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A slip in the Weiti Bay subdivision caused by Cyclone Gabrielle last year, was recently planted with native seedlings by students from Wentworth College.
More than 1800 flax, cabbage tree, manuka, hebe and coprosma seedlings were planted to help stabilise the site – 760 of them had been grown by the Wentworth students.
The college joined the Trees for Survival programme five years ago. Year 7 students pot up seedlings and care for them in the school’s nursery, then plant them the following year.
Fifty-three students joined their Murrays Bay School counterparts, who had grown the rest of the seedlings, at the Weiti Bay planting on May 31.
Planting holes had been predrilled by volunteers, so not much digging was needed. However, the students had to firm the trees well into the soil to prevent pukekos from pulling them out.
Morning tea and lunch was provided by Weiti Bay residents.
Wentworth teacher in charge of the process, Sharon Addis, says the activity gives students a hands-on experience of working towards a more sustainable future, and increasing biodiversity.
For every tree planted, a sponsor paid $1 to Trees for Survival Charitable Trust, a Rotary initiated project that supports over 230 NZ schools and communities to grow and plant native trees along waterways and at environmentally at-risk sites.
