Rudolf Steiner School Wetland
Welcome to the Homepage of the Steiner School Wetland Care Group
The Tauranga Environment Centre has been working with the staff, parents, and pupils of the Tauranga Rudolf Steiner School since 2005. The Environment Centre has been facilitating the restoration of the wetland on the school grounds through its Urban Greenspace Programme. The staff and community of the school are leading the decisions and work programme of the restoration and care work.
Last year the school sighed up to the Trees for Survival programme, which enabled a propagation unit to be installed so the school can produce trees from seedlings in order to restore its wetland without significant ongoing funding for plants. Three members of school staff are directly involved with the propagation unit, along with Class 3 (about 20 pupils) who are making use of the plant propagation unit as an educational resource. This resource is part of the
Trees for Survival national programme of environmental education which is provided by the Trees for Survival Charitable Trust and coordianted in Tauranga by the TEC.
Individual working bees to weed, restore and maintain the wetland have been held involving up to fifty volunteers from the school and local community.
Plant Propagation
The plant propagation unit was set up by the school at the beginning of 2009, and school staff have been training and practicing with its use. Planning and training for environmental education has also taken place, ready to deliver an educational programme for the school pupils using the wetland restoration as a practical lesson. Seedlings cared for and potted on using the propagation unit will be used to continue to replant and restore a wetland site on the school grounds.
Our successes
The school brought its first cohort of seedlings through the Propagation Unit in 2009.
As a result of the project they have identified a number of other schools wishing to do environmental restoration work in Tauranga which is an excellent outcome for the local community.
The grant from BOC Gas has allowed the restoration project to develop in a groundbreaking new direction, with the school community actively involved in the restoration project from start to finish, including the actual propagation and nursing of the plants.
Some superb assistance from other organisations
We have had assistance from Trees for Survival Charitable Trust in the delivery and installation of the Plant Propagation Unit.
The Environment Centre has been acting as the key facilitating organisation in the work of the Steiner School care group and is also coordinating the Trees for Survival programme in the Tauranga Moana region.
Environment Bay of Plenty has been supportive through assisting with the identification of pest plant species for removal from the land.
Fulton Hogan have assisted the project by providing a long arm digger to dredge the wetland ponds to ease sedimentation problems.