Past Grants

Maryland League of Conservation Voters Education Fund

To strengthen Maryland’s environmental voice by educating voters on priority public policy issues. These issues include open space funding, transportation, offshore wind energy, and storm water management. The league will rely extensively on email alerts, its website, blogging, and social networking, in an effort to engage its base of 241,000 online environmental activists.

Midshore Riverkeeper Conservancy

Toward support of the Water Quality Monitoring Program, for the Choptank River, the Tred Avon River, the Miles and Wye rivers, and the Eastern Bay. More than 50 trained volunteers are engaged in the extensive water-monitoring program, which tests 84 sites bi-monthly to detect hot spots, illegal discharges, farm runoff, septic tank leakages, erosion sediment, and algae blooms. Findings are included in the conservancy’s second annual report and incorporated into the Phase II Watershed Implementation Plan for Talbot, Kent, and Caroline counties.

1000 Friends of Maryland

Two-year funding for continued support of staffing and expenses in support of the Partners for Open Space campaign. The purpose of the campaign is to ensure that full funding of the dedicated one-half of 1 percent of Maryland’s transfer real estate tax remains earmarked for planning, acquisition, and development of recreation land or open space areas as part of Program Open Space, serving as a national model of a successful conservation strategy.

American Farmland Trust

For the third and final year of the pilot project, Clean Water for the Chesapeake Bay – Mobilizing Farmers to Improve Water Quality in the Chesapeake Bay Watershed. Designed as a risk-management tool, the Best Management Practices Challenge for Planned Nitrogen Reduction benefits the 29 regional farmers who, committed to reducing their fertilizer use, were guaranteed reimbursements if yields were lower. A certified nutrient management specialist was hired and more precise computerized systems with infrared sensors were employed to determine the amount of nitrogen already in the ground. As part of the “best practices,” these findings may be useful in scaling up environmentally sound practices, thus reducing nutrient runoff into the Bay.

Audubon Maryland DC

For continued support and expansion of educational services at the Audubon Center in Patterson Park. The center plans to provide 400 science-based outdoor educational programs to students from the local school, residents, and families living within walking distance of the park.