Queenstown teen Audrey Austin picked up a major prize at Tuesday night’s New Zealand Plant Conservation Network awards in Queenstown.
Audrey, 13, was named young plant conservationist of the year, having attended all the local community planting days in the Whakatipu and her Shotover Primary School planting days in the Shotover wetland.
Her citation says she also works in the school garden and grounds every lunchtime, and works with younger students to teach them the skills to look after and grow natives.
She also volunteers at Kiwi Park Queenstown, formerly the Kiwi Birdlife Park.
Meantime, Audrey’s school won the ‘school plant conservation project’ for its work helping to restore the wetland, identified as ‘regionally significant’ in 2016.
Along with helping plant 2500 eco-sourced plants around the periphery of the wetland, nestled within Shotover Country, and staged planting of appropriate native eco-sourced species, Shotover Primary students have also been involved in monitoring the environmental health indicators.
The project’s success has attracted corporate support, both financially and physically, including from Queenstown Airport, to help the school achieve its 10-year goal of 4500 plants around the wetland.
It’s also encouraged the pupils to take control of the school’s internal landscaping — they’ve subsequently spearheaded the design, planning, planting and maintenance of the school grounds, with about 1500 eco-sourced natives planted over three years.
And the kids have their own nursery, where they’ve started collecting and propagating plants.
The awards were handed out as part of the network’s biennial conference, which finished on Wednesday, held for the first time in the
Whakatipu.
