Comvita's Birds, Bees, Kids and Trees environmental programme celebrates its fifth year this week. The occasion was marked on Tuesday when two school groups took part in a planting day at Kopurererua Valley.
Te Ranga student Ciara Sunnex and Keifer Ericsson from Fairhaven School.
BBKT began in 2005 with a visit to the valley by Paengaroa School. This week students from Fairhaven and Te Ranga Schools in the Western Bay of Plenty were in the valley – and to mark the special occasion the students enjoyed a cake made up of 50 cupcakes.
The BBKT programme introduces children to the importance of looking after the environment in a hands-on way by planting Manuka trees.
Children enjoying a planting day at the Kopurererua Valley.
The programme is about encouraging children to learn about, and respect their environment.
Comvita's Jackie Buzowsky says the programme is a great way to introduce the children to environmental issues while helping to restore the valley to a more natural state.
'We encourage them to revisit the planting site in future years to see how their trees are doing,” says Jackie.
'In this way they take a real ownership of the valley.”
BBKT is a part of the City Partnership Programme and Comvita has donated $10,000 worth of native trees to assist in the restoration of the Kopurererua Valley.
3 comments
tree planting
Posted on 03-12-2010 14:10 | By Glen Clova
Its a shame that only native tree`s are planted in the valley as there so many beautiful exotic`s which provide huge amounts of nectar for birds seems very pc the way it is at the moment.I have tui`s and whiteeye`s in the exotics on my plot most of the year they are not bothered if its a native tree of Aussie or South African.Lets have a bit of colour in the valley not just 20,000 shades of green.
stay
Posted on 03-12-2010 23:02 | By Capt_Kaveman
keep it native i like the native look than the imported rubbish like the weeping willow for starters
Its not a garden
Posted on 04-12-2010 12:32 | By bringa
Only native trees have the ability of returning the valley back to the way it was before Europeans came and cleared the land and now the associated problems of sediment deposits and nutrients entering the harbour. If we were to plant the valley with exotics, we would lose a huge piece of our natural history. Native plants are hardier and grow faster than exotics. The planting up of the valley is not just for cosmetic reasons.
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