Tree planting at Waitahuna.
On Tuesday Room 4 and 7 went to Waitahuna River with Mrs May, Marie and some parents. There was Rachel and Grant Murray. Craig Simpson from Land-care told us what we were doing. At the river there was Keiran and Angus ( the electric fishermen.) There was Matt from Department of Conservation, Glenn ( from the Sinclair Wetlands - helped with planting) and 2 ladies from the Otago Regional Council. It was at Nick's farm. It was on Tuesday the 16th of May and we left school at 9.30 and got back at 12.30. We planted fluxes along the river.
We had to dig a hole then we took the plant out of the black bag and we put it in the hole. Then we covered the hole with the mashed up dirt and stepped on it so that the wind wouldn’t blow it out. We wanted to help the fish and eels that live in the Waitahuna river to have a better, healthier environment to live in. The flaxes help the eels to hide, they stop the river banks from sliding into the river by making them strong and they provide somewhere for insects to live. Planting flaxes now will make the river a better environment for a long time. We got into a group of 3 or 2 children and 1 adult to dig our holes and plant our flaxes. The 2 classes planted about 200 flax bushes while we were there. 1,000 plants were planted in total.
While we were there Keiran showed us an eel that he had caught in a net that he had set overnight. He also showed us electric fishing, which is where you use an electric current to stun the fish, so that they can catch them and look at them more closely. He told us that the bigger the fish the more effect the electric shock would have on them. He showed us a brown trout and a lamprey eel that he had caught earlier. Lamprey eels are very rare and it was the first one Keiran had ever seen. They are an ancient fish, sometimes called a ‘sucker eel’ because they don’t have a jaw and they just suck.
