The Fredman Family Foundation has awarded a $40,000 grant to the Sunshine State Biodiversity Group environmental nonprofit to acquire and conserve important habitat in North Florida. The Sunshine State Biodiversity Group’s emphasis in land conservation focuses primarily on threatened habitat like sandhill ecosystems and cypress swamp.

 

The Fredman Family Foundation is a private philanthropic foundation based in Miami. Other prior recipients of grants from the foundation include Brown University, Walking Mountains Science Center, the Rocky Mountains Wolf Project, Colorado Open Lands, and Earthjustice.

 

“We’re thrilled to receive such a substantial grant in our first year of operations from a foundation with such a sterling record of supporting the environment,” SSBG president Jeff VanderMeer said. “Along with robust individual donations we’ve received from folks passionate about Florida’s wild places, this grant allows us to make a real contribution to conservation efforts in the area.”

 

The Sunshine State Biodiversity Group was founded January 1, 2023, and has already, on the education side of their mission, curated an afternoon of environmental events at Tallahassee’s Word of South festival, with a sponsored film suite of experimental short-subject environmental films slated for the Tallahassee Film Festival in September.

 

“Conservation and education are our watch-words,” SSBG Vice President Ali Sperling said. “North Florida has an incredible wealth of unique ecosystems vital to wildlife and human quality of life. We plan to engage with communities in creative ways while also doing the essential work of preserving land for generations to come.”

 

In addition to general land conservation, future projects under consideration include a boardwalk in protected cypress swamp, an environmental residency, and other initiatives to promote and preserve biodiversity.

 

Established over a decade ago, the Fredman Family Foundation has a long-standing partnership with the Environmental Justice Center at the University of Miami.

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For more information: contact@thesunshinestatebiodiversitygroup.com 

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