Ruru Nesting Boxes Installed at Katikati School Gully in Community Drive

More than 40 students at Katikati Primary School are now kaitiaki of a ruru nesting box installed this week in their school's Te Awaawa gully, as part of a wider community effort to restore native habitat across the township. The Year 5–6 students participate in an environmental education programme called Treasuring Our Place / Taonga o Te Taiao (TOP), administered by Western Bay Museum and delivered by environmental educator Tammy Bruce.

The programme's focus for 2025 is healthy forests and stream studies. Students carried out a bioblitz survey earlier in the year to assess native trees, weeds, insects, birds and pest animals in the gully, and this week put that learning into action by pulling out target pest plants including Woolly Nightshade, Privet, Mignionette and Night Jasmine. Western Bay Museum manager Paula Gaelic said the gully had been transformed over recent years from an overgrown, rubbish-filled space into an inviting outdoor classroom.

The ruru boxes were built by Paula Gaelic's husband Merv as a labour of love, with four donated to Renaturing Katikati — the urban arm of project Parore — to be installed around the township. The first box was placed on Middlebrook Drive; the second was installed at the school gully on Tuesday by Renaturing Katikati volunteers Dave Smith and Barry Pethybridge while students looked on. Coordinator Sharon Strong said the group hopes ruru will begin using the boxes come spring, and plans to introduce predator trapping for rats, stoats and possums in the area to give nesting birds a better chance of survival.

Originally published in Katikati News (Sun Media).