Toyota and the National Audubon Society Wednesday awarded over $1 million in TogetherGreen Innovation Grants funding to 41 innovative environmental projects nationwide, including two grants in Pennsylvania.

This year's winning projects involve more than 150 conservation, environmental justice and community organizations working collaboratively on habitat, water and energy conservation. Many of the projects focus on engaging audiences that have traditionally been underrepresented in the conservation movement, from landowners to religious communities to inner-city students.

"Groups that won Innovation Grants this year have ingenuity and creativity on full display. And that's what it takes to tackle the environmental challenges we face today," said Audubon President and CEO David Yarnold. "I'm proud to partner with these innovators in creative approaches to achieve healthier communities and big conservation results."

The Pennsylvania projects include--

Valley Forge Audubon: Valley Forge Audubon Society and its partners will raise awareness of the importance of Early Successional Scrub Habitat, a stage of growth when woody shrubs, small trees, grasses and wildflowers are transitioning into a forest habitat.

The grant will support Early Successional Scrub Habitat demonstration areas at three different sites: Ashbridge Preserve, Rushton Woods Preserve and Ridley Creek State Park. Hands-on activities will include the removal of invasive plants, the planting of native shrubs (selected to compete with invasives and provide the structure and food sources needed by migrant and nesting birds), the mowing of grassland plots to make room for more native species, and fencing plots for deer protection.

Bird surveys and banding will be additional and critical components of monitoring the demonstration areas and engaging the community at several educational workshops.

Community engagement and education will occur throughout all stages of the initiative, including an outreach for high school student volunteers from The Achievement Project (TAP) of Chester, PA, a nonprofit afterschool enrichment program from a nearby troubled urban school district. A partnership with the Melton Arts & Education Center of West Chester, PA will give its members and TAP students a unique opportunity to cooperate with and learn from other urban volunteers of many different ages and backgrounds.

“The volunteers from the Melton Center and TAP, representing a broad range of ages, races, and backgrounds will be a revolutionary force with which to restore and raise awareness of early successional scrub habitat,” said Audubon Pennsylvania Important Bird Area Coordinator Brian Byrnes. “By involving urban and suburban volunteers and landowners in the creation of this model and by actively promoting its importance and replicability though workshops, brochures, and self-guided tours, we hope to shift area residents’ suburban mentality to a mindset that allows them to see the natural and ecological beauty of Early Successional Scrub Habitat.”

Lehigh Gap Nature Center: The Lehigh Gap Nature Center plans to advance the simple notion that incorporating local plant species in Pennsylvania backyards can be both beautiful and productive.

The Nature Center will create a rare plant trail exhibiting threatened, endangered, and extirpated Pennsylvania plants. The trail will serve as a model to inspire homeowners, municipal and school officials, and corporate complex managers to plant native plants—including rare ones—on their properties as part of a “Plant Refuge Network.”

In the fall of 2012, workshops will be held with recruited landowners, Master Gardeners, and property managers (engaged through the center’s widespread community connections) at the center site to train in the philosophy and methods of creating habitat gardens with native plants using Audubon at Home materials.

Center staff and volunteers will carry out recruiting and workshop training, with help from partners and consultants Lehigh Valley Audubon, Edge of the Woods Nursery, and Audubon PA.

During the winter of 2012-13, project administrators will work with landowners and managers to plan their refuge gardens, and spring 2013 will see the on-the-ground implementation of garden plans, including supplying rare plants to each Plant Refuge. Program participants will be encouraged to register their properties with Audubon at Home.

“While the use of native plants in landscaping is certainly well known in conservation circles, the use of extirpated, endangered, and threatened plant species is not,” explained Wildlife Information Center Executive Director Dan Kunkle. “This is one innovation of our project. The use of these plants is a hook we hope will catch the attention of new audiences for backyard habitat creation.”

For more information, visit the TogetherGreen Grants webpage.

8/6/2012