Environment Minister Dennis Lister handed out five awards in the first environmental grant scheme during a press conference yesterday.

The grants, which were awarded at the Bermuda Botanical Gardens, went to Kent and Ginnie Stewart, Saltus Grammar School's senior geography department, David Chapman, Windreach Recreational Village and Purvis Primary School.

Purvis deputy principal Tracey Trott, along with supervising teacher Tricia Foggo, said that they are planning to use the grant to build a farm as part of "a micro-society within the school".

"We want to make real life ventures part of the school for the children because children connect better with real life situations," Ms Trott said.

The farm will be built over an area that had been an unused playground.

Jacqueline Horsfield hopes to involve the community with an Access Nature programme that will be implemented at Windreach Recreational Village that was operated by the National Wildlife Federation.

Other winning applicants such as Mr. Chapman hope to involve the surrounding community of Parson's and Palmetto roads and use the grant to build an organic garden, Mr. Lister said while handing out the grants that totalled $50,000 for the winners to share.

Many of the applicants had specifically designed their plan to centre around weeding out foreign plant growth so as to replant and re-grow "native and endemic species" in their place, Mr. Lister said.

Mr. and Ms Stewart were using the grant to restore endemic species to a piece of their hillside property in Hamilton Parish.

Saltus Grammar School's Senior Geography Department, led by Duncan Ashworth, will also be clearing Saltus Island in Soncy Bay of the invasive plant life in order to restore the natural habitat, Mr. Lister said.