TPL Awards Barnegat Bay Environmental Grants

Five Barnegat Bay watershed projects were awarded grants, The Trust for Public Land announced today. The fifteenth annual Barnegat Bay Environmental Grant Fund (BBEGF) awarded recipients a total of $21,183 from a New Jersey state fund administered by The Trust for Public Land (TPL), a nonprofit organization that conserves land for people to enjoy as parks, gardens, and natural areas.

Grantees and awards for 2010:

• Alliance for a Living Ocean ($3,000) provides summer programming participants with information about incorporating sustainable practices into their daily lives through the Eco-Puppet Theatre, Summer Seining, Bike Tours, and Kayak Tours.
• American Littoral Society ($3,000) will offer a one-week summer day camp of hands-on science exploration for 40 fourth through sixth-grade students, giving them an understanding of how science is applied in the real world and fostering future stewards of the Barnegat Bay.
• Island Heights Cultural and Heritage Association ($4,467) will plant native species on fallow land that separates the Island Heights boardwalk and River Avenue, completing 1,000 linear feet of plantings started in 2008 and also BBEGF-funded in 2009.
• Long Beach Island Foundation of the Arts and Sciences ($5,000) will produce the Eco-Video Scrapbook, a collaborative project with local non-profit, ReClam the Bay, and a student-run production team from Toms River High School. The Scrapbook will be a video series featuring 2010 LBIF events, to be used for educating residents and visitors.
• Master Gardeners of Ocean County ($3,805) will develop a horticulture education program of bay-friendly gardening practices for Ocean County residents. The program will include a Fall Garden Education Day, an environmentally-centered gardening calendar, and a series of interactive information tables at Ocean County community events.

“We are so happy to be able to provide the Barnegat Bay Environmental grants to these local organizations,” said Kathy Haake, project manager for The Trust for Public Land. “The organizations we fund bring an awareness of the watershed to people locally, which helps them to understand their impact on the Barnegat Bay.”

TPL was appointed funds administrator for the Barnegat Bay Environmental Grant program, which is part of a $2.5 million contribution by the Ciba-Geigy Corporation (now part of BASF) to the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection. Since 1994, 102 grants have been awarded, and recipients are chose by a volunteer board consisting of local advocates and members of various environmental organizations.

The Trust for Public Land conserves land for people to enjoy as parks, gardens, and other natural places, ensuring livable communities for generations to come. Since its founding in 1972, TPL has protected more than 2.8 million acres of land nationwide. With a state office in Morristown, TPL has protected more than 23,000 acres in New Jersey, including over 11,000 acres in the Barnegat Bay watershed. The Barnegat Bay Environmental Grant Fund is one component of TPL’s Barnegat Bay Initiative-a long-term protection strategy for the bay, including public education, scientific research, land planning, and acquisition of critical properties. TPL’s scientific framework for prioritizing sites for protection grew from The Century Plan, published in 1995 and its sequel, Beyond the Century Plan (1997).