native seedlings that pop up in pine forests, as if left there they are destroyed when the pine trees are harvested. However, getting permission to do this always seemed too difficult. We were super excited to hear from New Zealand Forest Managers that they would like to support us to do this activity with our Kids Greening Taupō students.
Lake Taupō Christian School students were looking for native plants to plant into their local gully at Crown Park that they had been restoring for a number of years. We thought that this activity would be a perfect fit! They were the lucky first group to give it a go.
After weeks of rain, the sun was out as we entered the forest. We taught the students how to differentiate between weeds and native plants and showed them how to collect the seedlings, then off they went. It was like a treasure hunt! They followed the mountain bike tracks, and searched the encroaching blackberry for beautiful native seedlings that had grown from seeds dispersed by birds and wind. Before long their big bins were full to over flowing and they came back together to share stories of their adventures.
The bins of plants were put aside as the students discovered rotting logs full of interesting bugs to explore. Interesting toothed jelly fungi was found and researched on the spot. Then they sat on the soft pine needle covered soil and relaxed in the dappled sunlight, as toutouwai (robins) hopped around enjoying the bugs they had disturbed and riroriro (grey warblers) songs floated down from the tree tops. It was truly magical!
What an awesome classroom we were able to learn in for the afternoon!
We sat around and shared our highlights of the day, which included working together, being out in nature, learning about the native plants and birds, and just being outside learning in a different way. It was a perfect example of learning through an authentic context and connecting to nature for well being.
The next day we headed to the school and helped the students to pot up the plants. We also tried planting some directly into their native garden area under the larger trees. The students watched with interest to see which plants survived and thrived. They found that those planted under a canopy mostly thrived, but those planted without cover did not do so well. They had been told that planting directly into the ground (rather than potting up first) would not work, but were pleasantly surprised at the survival rate for plants that we did this with. Some species, such as mapou, struggled. However, most species, if planted with some of the original soil still around their roots and canopy cover over head, did well!
At the end of the term, the Lake Taupō Christian School students headed to their restoration site in the Crown Park Gully with the students from Tawa Street Preschool. Together they planted out the seedlings into their new homes. It was fantastic tuakana-teina learning and a great end to the seedling collection project. We were able to successfully transplant a range of native plants from pine forest to local gully, and learn lots about our native plants and restoration along the way. What a fantastic project!
Thank you so much LINZ and New Zealand Forest Managers for making this happen, Alana from Nicholas Singers Ecological Solutions for advice and assistance, and Easy as Organics and Mynoke for the potting mix used for the project.
