Te Puke High School students were among the first to trial a new dune vegetation sampling technique developed by the Coastal Restoration Trust, with funding from the Ministry for the Environment.

A total of 180 Year 10 students surveyed a section of the dune on Maketu Spit last month, as part of the Maketu Ongatoro Wetland Society (MOWS) Education Programme.

The MOWS programme is now conducted in six local primary schools as well as Te Puke Intermediate.

'We were approached by the maths department at Te Puke High School and were excited to plan a field trip where students could collect real life data to use in their classwork,” says coordinator Tania Bramley.

'Despite a couple of the students being preoccupied with dresses for their upcoming ball, the majority of students were really well-focused and fun to work with.

'It was a real pleasure to collaborate with the Coastal Restoration Trust and Coastcare who provided a dune planting activity alongside the vegetation sampling.”

The basis of the dune monitoring method is the use of transects placed perpendicular to the coast to point-sample across the range of zones from foredunes to backdunes.

Key factors surveyed were vegetation cover, species composition and dune profile.

'These easy-to-use sampling methods have been developed for use by community groups, including schools, nationwide to provide a consistent repeatable method for quantifying change in vegetation cover over time,” says Dr David Bergin of the Coastal Restoration Trust.

'This will assist Coast Care groups and the regional councils to measure success of their dune restoration and management activities.”

Maketu Ongaotoro Wetland Society were able to extend their environmental education programme to include Te Puke High School thanks to funding from Bay Trust this year.

This is in addition to foundation sponsorship for three primary Schools from Western Bay of Plenty District Council.

For more information check out www.maketuwetlands.org.nz