ECO-ACTION Greening the Red Zone and stopping the drafts
Since College volunteers turned out in force to start the greening of the Red Zone in mid-2018, the project has gathered momentum to the extent that the College nursery is now nurturing hundreds of young plants for other schools to follow suit. The 2017 Environment Committee set the wheels in motion and, since then, members of the Environment committee, led by HoD Physics David Newton, haven’t wasted a moment. Not only have they tended College’s own seedling nursery of 2,500 plants, but they have also
been instrumental in getting the boarding Houses involved. From Term 1 2019, each boarding House provides two opportunities a term for boys to get out and get stuck in to Environment projects. “We’ve had at least 30 boarders twice now and they’ve made a big difference to our area of the Red Zone, helping bring an abandoned site back to verdant life,” says David. Year 13 student and Head of Environment Jordy Annand says the first 2019 working bee on Sunday 17 February saw the boys clearing rubbish, mulching, planting flax and toi toi for bird food and habitat, and preparing the ground for future work.
“Next time we’ll be removing woody tree species such as sycamore and elderberry – both of which have a spreading seed.” The boys see it as an excellent community service opportunity, says Jordy, and a good way to learn more about the environment while getting your hands dirty and doing something worthwhile. A mulcher machine and driver have been donated by Heritage and Specimen Tree Specialists to enable College to increase its mulch pile on site. “What is there already has all been donated by several professional arborists. We barrow it around the new plantings and will let it mulch and decay and use it to reduce weeding,” says David.
Christ’s College Canterbury
36
Made with FlippingBook HTML5