Grants totalling $250,000 have been awarded to 36 recipients in the Adelaide Hills and Fleurieu Peninsula to help improve the local environment.

These Grassroots Grants, awarded by the Hills and Fleurieu Landscape Board, will be used for a range of projects targeted at biodiversity, waterways, soil health, climate adaptation; and First Nations’ connection to Country.

Chair of the Hills and Fleurieu Landscape Board David Greenhough says Grassroots Grants help support the outstanding efforts of individuals, volunteers, schools, community organisations, First Nations and not-for-profit groups.

“So many people in the community are doing great work to improve the environment – often in their own time. We hope these grants will encourage and support their fantastic work.”

“This year’s funding will support many different projects, ranging from protecting pygmy possums and rare birds, helping more farmers adopt regenerative agriculture, and fencing off fragile watercourses and vegetation from stock.”

One project is supporting Western Pygmy-possums, which survive in small numbers on the Fleurieu Peninsula but face many threats including cats, foxes, and land clearing. 

This Grassroots Grant will help Conservation Volunteers Australia involve citizen scientists in contributing to current knowledge about the range of the Western Pygmy-possum.

The project will use non-invasive methods to check nest boxes, analyse remote camera footage of the animals, and, hopefully, set up a live video stream showing what the possums get up to inside nest boxes.

A Grassroots Grant has also been awarded to ‘Tirkandi – Country, Culture, Climate and Connection’, a program for young First Nations students to reconnect to Country by Burka-Senior Man Karl Winda Telfer. 

Up to 30 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders will learn about traditional and ecological land management practices on Country at Kanyanyapilla in the Willunga Basin. 

Young people will participate in cultural fire ceremonies and practices while walking Country. They will also help regenerate the cultural landscape that has been farmed since colonisation, restore local native plant species, and learn about climate resilience.

“We look forward to seeing some inspiring outcomes from these great projects,” Mr Greenhough says.

The full list of this year’s Grassroots Grants recipients can be found online.

Applications for 2024 grants will open early next year.