A complete guide for running a Wai Care field survey — from pre-visit safety preparation through to post-site biosecurity and data entry.
Wai Care Stream Monitoring — Student Reference
Stay with your buddy at all times. Listen carefully to your facilitator's instructions regarding site hazards. Ensure you are wearing your safety gear properly before entering the water.
Look around you. What kind of stream is this? What is the land used for nearby? Use Page 2 of your Wai Care booklet to record your observations about the watercourse, substrate, shade, and bank stability.
Carefully use the provided equipment to measure the water's temperature, clarity, and pH. Record your results accurately. Think about what these numbers tell you about the water quality.
Follow your facilitator's instructions for the 30-second kick sample. Transfer your catch to the white tray. Use the field guide on Pages 3–4 to identify the insects and record how many of each type you find.
Look at the plants growing on the banks. Score the vegetation density and buffer width using the guide on Page 5. Are the plants mostly native or exotic?
Before we leave, we must clean all equipment. Follow the 'Check, Clean, Dry' protocol to prevent accidentally spreading invasive species to other streams.
Record the 7 standard photo points from Page 8 of the Wai Care booklet. Add a caption for each photo and use the site sketch area to note key observations, GPS coordinates, or a hand-drawn map.
Stand in the stream (or on the bank) and photograph looking upstream.
Photograph looking downstream from the same position.
Photograph the left bank riparian vegetation from mid-stream.
Photograph the right bank riparian vegetation from mid-stream.
Photograph the sorting tray with your catch before identification.
Photograph any invasive species found — include scale if possible.
Wide-angle photo showing the site context and surrounding land use.
Use this space to sketch a map of the site, note GPS coordinates, record unusual observations, or describe the broader catchment context. Include compass direction, scale, and key landmarks.
The Wai Care booklet explicitly states not to survey during or immediately after heavy rain — wait 48 hours. If the site visit must be cancelled, communicate this early and emphasise that it is both a safety decision and a scientific one: heavy rain alters water clarity, chemistry, and invertebrate presence, producing inaccurate data.
If the facilitator can safely collect a bucket of stream water, substrate, and detritus before the weather turns bad, bring it into the classroom. Students practice sorting and identifying macroinvertebrates using trays and the booklet's guide.
Provide students with historical Wai Care data from the intended site or a similar local stream. Students calculate WIMP scores, graph trends over recent years, and write a short report interpreting changes in water quality.
Students act as 'The Stream' (sitting in the middle) and 'The Riparian Zone' (standing around them). Soft balls represent pollutants. Dense vegetation (students close together) catches more runoff than bare banks.
Expand the 'Wanted Poster' activity into a research project. Students investigate how specific invasive species were introduced to New Zealand and the current management strategies used to control them.