Inspiring the next generations

Our community was inspired on Thursday night at our August monthly meeting. Town Belt Kaitiaki (TBK) education coordinator Maureen Howard shared interesting stories with us about the TBK programme. The initiative started in 2017 and has been a vehicle for students to lead conservation projects within the town belt. It was inspiring to hear about the types of things the students wanted to do, and to learn of their enthusiasm for weeding! It was also interesting to find out that the Town Belt itself, is only one of three surviving Victorian-era town belts in the world! (The others being Wellington and Adelaide).

We also heard from Paul who gave the 'Inspiring Conservationist' segment of the meeting. His inspiring conservationist was Anja Gray, who has been volunteering in our admin team for nearly two years. Her work has led to hundreds of traps being installed, and several predators being removed from around the Kaikorai Stream. Anja's now leaving us to move to Wellington, and we will miss her easy nature and good humour.

Beth led our 'Bird of the Month' segment, which this month is the Riroriro | Grey Warbler. These tiny native birds weigh about 6 grams, but their tune is really loud! Grey Warblers are insect eaters and one way to help them is to leave leaf litter in your garden, as this can result in habitat for more insects, which leads to more food for Riroriro to eat!

New AKV trustee Barb Long shared a few notices at the end of the meeting, including the opportunity for a young person to become an intern trustee. We hope to inspire the next generation of conservationists and also be inspired by them.

Many thanks to Paul, Beth and Barb for speaking at the meeting. Extra special thanks to Bob Brown for running the meeting, and to Maureen Howard for the scintillating talk!