Students Emma Foster, left, Nikita Veale and Maia Richards-Hema check the clarity of stream water in Anzac Park bush.
Students Emma Foster, left, Nikita Veale and Maia Richards-Hema check the clarity of stream water in Anzac Park bush.
If the ancient trees in the Anzac Park bush north of Norsewood could talk, their stories would be amazing, environmentalist James Kendrick says.
This week, with funding provided by the Ministry of Education, James Kendrick and Morry Black from Ngati Kahungunu, and Kate McArthur, who works with the Catalyst Group,shared their knowledge and expertise of our environment with Room 4 and 5 students from Norsewood and Districts School at Anzac Park.
Sophie Meek (left) and Matthew Steele busy with their water analysis.
The students learned the history of the area, native forest indigenous plants and their uses and freshwater hydrology/ecology and basic water science in the stream known locally as Butcher's Creek. Its Maori name is the Mangamokio.
The students learned a great deal, finding some interesting invertebrates in the river as well.
The native bush and stream are now more accessible, thanks to the work put in by members of the Norsewood Lions Club.
James Kendrick explains the importance of our native trees to Norsewood School students.
"The ministry gave us more than $100,000 for phase two of our educational programme, following the success of the pilot, working with Dannevirke school students," Mr Kendrick said.
Already the team had worked with Papatawa School students at Coppermine Creek and Mr Kendrick said one of the concepts of the programme was to promote what we had locally.
"It's been awesome. The kids ask questions and learn so much more about their environment," he said.
Kate McArthur of environmental consultancy the Catalyst Group, working with students in a stream at the park.
In the bush, Mr Kendrick was able to draw on his Tuhoe heritage to extend the students' knowledge about our flora and fauna, including the age of some of the wonderful trees.
"The matai tree would be worth at least $100,000 for its timber, but it's been here 400 years and I'm amazed this section of the forest has never been logged.
"It was spared from the settlers' saws and now a rata vine has climbed around it," he said.
"The old bushmen would draw its sap, boil it and call it matai beer, although he had no alcohol.
"The purple berries taste like turpentine and was used by Maori as an insecticide.
"I'm absolutely stoked this reserve has so many significant trees."
Mr Kendrick shared stories from his Maori culture.
"Where I grew up (Te Urewera ) the old people told us if we saw an orange lizard, it meant somebody was going to die.
"My mother saw a skink one day and freaked out. Tuhoe treat our native lizards as guardians."
The bush at Anzac Park is beginning to regenerate and look after itself and where the high canopy opens to allow sunlight and rain through, regenerating saplings are taking hold.
The schoolchildren said a magnificent 300-year-old totara, a kahikatea (white pine) that Mr Kendrick believed was 350 years old, and an ancient black maire, one of the most sacred of trees with links back to Tane, were awesome.
On the banks of the Mangamokio Stream, students worked with Mr Black and Ms McArthur learning what made a healthy waterway.
"It's really important to find out where your water comes from and where waste goes," Ms McArthur said.
"This is a lovely, clean stream, with water riffling over the rocks. But water needs a lot of oxygen saturation so bugs can live."
Students discovered bugs and invertebrates lived in the stream before heading to the land, including dragon flies and caddis flies.
