The Solway College grounds include about three acres of remnant native bush. PHOTOS/SUPPLIED
Bush restoration, solar panel installation, possum and rat trapping, and planting native saplings are just a handful of the initiatives going on at Solway College, a Masterton school commended for its environmental efforts.
On Thursday, Solway College won the 2021 Sustainable Schools Award category of the Keep New Zealand Beautiful ‘Beautiful Awards’ for its commitment to implementing sustainable practices that enhanced the school community.
“This is a fabulous achievement and an award that our whole Solway College whanau can be proud of,” principal Janine Tupaea said.
Over the past year, Solway College had installed 100kW of solar panels to replace its old generator.
The power capability of the solar panels was one of the largest of any New Zealand school, and was provided to the school free of charge through a partnership with Solar King and Utilise Energy.
During holidays, the school would put power back into the grid, with the companies receiving the financial gains.
“This clever negotiation benefits both parties and ensures that Solway College reaches its energy sustainability goal,” Tupaea said.
Meanwhile, the Solway groundsman was kept busy decreasing the rabbit, possum, and rat populations in the school.
A partnership with Fernridge School had groups of students running Timms traps, which caught 28 possums in six weeks.
At Solway’s boarding facility, students were making efforts to reduce single use plastic.
The boarders’ excess food also served a purpose, with all scraps from the dining hall and staff lounge collected and sent to pig farms.
Solway College’s video entry featured students pricking out young harakeke [flax], having collected seeds from an older plant.
More plants had arrived at the school through waste minimisation programme Paper4trees, which donated trees to schools depending on the amount of paper they recycled. The MPI Matariki Te Rakau initiative and the Good Earth Foundation also provided trees to Solway.
Drone footage showed the school grounds set against the green backdrop of the Solway Showgrounds and surrounding farmland.
Biology teacher and bush restoration facilitator Erica Jar said Wairarapa tended to get very dry in summer, and the water table in the school’s mature forest had dropped because of upstream irrigation practices.
“We’ve no longer got a forest floor that’s covered in ferns and saplings like we would expect.”
Jar said the school needed to make an effort to retain moisture in the forest by mulching and planting ponga trees.
Students were also replanting a grassy patch of land adjoining the forest with about 3000 new plants, with the goal of creating an entirely regenerative bush.
“It’s all mahi by the girls,” Jar said.
Looking forward, Solway College wanted to concentrate on its Kaitiaki Bush Restoration project, increase planting, and focus on where the school’s waste went, using the mantra “One person’s waste is another person’s treasure”.
The Beautiful Awards were initially scheduled for October 2021 but were rescheduled until February 2022 due to covid-19 restrictions.
Keep New Zealand Beautiful chief executive officer Heather Saunderson said although last year was tough for community groups, councils, and individuals, their commitments to the environment had held firm.
The titles of Most Beautiful Town or City were competitive categories of the awards.
Greytown and Masterton were both former winners.
