Taipa Students Proactive on Beach Care

The Whare Wananga at Taipa Area School proved to be a fine venue in which to celebrate World Oceans Day on Monday. The weather was squally and the ocean best enjoyed from the spacious shelter of the Whare where a number of groups had come together to learn more about the beachside environment and its importance to the health of the oceans.

Taipa's Junior Beachcare group have already done much work along the dunes, planting and tending pingao and spinifex under the guidance of 'Nani Trish'. Many more students are keen to lend a hand, with more planting scheduled for later this month, starting from the 25th of June. The public are invited to come along and help - watch this space for more details next week!

Laura Shaft, from the Regional Council, braved the weather to bring DVDs about dune care and restoration, which illustrated similar work being accomplished at other beachs where dune erosion threatens both natural habitat and human amenity values.

Visual learning was the mode for the day - even if technical difficulties impeded the sound quality! Richard showed some amazing footage of marine animals....

...and the banners of winning photographs from the Environment Centre's recent photo competition, Far North Exposure, were enjoyed by the students and other visitors. 

Much of the preparatory weeding for this year's planting at Taipa Beach has been completed by a gang of Community Service workers and local volunteers

but with up to 1000 plants to go in, many return visits will be needed to ensure that the new sandbinding plants establish as strongly as these spinifex, which were planted last year.

We look forward to World Ocean's Day in another year's time when no doubt we will be celebrating further progress in the restoration of the indigenous flora and fauna of the Taipa beachfront - with special thanks to Taipa's Junior Beachcare Group!