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Environmental Educational Grants in Idaho, Oregon, Washington and Alaska total nearly $188,000

Release Date: 06/26/2006
Contact Information: Sally Hanft, (206) 553-1207, hanft.sally@epa.gov Tony Brown, (206) 553-1203, brown.anthony@epa.gov

(Seattle, WA – June 26, 2006) As part of its ongoing effort to help improve Environmental Education in the Pacific Northwest, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has awarded a dozen grants for a total of $187,900, to 12 top Environmental Educational Programs in Alaska, Idaho, Oregon and Washington.

“With environmental education grants, we get a great bang for our buck,” said Sally Hanft, Environmental Education Grants Coordinator in EPA’s Seattle Office. “We are impressed year after year with how much students, teachers and community members are able to accomplish with these grants.”

The grants were awarded to local organizations, nonprofit organizations, government agencies, schools and universities whose projects strive to increase people’s knowledge and awareness about the environment and its associated challenges. The grant recipients, projects and funding amount are as follows:

Alaska

• Calypso Farm and Ecology Center: Schoolyard Garden Initiative – $10,000 -This project is a coordinated effort to create a network of school gardens across the Fairbanks-North Star Borough School District to be used for hands-on learning and environmental education.
• Yukon River Inter-Tribal Watershed Council – “Reduce the Use” Campaign - $17,682 – This project includes working with youth in four villages to ban plastic grocery bags and Styrofoam cups, provides education about solid waste accumulation in the landfill and introduces re-usable “potlatch bags.”

Idaho

• Friends of the Teton River (FTR) – Blackfoot Farms Classroom Project - $10,584 – These outdoor classroom activities include providing two teacher workshops, teaching the existing curriculum to local students on-site, rehabilitating and monitoring of two wetland ponds and Kids Creek for native Yellowstone Cutthroat Trout habitat.
• Palouse-Clearwater environmental Institute, Inc. – Building a Water-Conscious Moscow - $14,805 – This project delivers locally developed, age-appropriate Water-Conscious curricula to 15 K-12 teachers and 350 K-12 students. In addition, a Water-Conscious Business Program provides training and consultation to 10 Moscow businesses about ways to conserve.
• The University of Idaho – Growing What Works: A Graduate Residency and Outreach Program in Environmental Education - $26,708 – This grantee implements a cross-disciplinary graduate course of study in environmental education for 14 graduate students from across the country.

Oregon

• Institute for Applied Ecology – Native Comeback Initiative: A Stewardship Project Pairing Schools and Prairies for Reintroduction of Endangered Plant Species – $11,000 – The project pairs five local schools with local native prairies, where students actively plan and participate in restoration and introduction of endangered plant species and habitat for the endangered butterfly (fender blue).
• Opal Creek Ancient Forest Center – Opal Creek Native Youth Careers Project – $13,840 – Opal Creek conducts a week long intensive training for 20 Native American high school age youth in forest and watershed management skills.
• Oregon State University – Change Teacher Workshops – From Information to Action - $11,000 – The University holds two on-site climate change workshops for a total of 30 upper middle and high school science teachers.
• Wolftree – Madras High School Research and Stewardship Project - $10,000 – Wolftree engages Madras High School students (highly motivated students in a high risk rural community) to undertake research/stewardship projects in their community.

Washington

• Pacific Science Center – Lake Washington Watershed Internship Program Expansion - $16,500 – 12 high school students from Southeast Seattle, Renton and Bellevue are recruited for a 12 month internship where they will conduct quarterly creek monitoring and surveying and restoration projects; and develop Watershed Discovery Carts to reach the visitors of the Pacific Science Center and lessons to present to fourth-grade classes.
• Seattle Audubon Society – Finding Urban Nature (FUN) for School Grades 2-5 - $13,882 – FUN delivers inquiry-based, hands-on science and environmental education experiences related to zoology, botany and ecology at 20 Seattle public schools.
• Washington State University – Pre-Service Environmental Education Project (PEEP) - $31,899 – The PEEP Project allows environmental education to be incorporated into the majority of pre-service teacher preparation programs throughout the state, thus, preparing future teachers to effectively teach these concepts and skills in Washington classrooms.
  

Currently, EPA does not have an environmental education grant solicitation issued. Please check our national website for up-to-date information – https://www.epa.gov/enviroed/grants.html. Schools, not-for-profit organizations, state and local government education or environmental agencies and tribal education agencies or not-for-profit tribal organizations are eligible to apply. The annual EPA grants program gives financial support to projects that increase the public’s awareness and knowledge about the environment and provide skills to make informed decisions and take responsible action.

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