A nine-year-old recycling champ and a children’s author are among the city’s best environmentalists recognised in the Ipswich Enviro Awards 2019.
The Ipswich Enviro Awards is a new Ipswich City Council award program in 2019 to recognise the environmental and sustainability work completed by the Ipswich community.
Ipswich has many dedicated people working towards a better environment for all and this year’s winners have been announced following Ipswich EnviroForum, council’s annual environmental conference.
The EnviroForum theme this year was Our Wildlife Neighbours.
There were serveral categories including the Enviro Organisation Award, Environmental Hero Award and Young Enviro Hero Award.
The Environmental Hero Award was awarded to Luise Manning who formed Springfield Lakes Nature Care.
Ms Manning has coordinated many environmental projects and events around Ipswich such as Clean Up Australia Day, Keep Queensland Beautiful and Trees for Mum.
The accomplished environmentalist also wrote a children’s book Turtle Needs Help to educate the community on reducing the amount of plastic litter in waterways to protect turtles and marine life.
The Young Enviro Hero Award went to Riley Hodgson.
The remarkable nine-year-old has collected, sorted and deposited around 12,000 containers for recycling since November 2018.
This includes a variety of recyclables such as cans, glass and plastic bottles as well as cardboard containers, many of which were found in or could have ended up in local parks and other green spaces.
His remarkable effort, positive attitude and interest in sustainability at such a young age serve as an amazing example and inspiration for others in the local community.
Young Enviro Hero Award winner Riley Hodgson.
The Enviro Organisation Award category was very close so two joint winners were announced.
Springfield Lakes Nature Care – which host clean-up events, environmental workshops, toad busting nights and tree plantings was given this award, jointly with Queensland Trust for Nature.
Springfield Lakes Nature Care has removed over 4948 mature toads and thousands of toadlets from around Spring Lake, Opossum Creek, Regatta Lake and White Rock-Spring Mountain Conservation Reserve.
Native frog numbers have increased since toad control events began.
Joint winner, Queensland Trust for Nature, runs a herd of cattle on Aroona Station using sustainable grazing. Their focus is on conservation and sustainability and they work to protect threatened species.
Queensland Trust for Nature also run Camp Koala, which engages children in conservation science and educates them about biodiversity and invasive species.
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