1000 Friends of Maryland
$20,000 / 2007 / Environment
Challenge grant for continued support of staffing and expenses related to the Partners for Open Space campaign, to ensure full funding for Program Open Space. The campaign will also ensure that Program Open Space funds are spent strategically through the development of targeted and ranked priorities: 1) discussion of the transfer tax revenues for new programs, such as operating needs of state parks and forests; and 2) the need to engage in a public debate about the important role of open space and ongoing protection of the state’s natural resources.
American Farmland Trust
$35,000 / 2007 / Environment
For staffing costs and related expenses to facilitate the implementation of recommendations set out in Maryland’s Statewide Plan for Agricultural Policy and Resource Management, and to build support for proposed reforms of the 2007 Farm Bill. The Trust will continue to provide community outreach and bridge farming communities with the environmental community, promote a more viable and sustaining agriculture economy in Maryland, help open greater access to fresh and locally grown food to local markets, and work toward tripling the protected acreage of productive farmland by 2022.
Audubon Maryland-DC
$32,000 / 2007 / Environment
For continued support of educational services at the Audubon Center in Patterson Park. Joint programming with the Friends of Patterson Park is helping to change the perception of safety issues in the park and continuing to increase the overall visitation and use of the park. Working closely with neighboring schools, Audubon offers in-classroom curricula and integrates into the program Maryland Content Standards, field trips, and end-of-year service projects for elementary, middle, and high school students. After-school programming offers a 15-week series for third-grade through fifth-grade students to learn about bird biology.
Chesapeake Bay Foundation
$10,000 / 2007 / Environment
Two grants in support of the 2007 and 2008 Environmental Legislative Summits.
Chesapeake Bay Foundation
$10,000 / 2007 / Environment
Toward support of planned litigation activities in Maryland to ensure greater enforcement of existing laws and regulations critical to the restoration and protection of the Chesapeake Bay. The foundation will focus on incidents of damage to the Bay, such as encroachment on wetlands, erosion, stormwater run-off caused by developments, lack of setbacks creating buffer zones, power plant toxic airborne emissions, and will monitor permits and zoning variances being recorded at local planning and zoning boards.