Street Champion – Yesha
Project: 2030 Species
Suburb: Tranmere & Hectorville, South Australia
Yesha is a Street Champion who founded 2030 Species, a native revegetation and biodiversity loss awareness project.
2030 Species sought to raise awareness about the need to urgently invest in native vegetation to stop the accelerating pace of biodiversity loss. To educate local residents about the risks of native species going extinct due to loss of native trees and vegetation, they door-knocked the neighbourhood and invited the residents to participate in weekend activities that included painting native species at risk of going extinct on stobie poles.
They collaborated with Campbelltown ArtHouse, a fantastic group of local artists who ran workshops for kids, families and the wider community to assist with picking a native wildlife to be painted on stobie poles. They saw koalas, native bees, birds and butterflies being painted by kids and families, which kicked off a dialogue about protecting native habitat. They also encouraged local residents to adopt the verge and plant native vegetation in their streets.
Yesha, what’s your best piece of advice for anyone embarking on an ‘In Our Street’ project?
“Speak to your local council, if they have a community development officer – reach out to them! My local council did not have any information about how to go about painting on stobie poles, but they were incredibly supportive of my idea and rolled up their sleeves to help make it come live. This included providing me with information about grants available from the council to support community projects. We now have a dedicated website to assist with similar community projects.”
What has this project meant to you?
“I loved connecting people to nature and talking to them about the importance of native vegetation, and protecting natural spaces and native wildlife.
I think every street has the potential to be turned into a wildlife corridor and we often forget how important it is to connect people to nature in our busy tech-absorbed busy lives.
I also loved bringing together creative artists with nature lovers to help create a sense of community in my neighbourhood and showcase what we value, which is to protect and preserve nature.
It was so great to have local residents engage with their kids to help them learn about flowers that can be planted to bring back bees, birds and butterflies and take this knowledge to help green-up their streets.”
