Kia ora tatou
As you know, Conservation Week (13 - 20 September 2009) is sneaking up on us. It’s time now to get ideas together about what activities we can organise and promote in Coastal Otago for Conservation Week to increase local participation in local conservation issues.
The theme is Get Involved! Kia Mahia te Mahi. From joining an organised group, to participating in a Conservation Week activity, doing something in your backyard or even engaging online, there’s a way for everyone to ‘Get Involved’.
So far, we are organising and promoting:
* Pa Harakeke at Orokonui on Sunday 13th Sept. (a partnership between Kāti Huirapa Rūnaka ki Puketeraki, Otago Natural Heritage Trust and DOC)
* Conservation Awards in Dunedin on Tuesday 15th Sept.
* ‘Be a DOC Ranger for a day!’ Children’s Competition
* Virtual lessons – Monday 14th to Friday 18th Sept. (a partnership between DOC and the Ministry of Education)
* DOC has also produced a set of curriculum-linked education resources that teachers can download and print or use online.
Conservation Week events will be promoted on the new website www.conservationweek.org.nz from mid August (education resources will also be available then). It would be great to have even just the basic details for events to promote through the Conservation Volunteers Newsletter August/Sept edition (which I will be compiling at the end of this month). This newsletter is now posted on our website, so is available to a much wider audience than ever before!
Please let me know asap if you can coincide a workday/working bee/public meeting/slide show/fieldtrip/training session/competition/celebration/commemoration/special activity or event with Conservation Week.
DOC’s aim is to show the public how easy it is to join in with conservation activities in their local community! Perhaps some of your group’s aims can be achieved through increasing local participation!?
For background information on Conservation Week visit:
http://www.doc.govt.nz/getting-involved/in-your-community/events/conservation-week/
THE FOLLOWING MESSAGES ARE GOING OUT THROUGH THE DUNEDIN ENVIROSCHOOLS NETWORK:
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Conservation Week 09 – What’s happening?
Get Involved!
* Enter the ‘Be a DOC Ranger for a day!’ Competition – 2 winners will become a DOC Ranger of their choice for a day! (see below for details or check out conservationweek.org.nz)
* Join in conservation activities happening in your neighbourhood during the week (from mid August, events and activities will be listed at conservationweek.org.nz)
* Run your own conservation activity or event (and advertise it free at conservationweek.org.nz)
If your school would like to get involved – contact the Dunedin DOC office on 477 0677 or email Liz at lsherwood@doc.govt.nz
To help your school get involved!
* DOC will be presenting a series of virtual lessons using the Ministry of Education’s Virtual Learning Network system, each day of Conservation Week!
‘Be a DOC Ranger for a day!’
2 winners get to choose to be either: a skink ranger, a freshwater fish ranger, a coastal ranger, a threatened plant ranger or a recreation and historic ranger for a day!
How to enter:
* Explain in your own way – how you can get involved in conservation in your neighbourhood.
* Write (fiction/non-fiction/poem/prose/song), draw (cartoon/masterpiece), or construct (sculpture/photograph) your response.
* Send your entry to DOC by Monday 14th September 2009. Post: PO Box 5244 Dunedin; Delivery: 77 Lower Stuart St; Email: lsherwood@doc.govt.nz
* Enclose your name, age, school and address and contact number. Winners will be announced during Conservation Week.
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Please get in touch if you have any questions or ideas – I’d love to hear from you!
Take care
Liz
Liz Sherwood | Community Relations Ranger | Department of Conservation | Coastal Otago Area Office | Box 5244 Dunedin 9058 | 77 Lower Stuart St | DDI 03 474 7094
