The Taylor River: Feeling the Love!
Blenheim students have been loving their river lately: learning about it, connecting with its natural spaces and raising awareness about how we can all take care of it.
Whether you visit it as a way to get safely from A to B, to exercise your dog, to enjoy the sunshine during your lunch break or to teach your child to ride their bike: the Taylor River is a much-used and enjoyed part of Blenheim. As well as being a popular spot for recreation, the river is valued for its important role in flood protection, serving as a conduit for stormwater during rainfall events. It is home to a variety of native and introduced freshwater fish and the critters that these fish feed on. It is a safe route for children to walk or bike to school. The river reserve is home to the Ralph Ballinger Arboretum which contains over 400 trees from all around the world. Native plantings act as islands of habitat for tui and other native birds while also benefitting the river.
Place-based learning and connecting with nature
With its handy proximity to many schools, the river has long been used as a location for place-based learning and connecting with nature. Students learn how to investigate river health and discover the variety of interesting creatures that live in the awa through MDC’s Freshwater Education programme. Bio-blitzes have catalogued the diversity of plants and animals that live in the river corridor through the Enviroschools programme. River-inspired poems written by school students are displayed along the Taylor River Writers’ Walk. Blue plastic fish have been installed beside surrounding road drains, reminding us that these drains empty directly into the river. Planting projects have enhanced the river reserve area and stabilised the river banks.
A number of schools take an active and ongoing role in caring for the Taylor River: whether through regularly picking up rubbish in the area or by spreading messages of how we can take better care of this special place. Students often make signs, artwork or posters to share with the wider community: like these ones made by students from Richmond View School after they did a stream study at the river in Term 1.
Taylor River Hikoi session
Following a successful pilot with Year 7 & 8 students at Richmond View School, we are now pleased to be able to offer a new ‘Taylor River Hikoi’ session as part of MDC’s Freshwater Education programme. This facilitated session takes the format of a guided walk – walking along the river pathway stopping at selected points to talk, observe or do short activities – and can be customised to fit your needs and time availability. Possible content includes river health, caring for the river, history of the river, nature connections or writing inspiration – or you might like to cover a mixture of topics. Please contact Anna (apcrowe@icloud.com) to find out more or book your session.