Grassroots Grants program supporting communities and landscapes

Posted 26 October 2020.

The successful grant applications come after Minister for Environment and Water David Speirs first announced the grants program for all landscape boards in July.

“The Grassroots Grants program is an important element of the Landscape SA reform agenda, and will result in $2 million in funding being provided across the state, ensuring there are more funding opportunities for communities dedicated to working in our landscape regions,” the Minister said.

Projects in the Murraylands and Riverland region are being supported through levies collected by the new Murraylands and Riverland Landscape Board, totalling over $330,000.

Murraylands and Riverland Landscape Board Chair Dianne Davidson AM said, grassroots grants are an important way the new board is supporting the local community to improve the management of the region’s landscape and its natural assets.

Successful projects include:

• The Lowbank and Districts Agricultural Bureau project, “Best practice farming educational day,” which will bring together local members on a bus trip to properties that showcase best practice sustainable farming and wheat and barley crop trials best suited to the district.
• The SA Regent Parrot Recovery Team project, “Natural vs Horticultural – regent parrot use of the landscape,” which aims to improve understanding of regent parrot movements and behavioural habits on floodplains and adjacent mixed horticultural zones in the Murraylands and Riverland region.
• The South Australian NoTill Farmers Association project, “Best practice no-till for Mallee dune-swale,” which will trial ways to reduce erosion risk at seeding time by evaluating the effect of seeding depth on the time to achieve plant emergence in Mallee dune-swale landscapes.
• The Mid Murray Landcare project, “Landcare in the Murray” which will support volunteers at Cambrai Community Nursery and volunteers and school groups involved in community projects at Meldanda. The project will also encourage more community members to be involved in the Western Pygmy Possum project and support the broader community to connect with nature.
• The Murray Mallee Regenerative Farmers Group project, “Regenerating soils, stopping erosion and improving water cycles with good animal production using the ‘grazing naturally’ method” which will run a series of workshops that will promote the use of regenerative grazing methods to farmers in the SA Murray Mallee area.
• The “Paringa Island Wetland: Golden Dodder Eradication” project, which will support the purchase of equipment and chemicals to control golden dodder at Paringa Island as it emerges following the raising of the weir pool level on the River Murray in the Riverland.

Minister Speirs said Landscapes SA is about building partnerships, rolling up our sleeves and working together to support our landscapes to thrive, leading to healthy and resilient communities, prosperous businesses and flourishing ecosystems.

“It’s all about a back-to-basics approach and giving local communities a greater say in how we manage our natural environment,” the Minister said.

For a full list of the successful projects, head to the board’s website.