Shotover Primary School has spent the past seven years working with Queenstown Lakes District Council, the Otago Regional Council, Whakatipu Reforestation Trust, Southern Lakes Sanctuary, Mana Tahuna and Queenstown Airport to rehabilitate the Shotover Wetlands, simultaneously enabling pupils to take part in a hands-on, meaningful learning programme around conservation and climate change mitigation.
At the wetlands pupils were involved in testing the water quality and looking for macroinvertebrates in the water, examining tracking traps to see which predators were present, looking at the history and rehabilitation of the wetlands, and were involved in a five-minute bird count, assisted by the free Merlin Bird ID app, to see if all the hard work was paying off.
