Local landholders have rolled up their sleeves to restore waterways and habitats across the Mid North.
Led by the Northern and Yorke Landscape Board (NYLB), 15 landholders were involved in the Regenerating Catchments in the Mid North Farmscape project.
Landscape Officer Jamie Pook said during the three-year project, almost eight kilometres of fencing had been erected to protect local watercourses.
There was also more than 90 hectares of watercourse and adjacent land protected by fencing and enhanced through weed control and revegetation.
“The goal of the project was to improve the condition, the overall habitat and aquatic environment of the main watercourses in the Mid North, including the Wakefield River, Light River, Gawler River, and North and South Para Rivers,” Mr Pook said.
“All the landholders involved were very motivated to protect and restore their part of the catchment.
“By all working together, we have been able to reinvigorate those areas.”
Among those involved in the catchment regeneration project were Craig and Nat Tanti, who were passionate about improving the waterways and environment on their South Para River property.
“This Northern and Yorke Landscape Board project has accelerated our plans by probably a decade,” Mr Tanti said.
“We’ve also planted about 500 trees over the last two years through this project.
“We couldn’t have got here without the help of the Landscape Board assisting us, and we’re very grateful for their knowledge and funding to help us secure the waterways, not just for now, but for our kids and the future.”
Mr Tanti said there were already good signs the work the family was doing to improve the environment is paying off.
“There definitely seems to be more native grasses coming back and we were very keen to create a native animal corridor which seems to be working,” he said.
“We’re seeing quite a few kangaroos coming through out of the Para Conservation Park and different birds including black cockatoos which we haven’t seen before and the water this year is flowing well and is very clear.”
The Regenerating Catchments in the Mid North Farmscape project was funded through the Landscape Priorities Fund, with landscape levies collected by Green Adelaide in the Adelaide metropolitan area.
