Weekly Cleanup Friday 26 September 2014

After looking at the walkway which was really clean after last week's effort, we decided to go back to check on the big tree on the Elm Park Reserve and cleanup along the stream bank as we wore old clothes and gumboots.  As we left the bridge two happy ducks waddled up to the water's edge and enjoyed a leisurely paddle.  The water looked really clear.

Amazing to find no rubbish

Great to find so little litter...

We later found out that Ms Meikle had been down to this area yesterday for the National Cleanup Week- Keep NZ Beautiful- we'll get photos from her and post them

Our wonderful band of helpers today...

We would like to farewell Leilani who is moving to Hawkes Bay.  Thank you, Leilani for all your efforts as an Eco-Warrior at Elm Park School.

Weekly Cleanup on Friday 19 September

Checking the drain for small pieces of plastic...

No rubbish escapes Matthew's eagle eye...

It would be so wonderful if everyone recycled their own waste...

Sometimes the rubbish is really disgusting...

Today we forgot our recycling buckets...

Yuck...!

Grateful thanks to our dedicated crew today!

Eco Warriors' Weekly Clean-up Friday 22 August 2014

The Eco Warriors team has more than doubled its numbers as new children joined our group this week.  Fifty-six keen warriors split into two groups and targeted different areas on the reserve and up the walkway.

The jump in numbers is really heartening. It seems children were inspired by an Eco Warrior presentation by students at our whole school assembly last week.

Briefing the new warriors and pairing up with experienced students

We have more than doubled in size as new warriors have joined...

Recycling at the end

Weekly Clean-up Friday 15 August 2104

Today we went down to Elm Park Reserve to conduct our weekly rubbish clean-up.  There was quite a bit of litter and the sorting buckets helped us sort the pieces of rubbish for recycling back at school.

We are proud of today's work by a dedicated group of colourful Eco-Warriors who love their high visibility vests.  Thanks to Ms Meikle for the new gear.

A warm welcome to our new members today.

Soon it will be time to take our next set of stream data recordings for WaiCare.

Our new high-vis jackets are cool.....

Cleaning up the walkway....

Our recycling bins are better than our blue sacks as we can sort as we collect...instead of double handling

Weekly Clean-up Friday 8 August 2104

Thanks to our wonderful rubbish pickers today.  Elm Park school students have been dedicated since 2008 and their efforts are much appreciated by everyone at school.

Getting hard to reach rubbish on the other side of the fence up the walkway... pickers really help!

Eco-Warriors who love their job....

It was fairly free of litter today... that makes us happy!

We'll be back next Friday... you can count on us!

Stream Testing 1 August 2014

It was great that it was a fine day today despite the predictions of rain!  A small band of trained stream testers from Room 12, 13 and 14 came down with me to take the readings and to find if there were any invertebrates in our catch today.

We were pleased to have Ms Meikle accompany us. She is learning just what we do and will help us with the testing when she can.

There was no smell today and the water was flowing sluggishly. The water was cloudy where we usually take our samples but we noticed that this cloudy water was coming from a drain that was emptying into the stream. The following photo shows the change in the water just a little way away from where the water was flowing into the stream. 

You can see the clearer water on the left hand side of this picture...

We don't like to see cloudy water going into the stream... is it water from washing cars...?

Up the stream you can see how much cleaner the water was...



Here are our stream measurements:
Air temperature: 20 degrees
Water temperature: 15 degrees
Clarity: 11cm (very poor clarity today compared to last time and it hadn't rained for the last 2 days)

You can see just how dirty the water was ...

Invertebrates: snails (plenty of snails and one was a very large one!) and one damselfly. We were happy to see the damselfly as it is in the yellow section of our identification chart. These animals live in medium clean water.

The sinker we use for measuring clarity...

The mysterious golfball....we find some odd things in the water.

Nathan wants to fish out the bed-head out of the stream by the bridge... with his Dad's help...

                                           
Grateful thanks to Troy, Matthew, George, Nathan, Najwah, Jasmin, Richelle, and Aliah.

Week 1 Term 3 Cleanup Report on the Local Bridge Walkway

Some Eco-Warriors were unable to join us due to other commitments today but we have two new members to welcome: Kalin and Tara-Lee. Welcome to this wonderful, dedicated group of Eco-Warriors. And thanks to Ms Meikle who came with us on our mission today.

We went along our usual track, keeping to the dry hard surface of the driveway and the narrow walkway as it is so boggy on the Elm Park Reserve. We keep our voices low as we know that some people work at night ('shiftworkers') so they need to sleep during the day.

We found lots of small pieces of plastic, cigarette stubs, and the usual cans, bottles and a couple of plastic bags. Even the smallest piece of plastic can cause problems if our fish eat them.

We have had holidays recently so that may account for all the rubbish we found.

The most unusual, and disturbing, finds today were a small, red rugby ball with "Room 9" on it and a graphic novel tossed into the stream. This last item we couldn't retrieve as we didn't have AJ who is tall and usually retrieves things in the water.

Check out the photos!!

We returned the ball to Room 9.....

Quite a lot of rubbish in the bush beside the walkway... 

We recycle the cans and bottles... 

The third bag... Hmmmm

A great effort by a dedicated team today

The Clean-up continues along the stream... Week 2 Term 2 2014

We finally tackled the rubbish today along the school side of the stream from the big tree down to the foot bridge.  We had seen it last week and last term but there were other priority areas; so we left this until last as much of the rubbish had been trapped by the plantings by the stream.  This was a lucky thing because much of what we found was plastic.

We also went back to the big tree.  We were very happy to see that there were only a couple of cans to pick up.  Now this rubbish is picked up we can go back to taking stream readings and seeing what macro-invertebrates have returned since the sewage spill.

A smaller but very committed group today who did a wonderful job

Our Stream is not a Dump Site! by AJ and Matthew

Can you believe a bed-head has been dumped off the bridge!

Why do people dump shredded paper on the Elm Park Reserve?

So much more shredded paper... it could be recycled!

Can you spot the plastic bag?

Today we went down to see the stream on the last day of the term to see if the rain had cleaned it up.  It looked better and there was no sewage smell but we noticed some things had been dumped.  We saw a bed head by the bridge and a stainless steel door-handle.
There was plastic in the stream which made us sad.

But we were happy to see that the Council has removed the orange cone. Thank you to whoever took this out.

We also saw that a tree has fallen over across the stream.  Perhaps this tree is not the right tree for the side of a stream.

The Big Tree is looking free of rubbish.
(photos by AJ)

The Sad Day for Our Stream

Last Monday a parent from our school phoned the Council Pollution Hotline to report that there was a pungent odour at the stream and lots of eels were dead.  She also alerted our school office and we got the sad news.

On Tuesday morning I went down to the stream with Miss Hughes and we saw very brown dirty water with a brown stain of what smelt like sewage on the high water mark of the bank. There was also a strong chemical odour that was probably ammonia - it was very nasty and gave us a headache for the rest of the day... 

It is best to stay away from the stream.

When the Eco Warriors turned up to go off to do their usual clean up on Thursday lunchtime they learned the news and were very sad.  We tried to phone the Council to hear when it would safe to resume our work but there was no answer so we left a message.

We phoned WaiCare and told them and Kate Loman Smith went to investigate and alert the Council again.

We hope there is lots of rain to flush out the mucky sewage but worry about this pollution going into the Tamaki River and to the sea.

Looking south west from the bridge
- dirty brown water

Looking east from the bridge

Enviro Poster

Shreya's Enviro Poster

Clean Water

Teanna's Poster

The History of Elm Park School Eco Warriors

Quintina's Report