Guthrie Smith arboretum and White Pine bush trip

On Friday the 7th August the year 4 students from Bledisloe Primary were invited by PanPac to go and visit Guthrie-Smith arboretum to see the work that is being done there to help prevent soil erosion and to eradicate unwanted pests from our native bush.

Prior to us going we had a visit from Lynne Arnold the HB environmental educator. She took us through what we could expect to see there as well as som facts about the different kinds of trees there were.

The trip itself was a great success. It was great weather for walking and we all really enjoyed the bus ride with Sonja telling us lots of interesting stories and local maori history about the area. She even read us a cool story on the way home too.

The walk involved looking at both native trees and introduced species. George, the Guthrie-Smith guide, showed us the different kinds of pest traps he uses to get rid of animals like possums, rats, stoats and weasels. He even showed us a dead weasel!

A real highlight was being able to plant our own native tree in a newly developed area. The kids will be able to go back and show their kids the trees they planted!

We went for a walk into White Pine bush too with a couple of DOC workers. We got to see beautiful tall kahikatea and nikau palms. We were asked to be advocates for the bush and to spread the message of keeping our environment clean and pest free so that future generations can enjoy it!The haka by us at the end was awesome and gave the adults shivers up and down their spines....


After a big day out we went home and thought about all of things we had seen and heard during the day!

Georgia did a great job of saying Kia ora to Sonja and the DOC workers