Winners for the community
A passion for conservation was at the heart of the Southland Community Environment Awards on Thursday, but for one group of the winners, being environmentally aware has become a way of life, rather than just something they learn about.
Limehills School won the Schools Awards for the work they have been doing as part of their Enviroschools programme.
Principal Jim Turrell said the award was a win for the whole community, as parents, friends and teachers had all contributed in various ways to make the programme a success.
Sustainability was threaded into many aspects of the school’s curriculum and being environmentally conscientious had gone from something students learned about to a way of being, Turrell said.
‘‘It’s not just about the environment, it’s their attitudes,’’ he said.
Enviroschools was introduced at Limehills more than 10 years ago and Turrell was pleased with how much students and the programme had grown.
The school had its own gardens, tunnel houses and farm with bees, sheep and chickens and any money they made off any of the ventures was reinvested back into the school, by buying things such as sports equipment.
Picking up the Commercial Award, forestry company Ernslaw One won for their freshwater crayfish farming project.
Aquaculture manager John Hollands said the win was a bit of a surprise because he thought there were many other high quality projects up for the award. ’’I’m very humbled. Very pleased,’’ he said.
Despite the project involving farming, the business had managed to sustain more than 1800 ponds across Southland and Otago with threatened crayfish, using areas which were unsuitable for planting trees.
The project involves farming the crayfish on a ‘‘forest island’’ which also helps to reduce the amount of sediment from forestry operations making it in to waterways.
Around the ponds planting native grass.
Winning for the work done in an effort to eradicate pests in the area, the Omaui Landcare Charitable Trust picked up the Community Award.
Trust chairman Malcolm Loan said since it was established in 2013, there had been good bush growth in the area and there were a lot more birds.
Previously, there was notable bush desecration and the local bird life had been suffering because of pests such as possums, rats and stoats.
Winning the award was good recognition for the activities and measures the group had taken to protect the area, Loan said.
Most weekends, teams were out in the Omaui area resetting traps and maintaining the tracks.
Despite their best efforts, Loan said there had been a resurgence in the rat population and working on ridding the pest would be one of the trust’s next focuses.
Loan said the awards’ judges particularly noted the project’s success in the area. ’’I think they were impressed with our management style and the way we had monitored [the area],’’ he said. they were also