A hard working group of Year 9 students from Mission Heights Junior College have been awarded the 2016 Ros Nicholson Award for Native Ecology from the Howick Local Board, and Auckland Council Southern Parks.
Throughout this year, students have been taking part in a wide range of conservation activities in the forest area at the back of their school and in other bush remnants in the Mission Heights area. Regular rubbish clean-ups, stream monitoring and testing, native tree planting and animal pest control have been a key areas of their work.
The award was established by the Howick Local Board to honour Ros Nicholson, a local teacher and veteran environmental campaigner, who had a passion for nature and its preservation. As a tribute to Ros the award aims to support and encourage young people who carry forward conservation values in the Howick Local Board area.
“One of Ms Nicholson's key ideals was to encourage young people in the community to appreciate, understand and respect conservation and heritage.” “It is very appropriate the board continues to honour her legacy and the work she did. I’m sure she would be very pleased with the efforts of this year’s recipients,” says board chair David Collings
