Wadalba Wildlife Warriors
Our Environment and sustainability projects have really exploded this year. Our Enviro group have organised new school bins to help separate the land fill from recyclables and organics. The students are then collecting the cans and bottles and cashing them in to gain funds for various environmental programs. Our Environment group has made a long term plan to ensure that the school is much more sustainable. This plan comes under our Wadalba Wildlife Warriors project.
The specific goals of the Wadalba Wildlife Warriors project are to:
1) To collect data and increase the biodiversity of native flora and fauna.
Students will propagate native plant species from the gardens around the school and local area. These are grown and developed into packs which are sold to the community. These packs will include information explaining the environmental impacts for a variety of activities and provide steps that can be taken to minimise the impact.
2) To provide a sustainable and clean habitat for local wildlife in the Wadalba Community.
Specific Location – The wildlife corridor, owned by Central Coast Council, is located on the NSW Central Coast. The corridor is a patch of retained native vegetation and fauna habitat that functions as a wildlife movement corridor and provides connectivity between Porters Creek Wetlands and Tacoma Wetlands. To date, limited studies have been undertaken to look at the fauna assemblages using the corridor and determine if it is functioning as expected.
Problems identified –
· Fragmentation of species due to development
· Habitat loss
· Reduction in Biodiversity – both flora and fauna
· No upkeep of the corridor
· Lack of education about local area
· Limited native species
· Weed Control
Proposed solutions to increase biodiversity and sustainability –
· Increasing native flora for local wildlife
· Build a sanctuary for injury wildlife for the school and local community, refuge for injured animals
· Establish connection with local services
· Involve students from Wadalba in the conservation of the local area
· Educate the local community on sustainability practices
3) To increase awareness of and reduce the community’s ecological footprint.
A number of activities will be undertaken to achieve this such as the use of solar energy and educating the community about our native flora and fauna and how to best support and protect them. The many Science classes involved will also be regenerating the schools environment with native trees and native animal habitats.
I am incredibly proud of the efforts of our Students and Teachers to put together this project and 76 page grant application. Feel free to have a look at this brilliant work on the schools website.