Students work to control oxygen weed with harakeke
Marlborough Girls’ College students trialled harakeke mats to control the growth of oxygen weed in Fulton Creek
Marlborough Girls’ College students teamed up with Council staff recently to collaborate on a trial to control oxygen weed.
Year 13 students Grace Allen and Mackenzie Goodall led the project for two years, taking inspiration from a field trip. The aim was to try and control the growth of oxygen weed in Fulton Creek, which runs along the college's boundary, using weed mats.
The pair designed two different mats - a traditional, black synthetic mat, and a hand-woven, natural harakeke, or flax one.
The students approached Mayor Nadine Taylor and Council Stormwater Lead Jon Cunliffe to ensure routine spraying near the creek was suspended while weed mats were in place. They asked year 10 student Celia Spencer to weave the harakeke mat with science teacher Melynda Bentley noting the importance of having the mat weaved by someone with knowledge of tikanga, or Māori custom.
“My mum and Nan have been weaving for ages, so I sort of just picked it up while I was growing up,” Celia said.
Having obtained the support of Council and commissioned the harakeke mat, Grace and Mackenzie were able to complete their trial, and results were presented at the Marlborough secondary schools’ Scitec Science and Technology Fair on 24 September.
“The black, traditional weed mat helped, but over time it started breaking down, polluting the creek, which isn’t great. The harakeke mat also worked well, but because of the small holes in the weave, light was getting in, which allowed some oxygen weed to grow through the mat,” Grace said.
Springlands Stormwater Governance Group was also involved with the project and had the opportunity to visit the trial site and hear about the project alongside iwi representatives, Councillors and staff.
“We were very impressed with what we saw during our visit,” Mr Cunliffe said.
The trial sparked many questions, which Grace and Mackenzie will leave for future students to explore. The pair would like to acknowledge their work with students Lucy Heath in 2023 and Myjl Yukoya in 2024.
