Students get hands on with conservation

Year 5 and 6 students from Middleton Public School are conservation champions after visiting a local property in Ootha. Students took part in a hands-on conservation day at Kokum, a local conservation area, as part of the Conservation Champions school program delivered by Pataurus Education Group. The program is delivered on a conservation agreement established by local landholders with support from the NSW Biodiversity Conservation Trust. Students made the 50km trip to Kokum owned by Alan and Elizabeth Gufficke boasting an impressive area of threatened woodland, riparian forests and floodplain forests. The property is protected by a long-term conservation agreement with the NSW Biosecurity Conservation Trust and managed by the owners under an agreed plan, with annual payments from the Trust to support the conservation management of the site. The free school based program, is aligned to the NSW curriculum and includes a mix of in-class and field based learning. “We’ve got an incredible group of learners here who’ve spent time in the classroom learning about conservation and the environment, and now they’re out here, putting it into practice," Middleton Public School teacher Melissa Roberts said. “Being able to bring them here so they can learn about conservation in a place as special as this, where the landholders are really dedicated to protecting what they've got, is really special.” After a walk and talk around the property the students learned how landholders create habitat for native bees to maintain healthy and diverse ecosystems and learnt how water bugs can indicate the health of a waterway. Middleton has been praised by Stephen Lawrence, duty MLC for the electorate of Orange for supporting students to learn about the environment. “These are our future leaders and champions for the environment, growing the NSW Biodiversity Conservation Trust’s network of Conservation Champions," Mr Lawrence said. “We’ve got a big group of young people putting the environment at the centre of their learning in this program. “They’re here to see firsthand from landholders who are actively protecting endangered species on their own land, and they’re taking that back to apply to their own learning," he added.