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News Releases from Region 10

Three Pacific Northwest Organizations Awarded Environmental Education Grants from EPA

11/12/2015
Contact Information: 
Judy Smith EPA Public Affairs (smith.judy@epa.gov)
503-326-6994

(Seattle - November 12, 2015) The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has awarded three environmental education grants totaling $272,992 to non-profit organizations in Idaho, Oregon and Washington. These three projects were selected from a pool 48 grant applications submitted to EPA Region 10.

"The projects that will be carried out as a result of these environmental education grants help increase public awareness about environmental issues," said David Allnutt, Director of the EPA Region 10 Office of Ecosystems Tribal and Public Affairs. "Not only will participants get firsthand knowledge about the environment and how to protect it, they will reach out to share their learning with others."

The Children's Forest of Central Oregon, located in Bend, Oregon received $90,992 for the Deschutes Watershed Student Stewardship Projects. Focused on restoring sections of three different streams in Central Oregon, the project will provide classroom activities and hands-on, place based field trips, engage all participants in stewardship projects that improve habitat along the streams. In addition, the group will host two watershed summits where the students will present their projects; and develop three student-created outreach films focused on their local watershed and how community members can become stewards of that watershed. Additional organizations and agencies have contributed time and/or matching funds and will work together to align student stewardship activities with education standards.

The Regents of the University of Idaho, located in Moscow, Idaho received $91,000 for the 2015 Confluence Project. The project will serve a 200 high school students from six high schools in diverse communities. Following a summer field experience workshop for teachers, science classes will participate in three field experiences over the course of the year, each supported by pre- and post- lessons. The field experiences will focus on water quality, water quantity (snow science) and a service learning, restoration, or agriculture field experience as the final component. The students will devise their own investigations, propose solutions to problems encountered based on the data that they collect, and present their findings at the Youth Water Summit.

The Pacific Education Institute, located in Olympia, Washington received $91,000 for Students Engaged in Conserving the Columbia River Watershed. This project will train watershed facilitators as informal educators to support teachers of grades 3-12. In addition, it will hire an overall coordinator to recruit and select watershed facilitators focused on sustaining the health of the Columbia River watershed. The funds will also provide a five-day training in early 2016 to certify ten watershed facilitators to then be able to provide a workshop for teachers in their area. This will enable teachers to provide at least one field experience to students during 2016-17 school year.

Each receiving organization contributes matching funds and/or time to their environmental education project.

For more information on the new awardees and on how to apply for future environmental education grant competitions, please EPA's environmental education grants page.

Read EPA's national news release.