Local koala populations are among the winners from the latest round of Logan City Council’s EnviroGrants funding.
A number of projects to help the endangered animal have received grants to continue the vital work being done by organisations and groups in the City of Logan.
A $10,000 grant has gone to a Griffith University project to profile koala DNA. The project will recruit citizen scientists to spot, photograph and collect koala scat (faeces) to help understand the families, relationships and movements of the marsupial. Findings will help improve conservation efforts and preserve habitats.
Jimboomba couple Ben and Lauren Moran’s $10,000 grant will help fund the clearing of lantana weed from their three-hectare property, to make it easier for koalas to move through the area.
“We have quite a few koalas on our property. They can’t crawl around as much with the dense lantana on the ground,” Mrs Moran said.
“Clearing the lantana has been quite a hard slog for us – we have a steep property, and 80 per cent of it is lantana. This grant will help us a lot.”
Environment Chair, Councillor Jon Raven, said $175,000 in funding had been allocated in this year’s EnviroGrants program.
“We know our residents are passionate about protecting and enhancing the natural environment,” Cr Raven said.
“Council can’t do this work alone, we want to do this important work with and for our community.
“EnviroGrants support the people and organisations who are leading the way in environmental research, protection and care.”
Other EnviroGrants recipients include a University of Queensland program which will examine paralysis in rainbow lorikeets and flying foxes. Scientists will investigate if the condition is a result of ingesting certain plant species. The study received $10,000.
Two schools were awarded grants in the Environmental Education category. Logan Village State School’s P&C will get $1958 to establish a sustainable food garden.
Flagstone State Community College will use a $2000 grant to monitor possums, sugar gliders and other local wildlife.
There were 14 individual wildlife carer grants, including a city-wide program to rescue and rehabilitate injured flying foxes.
A Jimboomba program to rehabilitate injured reptiles and amphibians received funding.
Queensland Trust for Nature will get almost $10,000 for floodplain revegetation at Tamborine.