Twenty-one recipients have been awarded a Queensland Citizen Science Grant, with more than $580,000 funding committed over three years to help increase Queenslanders’ participation in citizen science. 

Excitingly, the successful recipients include the K’gari nursery project: Best practices in native plant propagation for ecosystem regeneration, with Fraser Island Defenders Organisation awarded a $25,440 grant through the program.

For the past 27 years, members of the Fraser Island Defenders Organisation (FIDO) have been coordinating regeneration efforts to control the spread of weed species on K’gari (Fraser Island).

The K’gari nursery project extends the effectiveness of weed control through bush regeneration. Citizen scientists will help monitor the propagation and growth of seedlings on the island.

Starting in October 2019, FIDO’s bush regeneration volunteers will take on a new role as citizen scientists as they test out different potting/growing mediums and measuring the root to shoot biomass.

This will help to establish the best growing medium for the plants going forward.  Prof. Susanne Schmidt and a PhD student Vithya Krishnan will be helping with the perimeters and the methodology of the data collection. 

The grant will enable data to be collected until June 2022 and will support the weed management and bush regeneration work that FIDO undertakes.