The trust has been committed to providing support to local schools through educating both students and teachers about what we do and how we do it...
The students of all ages that we take on these field trips are enthusiastic and attentive they are eager to learn and a pleasure to teach. This makes us more determined to continue and increase our work with Schools, these kids are the future of the environment and the Trust and everything we do must include them! 
Over the last 12 months trust members have regularly taken students from the Bluff Community School on field trips to Bluff Hill gathering seeds and cuttings, teaching the students about possum, mustelid and rat control techniques and identifying plants and the damage introduced pests cause to the forest ecosystem. The trust saw the need to also educate student in plant propagation techniques to help restore the hill and other local areas.
Trustees have assisted the school in establishing a native plant nursery on site and over the last 4 months the nursery has developed so well we have run out of room, and are now looking to expand!
Students have visited the Otatara 
Community Nursery to learn the techniques 
needed to for their own nursery project, Chris Rance and the Otatara Community Nursery have been such a great resource for the Trust in establishing the School Nursery that we are now planning to establish a Community Nursery.
Community Nursery to learn the techniques 
needed to for their own nursery project, Chris Rance and the Otatara Community Nursery have been such a great resource for the Trust in establishing the School Nursery that we are now planning to establish a Community Nursery. On our last field trip to Bluff Hill/Motupohue this week students were taken to an area of established forest to view the effects of possum browse on mature trees, four students were asked to find a dead Totara and stand next to them..... check out the photo below! The students had no trouble finding four large Totara in that small area standing 'dead' in the forest, if we had 50 students they would have all found a dead Totara too stand beside in the area we were in. The Rata in this forest are just holding on and are doomed to the same fate as the Totara unless the Trust is able reduce and maintain possum numbers. If we can, this sad image could become a 'what was' and the future will be mature trees recovering and seedlings everywhere!
The students of all ages that we take on these field trips are enthusiastic and attentive they are eager to learn and a pleasure to teach. This makes us more determined to continue and increase our work with Schools, these kids are the future of the environment and the Trust and everything we do must include them! 
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