Mini Green Jam Y – North Shore Schools Environmental Conference —5 September 2017

Back in July, a group of students from Takapuna Grammar School on Auckland’s North Shore joined us for a planting day at CUE Haven.  One of the students later invited us to make a presentation on CUE Haven at the Mini Green Jam Y conference of student environmental groups from a number of schools on the North Shore.

The mini conference was held at Rangitoto College and started with introductions and an ice breaker so that all the participants could get acquainted.

The first speakers were from an advocacy group attempting to save a local park from development.  The park is one of the few nesting sites for the endangered NZ dotterel but the government wants to sell it off for property development.  The presentation was about how the group was fighting the sale.

Thomas then gave the presentation on CUE Haven.

He gave a brief history of the project and talked about how introduced pests endanger native plants and animals and how controlling the pests at CUE Haven has helped native plants and animals flourish.

Thomas had brought some of tracking cards and traps and explained and demonstrated how they worked.

He reminded the students of how much had been accomplished by people working together and encouraged them to get involved in making the world a better place.

You can see the full presentation here.

The highlight of the evening was a visit from Sylvia Durant, “The Bird Lady.”  Sylvia has been operating a native bird shelter and rehabilitation centre from her home on the North Shore for the past 30 years.  People from all over the area, including the police, knock on her door at all hours to drop off injured birds which she takes in and takes care of until they are ready to be released into sanctuaries.

She introduced us to a Morepork – the New Zealand owl – she is nurturing back to health.

Few people realize that the small Blue penguins are endemic to all New Zealand beaches and they are often injured by sea gulls or dogs.  Sylvia brought along two penguins, one that has lost a flipper and another that had nerve damage from a gull attack that prevented it from being able to swim.

It was a fun ending to a great evening.  We were very impressed by the students and how professionally organized the program was.

We want to thank Iona for inviting us to participate in the program. We also want to thank all of the students for their enthusiasm and their interest in the environment and conservation.