On the 12th of April 2022, our Executive Officer, Elly Pratt, visited Hindmarsh Island Landcare Group (HILG) for a tour of their nursery and extensive planting sites across the island.
She was joined by Green Adelaide Coastal Conservation Officer, Corey Jackson and Hills and Fleurieu Landscape Board Community Engagement Coordinator, Dana Miles.
They started with HILG Project Manager, Richard Owen, and Nursery Manager, Sam Glasbrook, showing off their community nursery, which is attended by a host of amazing volunteers. Native plants are grown from seed here to fill orders for local landholders or the Landcare group’s own revegetation projects, and is also open to the public each Tuesday 8.30am – 2pm.
They then ventured to Richard’s property, the site of the only remaining mangroves on the island and one of their many revegetation projects. With a beautiful saltmarsh environment surrounding the house, he said that he’s recorded approximately 110 bird species at this one site.
Richard and Sam then took the group to meet the planting team, a dedicated group tasked with planting 40,000 natives in 2022. Throughout the afternoon, they visited just a few of HILG’s ~85 planting sites across the island, highlighting the dramatic impact that this group has had on reclaiming the native ecosystem with 676,000 plants in the ground since work began in 2001.
This is such important work being carried out by this amazing group, but they insist there is still much more to be done on the Island!
Thank you to Sam and Richard for the guided tour and to you and all of your volunteers and workers, for your ongoing hard work. If you’d like to keep up-to-date with the group, follow their Facebook page here.