Model Projects
The Mini Grants program funds activities at schools and non-profit organizations that help promote awareness and participation in the restoration and protection of the Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries. Grants funded under this program have ranged from $25 to $5,000. Funding from NOAA supports environmental education projects for K-12 grades in Maryland and DC; Mini grant funding for projects targeting adult communities is limited to Maryland only.
Please Note For Field Trip Grants: If your school is applying for field trip funding from CBT, your school group will be required to plan and implement a hands-on student led action project to restore the watershed (preferably on school grounds on in the students’ community, examples of these projects can be found in the RFP). Examples of a Model Project: 1) Schoolyard Habitat Grantsville Elementary School was awarded $1,961 by the Trust in 2010 for four small schoolyard habitat projects including a rain garden, a stormwater planter, a rain barrel, a tree buffer planting, and a wetland enhancement project. Grantsville is a model because the school worked to complete multiple small restoration projects in order to address the impacts of the school’s recent expansion on the Casselman watershed. The school recognized their impact on the watershed and the loss of outdoor educational space and jumped into action raising significant in-kind donations. In addition, the school was able to involve the entire school to participate in planting, with the older fourth and fifth grade students taking on more responsibility. Grantsville Elementary School is a part of the Partners in Ecological Restoration of Schoolyards (PIERS) program offered by the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science- Appalachian Laboratory. This program helped the school to easily incorporate watershed education aspects of a schoolyard habitat into the curriculum. 2) Strong Classroom Connection Westbrook Elementary School and Highland View Academy are examples of schools that do it all! Under the guidance of Ophelia Barizo (at Highland View Academy) and Sandra Geddes (who recently retired from Westbrook) classes are able to go on several field trips throughout the year and participate in several restoration projects including: stream monitoring, rain barrel installation, trash clean ups, tree planting, storm drain stenciling, BayScaping and more. Not only are these model projects because they demonstrate that multiple projects can be funded through one grant, but also how teachers can tie the Bay into a variety of lessons taught in class. Topics covered include: water pollution, aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems, land use management, native v. invasive species and many others. he Mini Grants program funds activities help promote awareness and participation in the restoration and protection of the Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries. Grants funded under this program have ranged from $25 to $5,000. The Trust considers projects that will help to further the goals of the Chesapeake 2000 Agreement.
3) Demonstration of School and Community Involvement Working with community volunteers, members of Mount Washington Preservation Trust installed two rain gardens (one along the 1900 block of Fairbank Avenue and one at Mount Washington Elementary School). The 4,000 square foot rain garden in Dixon Hill was installed by 20 volunteers from the neighborhood who moved dirt, pulled invasive plants, laid stone, and planted native plants to slow down and filter runoff from Fairbank Avenue (a street developed without storm drains in the 1960s). An information table was set up during the installation of the demonstration project in order to teach other Mount Washingtonians how they might install their own rain garden at home. The second educational rain garden installed at Mount Washington Elementary School is approximately 1,500 square feet and was implemented with the help of the Mount Washington ES Green Club. Both rain gardens will function as demonstration projects and brochures and guides have been produced to enable replication of these efforts (these materials will be posted on the Mount Washington Arboretum website). Each of the projects will help to reduce and redirect stormwater runoff that had been eroding Western Run.
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