FauNature - Brnging You and Wildlife Together

Nine year old Coromandel Valley Primary School student, Isaac Gordon has successfully secured a grant to assemble and install nesting boxes on his school grounds to encourage native birds. The nesting box kits were supplied by fauNature, to assist this exciting initiative.

Invitations to apply for the Adelaide and Mount Lofty Ranges Natural Resources Management (NRM) Board ‘NRM Achiever’ grants were announced in August. The funding offer was open to schools, environmental groups, small businesses and industry for projects which increased the profile of natural resources management initiatives.
The Board’s NRM Education Manager, Hugh Kneebone was on the grant assessment panel. He said “Isaac’s ‘Bring Back the Birds’ application addressed a number of elements, including general awareness, education, volunteering, community engagement and also supported a small local environmental business educator”.
The $1,000 grant secured by Isaac will see the purchase of 23 ‘flat pack’ bird boxes from local fauna expert, James Smith of fauNature who provides products and advice to entice wildlife back into our yards.
“The purpose of our grants was to get our ‘NRM Achievers’ to think about what they are doing which could inspire others to take an interest in natural resources management,” said Mr Kneebone.
“This fits the Board’s aim of building community capacity to manage the region’s precious natural assets, including our water, soils, native plants and animals and our marine and coastal environments.”
Mr Kneebone said, “Isaac’s project will involve his technology classmates to assemble the bird box kits, and parents and teachers who will install them in trees on the school’s grounds.”
The project also encourages students to learn more about the birds that may use the boxes, how their habitats have been threatened and how to adopt conservation measures to protect and encourage them to return.
“The students also aim to install small cameras in the nesting boxes to monitor bird activity to ensure they are not invaded by pests. This is a great biodiversity project,” said Mr Kneebone.
‘Bring back the birds’ was one of 53 projects which received funding. All projects were assessed against select criteria such as the project’s strategic relevance and sustainability, and the applicant’s capacity to deliver the project.
Mr Kneebone said “the Board’s NRM Education program works with schools to develop an ethos around water conservation and quality and biodiversity and, with other agencies, presents information about transport, air, waste and energy”.

An article about isaac was published on the 7th December in the Adelaide Advitersier (see pdf).