Opportunities For Participation, Recognition, And Funding

Grants/Loans

EPA's Environmental Education Program awards grants to state agencies, non-profit groups, schools and universities, and tribal organizations to support environmental education (EE) programs and projects. Region 5, with offices in Chicago, Ill., funds programs for $25,000 or less in Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota Ohio, and Wisconsin. The evaluation and selection process is highly competitive and funds are quite limited. Program information and the full solicitation are available on the internet at http://www.epa.gov/enviroed/grants.html

Get Involved

Neighborhood Wilds Program is seeking groups of homeowners in the 7-county metro area that are interested in working collectively to protect and restore natural ecosystems on their property. Selected neighborhoods will host a workshop presented by staff specialists from DNR and partner organizations, including specific management recommendations. Neighborhoods which are adjacent to a publicly managed natural area are given special priority. The nomination deadline has been extended. For information on the nomination procedure please contact Don Mueller at DNR Forestry at 651-772-6148.

The USDA Forest Service, Northeast Center for Urban and Community Forestry at Amherst, MA in cooperation with the City of Springfield, MA has just completed the development of a new computerized inventry system for community trees. Utilizing Palm Pilot® technology, for use with Personal Digital Assistants (PDA), the Mobile Community Tree Inventory (MCTI) system is designed to use a PDA for field data collection activities, and a Windows based database system for data management. The MCTI inventory system is available for free download.

Grant Writing Tutorial is now posted at Treelink.org for all of us. It's clear, easy to follow, loans itself to any level of fundraiser/grant writer, and provides the very best examples and resources currently available.

Tree City USA recertification applications are now available online from the National Arbor Day Foundation.

Call for Presentations

Community Forestry At Its Best conference call for presentations. Areas of focus include: trees and traffic issues; issues at the wildland-urban interface; obtaining support for trees - political, media, public; involving under-respresented people on tree boards to get new ideas and ways of doing things. Contact Tina Schweitzer, National Arbor Day Foundation at 402-474-5655.