Stream Time Again!

Friday was stream time again for the Nelson Intermediate Roots of Life/Biodiversity group.
This group do a conservation educational activity every Friday morning.
We gather information and compare aspects of the sanctuary with their environment at school. This term we hope to make an action plan for how we can incorporate more natives into their school environment.

I love stream time!
We get Mel up from Waimaori and she brings all her stream monitoring gear. The students LOVE getting in the stream with and carefully picking up rocks and collecting some things underneath.
After that we sit up on the bank with magnifying glasses and identification charts and look at what we have found and what that indicates for the water quality.

They did really well! We had three koura (fresh water crayfish, a record for this group) and an eel! (a first for this group!)
I try not to keep those bigger things out of the stream for too long so we had a good look then gently popped him back in a low flow area.
We also did the flow test for the first time!

Catch the ball!

Ahh... looks like winter is coming to a close at the Brook...

The New Guys

Ok... well, they are puppets really, but it's like having a bunch of new friends at the sanctuary! Everyone that sees them wants to play and get their own!
I have been searching for things to keep little weeny younguns engaged when they visit the sanctuary - they can't read the walls and are too short and often too young to appreciate the 3d model. Apart from the velcro wall we don't have many things for wee minds and hands yet.
Here is the beginning of the solution!
Perhaps we should name them...

Conservation Week Photo Comp for School aged children in Nelson & Tasman.

(Click image for a bigger version)

“Meet the Locals” – 2008
Conservation Week Photograph Competition for School aged children in Nelson and Tasman.

Tasman District and Nelson City Councils’ are offering 9 prizes of $50 book vouchers and also runner up prizes of “Way to Go” packs.

School aged students are to send us their best photo of a –
“Meet a Local” – a native plant, animal or historic place.

There are 3 sections Years 1 – 5, Years 6 – 9 and Years 10 – 13.
(Consideration will be given for age within each group).
One photo per student in each category.
We ask for a signature to indicate the child/youth took the photo themselves. This signature could be supplied by an adult for young children.

A special section of “the Baddies Special” has another 3 prizes of $50 each book vouchers – we would like to see photos of active pest destruction or weed eradication to help protect the native ones!

Closing Date is September 12th 2008. Photos with this post date will be accepted.

Either email the photo to rob.francis@tdc.govt.nz) (2MB max size) or post to Rob Francis at TDC Private Bag 4 Richmond 7050 (A4 max size) or drop it in to any Local Council office in Nelson or Tasman. (Please clearly address it to Rob Francis).

The judges’ decision will be final and no correspondence will be entered into. Judges will be from both NCC and TDC. Images may be used by Council for further publicity. Photos will not be returned to the photographer so please only send copies.

For more information please contact Rob Francis TDC 03 543 8484 (rob.francis@tdc.govt.nz) or Karen Lee NCC 03 546 0339 (karen.lee@ncc.govt.nz) .

Thanks to Claire Webster for sending this out to us!
If you are doing the "baddies special" - please consider humane instant kill traps - we don't like the idea of seeing things suffering!

Eco-fest!

Each year, the Nelson City and Tasman District Councils hold a weekend Expo in August at the Trafalgar Centre in Nelson, promoting sustainability messages, products and services. Since we started in 2001, Ecofest has become established as one of the biggest showcases for environmentally friendly products, services and messages in New Zealand.

You can find out more about ecofest at their website -----> click this
Of course the Brook Sanctuary had to be there! So on Friday we packed up a bunch of stuff from the entrance building and set up a mini entrance building at Founder's Park (the location of this year's Eco-fest).

The first shift of day 1. Trust chair Dave Butler and trust member Chris Hemi on the left and Rick (project coordinator) and I (orange hat wearing educator) on the right.

On Saturday morning the weather might not have been SO flash, with some very low snow on the Tasman ranges, but ecofest was HOT!


We had a lot of people come over to talk to us about the sanctuary concept - many of our trust members were rostered on to engage with the public over the weekend.
We even had a membership sign up special for EcoFest.... The Brook Barrell!


It was certainly a wonderful opportunity to bring the Brook concept even closer to the public awareness and we enjoyed meeting and talking to everyone!
We even managed to have a quick look around at what everyone else was presenting over the two days.
Well done everyone!

And thanks to all those volunteers that supported with the event and pack up!
Especially Wiff - who certainly is very active in his support!! (see below!!)

NIS, a dead goat and a kereru in a kowhai tree!!

No, it's not xmas, just the beginning of August here at the Brook Waimarama Sanctuary!

Big week this week!
Wind storm, new Friday morning class with Nelson Intermediate, kereru in the kowhai tree and a dead goat!

This morning saw the first in situ session of the new Roots of Life class from NIS. It was great to have a new, bigger group at the sanctuary and I got to see NIS's new mini van from Japan! That should make trips to the sanctuary much less hassle.
We had a general welcome talk about the entrance building and the fence. We took a very small and careful walk up to the first weir and some of the students near the front of the track helped tidy a section fo the track which is covered in so much leaf and branch debris!


As they were leaving late in the morning I noticed three kereru sitting in the kowhai tree! I haven't seen them at the sanctuary since April so I was pretty excited. I have never seen them sitting so close to the entrance building either - it was wonderful!



Later in the day a report came down of a dead goat on the track. Too late to move it. It will have to wait until next week as will the track clearing!