Wanika was one of the very first students to sign up to her school’s Nature Club.

She is one of the best Eco Councillors with helping in the gardens, with the animals, running our trapline, composts, fruit kitchen, rubbish system, mentoring the Year 7s, and does the yuck jobs and always with a smile on her face!  She is one of the best Eco Councillors, who through her commitment and passion for nature has made this Nature Club a success.

Tyler represents the future of success of our young rangatahi in conservation-he is highly motivated and earnest in his quest to show kaitakitanga for the environment and respect for our precious native species.

As a young conservationist Tyler is committed to taking personal action to protect and restore the environment in any way he can. His teachers have seen his enthusiasm and dedication from a very early age as he shared his thoughts, ideas and actions with those around him. He has become a role model for his peers in the humble and enthusiastic way he has applied himself to action in the environment. Students want to be around him and learn from him and take the lead from him. (He has been an ”influencer” long before it became fashionable on social media!)

Eve is an influential environment leader because she approaches all her environmental tasks with great spirit and initiative. She is an inspirational role model to others. She volunteered to go on What Now for a segment on how to reduce waste.

Eve offered tips on; how to cook popcorn from scratch rather than buy plastic covered food like chips and how to use soap bars instead of liquid soap. She fronted this segment like a STAR with lots of her own flair! Eve is a passionate member of the local Eco-Neighbourhoods group and helps out flora and fauna at home by making bird feeders and doing gardening.

After a visit to his school from Forest and Bird, Dylan decided to support his community by trapping rats, mustelids and possums in his local area. He began trapping at home in 2018 and then, after discussing with his neighbours, he began trapping in his local neighbourhood from October 2019. He has also volunteered in 2020 to be a part of the trapping team working in the Mahurangi College Bush restoration project.

Dylan initiated trapping to save the dotterel population at Snells Beach and shared his story with the class and in his previous school of Warkworth Primary School. He has assisted Michelle Mackenzie with dotterel protection in Snells Beach. Dylan volunteered to assist with the trapping team in the working in the Mahurangi College Bush restoration project. Dylan traps for his local community, his school community and he assists in local conservation projects when he is able.

Ethan has been a hands on member of the Enviro-Warriors team since its beginning four years ago. He has taken on the role of leader, remembering to ‘do’ the litter-free area award audit prior to full school assemblies, mentoring a younger student to learn the role.

He is proactive in bringing up environmental issues as they arise around the school and poses solutions. He has been instrumental in the success of our orchard by feeding the trees worm castings and mulching. He has attended an after school pruning course at the Auckland Botanical Gardens. He has been a great asset to our enviro programme and in building sustainability awareness within our learning community.

Gabriel is an incredibly enthusiastic member of the Mammalian Predator-Free team at Summerland Primary School. Gabriel has been instrumental in setting up a programe to track, map and trap invasive mammalian predators at our school.

Every week throughout the year he has met with the other team members and his passion for the project has never lessened. He shows commitent to learning as much as he can about ways to protect our native bird species in particular and his enthusiasm is infectious-whether he’s making tracking tunnels and bird feeders or explaining to other students aspects of biodiversity relationships.