City Nature Challenge promoting Christchurch's biodiversity

Nature-loving rangatahi are getting up close and personal with all things living in Christchurch’s natural world.

High school students Heath and Matilda spend hours after school scouring the outdoors and learning about Christchurch’s ecosystem, spotting camouflaged creepy crawlies, identifying exotic and native plants, or catching feathers floating in the wind.

The two teens join weekly at the Climate Action Campus with a group of other science-curious students and, alongside local scientists and Council Rangers, search for new and different bugs, plants, birds and other living species.

The after-school programme is part of an iNaturalist club where the group share their findings online via the iNaturalistNZ app.

“It’s my favourite part of the day,” year 13 Matilda says.

“It means we’re able to get outside after sitting in a classroom all day at school.”

Matilda has a keen green eye, taking so much of an interest in plants that she’s embroidered leaves along the sleeve cuffs of her school uniform.

The group are involved in restoration planting in the area, recently putting native grasses and sedges in the ground around a natural spring in the Dallington red zone, which Matilda says was a highlight of hers.

Heath has a love for invertebrates, and the year 9 student has already planned a future as an entomologist. “I love to find any insects, but beetles in particular,” Heath says.

“I like to keep learning on holidays too, and hunt for creatures around shorelines to keep making online records.”

Heath is so keen, he’s encouraged his family to come home early from their holiday just so he can be at an evening adventures event next week.

“I just love being part of something bigger and being around scientists that think and love the same things I do.”

The pair are ambassadors for this year’s Hoake ki te Taiao City Nature Challenge which is on from 25 – 28 April. The global event encourages Cantabrians to explore our biodiversity and submit pictures of plants, animals and fungi from anywhere across Christchurch using the iNaturalistNZ app.