Thank you Toyota for funding so many environmental projects!
Energy and dollar savings for churches in Phoenix, gardens for people and wildlife in rural Colorado, and restored habitat for the threatened American eel in the Hudson River are just three expected results of the 44 projects receiving a total of $1.1 million in the latest round of TogetherGreen Innovation Grants. This will mark the fourth year ofTogetherGreen funding to facilitate people-powered conservation action in urban, suburban, and rural areas. Taking place in 27 states, these projects are selected for innovation; potential gains in habitat, water, and energy conservation; and opportunities to engage new audiences in protecting the environment. TogetherGreen is funded by a $20 million grant from Toyota over five years.
"Never underestimate ingenuity and innovation. The approaches that will help us tackle the enormous environmental challenges confronting us today are going to come from unlikely and unpredictable places,” said Audubon President David Yarnold. “Each Innovation Grant project is an opportunity for Audubon to partner with local organizations to test and implement creative approaches to build healthier communities and achieve significant conservation results. And as our alliance with Toyota shows, when organizations work together, we can exponentially magnify our impact.”
Since 2008, the TogetherGreen Innovation Grants program has awarded over $4.7 million to more than 160 environmental projects nationwide. The 2011 awardees are receiving grants ranging from $5,000 - $50,000. Funds were awarded to partnerships, mostly between Audubon groups (local Chapters or programs of Audubon’s large national network) and organizations in their communities. This year’s grant projects involve more than 150 partner organizations nationwide. Many of the projects focus on engaging audiences that have traditionally been under-served by the conservation movement, from urban youth to rural ranchers.
In addition to financial support, grantees take part in workshops to strengthen their capacity to achieve conservation results, including a multi-day professional development course held at the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service’s National Conservation Training Center in Shepherdstown, West Virginia, and online trainings throughout the year. Audubon staff provides further support, including communications assistance, which leads to more public recognition at the local, state, and national level; and grantees are networked with each other so that they can share best practices and learn from others.
Audubon’s partner groups also benefit considerably from Innovation Grants. As Molly Tsongas, director of Tatzoo, said, “We are thrilled and honored to be a recipient of this Innovation Grant. TogetherGreen is breathing new life into the conservation movement, one that I want to be part of.”
Last year’s Innovation Grantees helped tens of thousands of people take conservation action in their communities, including Hmong American Eagle Scouts who made and erected roosting towers for rapidly disappearing chimney swifts in Minneapolis, African American student teachers who learned how to involve students in conservation action in Arkansas, rural Missouri teens who restored native cane habitat in the Ozarks, and communities of faith in New York City who cleaned up beaches for horseshoe crabs and migrating birds. Grant recipients leveraged their grants several times over through matching and in-kind support, allowing them to reach more people and deliver even greater conservation results.
“The TogetherGreen program grew out of Toyota and Audobon’s joint commitment to conservation, innovation, and diversity,” said Pat Pineda, Toyota’s group vice president of national philanthropy and the Toyota USA Foundation. “This latest group of Innovation Grantees will help further the mission of TogetherGreen and serve as a catalyst for environmental change within local communities all across the country.”
There were two grants awarded to Pittsburgh-area organizations:
ORGANIZATION: THE KEYSTONE CENTER
GRANT AMOUNT: $33,000.00
Reflecting on its clear waters and gentle currents, Thomas Jefferson once referred to the Ohio River as the “most beautiful river on earth.” Just shy of 1,000 miles in length and flowing through six states, the river was once majestic—but much has changed since Jefferson admired its beauty. Urban sprawl, mining, commercial boat traffic, sewage overflows, natural gas drilling: all have affected habitat, water quality, and wildlife populations along the river. In fact, according to a recent study, 80 percent of threatened fish species and many amphibian species of concern in Pennsylvania are found in the Ohio River drainage system, suggesting this river and its tributaries are a high priority for conservation efforts.
The Keystone Center wants to harness the power of Pittsburgh’s young people to tackle the environmental and social problems dogging the river and its tributaries. It will use its Innovation Grant to launch Students for Sustainable Cities, a program grounded in scientific investigation and aligned with National Education Standards that will help middle school teachers and their students explore the ways environmental health, social well being, and economic vitality are interconnected. Students taking part in the program will work with community leaders to explore the issues affecting the river and the city, and then commit to taking action on a specific community issue of their choice.
In the end, this project will contribute to a more thriving ecosystem, as well as a more informed and engaged community working to protect it. And who knows? Maybe the words of Thomas Jefferson will ring true once again!
AUDUBON SOCIETY OF WESTERN PENNSYLVANIA
GRANT AMOUNT: $45,000.00
About 20 minutes west of Pittsburgh, people are hard at work transforming a former mine site – typically areas that are toxic, degraded, and off-limits to the general public – into a botanic garden featuring native habitats. They’re using green practices and processes from start to finish: recycling all of the metal waste found on the site, using solar power for irrigation, treating the acid mine drainage, and restoring native ecosystems to their former grandeur. In the coming years, Pittsburghers will be able to enjoy a beautiful botanic garden – the only one ever to be created on an abandoned mine site!
With TogetherGreen funding, the Pittsburgh Botanic Garden will transform 15 acres of the site into a native woodland habitat garden. Through a partnership with Audubon Society of Western Pennsylvania and the fifty-year-old social services organization Auberle, up to 100 neglected kids will get to be part of the transformation, visiting the site on field trips, learning about native woodlands, and helping with the reclamation and restoration.
This is exactly what TogetherGreen aspires to do: transform lives and land at the same time.
For complete details about the 2011 TogetherGreen Innovation Grants projects, please visit: www.togethergreen.org/grants.
Read more: http://pressroom.toyota.com/releases/2011+togethergreen+innovation+grants.htm
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