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December 2003
Notes from NEGEF's Executive Director
Grantee Success Stories
NEGEF's Bits & Pieces
NEGEF Grantmaking
Grantee Contact Information
NEGEF Staff & Advisors
NEGEF Contact Information
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NOTES
FROM
DIRECTOR
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2004 and Beyond: A Challenge to Change America's Worldview
New Year's Eve is upon us and as 2003 comes to an end, it will leave behind another year of huge contradictions. Liberal and conservative worldviews, like tectonic plates, continued to grind into one another. In the coming months, this collision will intensify.
2004 will be critically important to the evolution of democracy and global sustainability. Like many organizations that care deeply about local governance, community vitality, clean air and water, and land uses that balance human and nature's needs, NEGEF believes that we all need to step into a much more active role in the public discourse about what we want our community, states and country to represent and be.
Paul Hawken, in "Dreams of a Livable Future," an article in the May-June 2003 Utne Reader, challenged a group of Australian business people with the following: "We cannot correct environmental problems if we don't correct the assumptions that cause them." Hawken noted that, "there is a direct connection" between the dominant economic model and the environment, and he asked:
· What is the business case for worldwide endemic poverty or for double-glazing the planet with greenhouse gases?
· How did it come to pass that we created an economic system that tells us it's
cheaper to destroy the earth than to take care of it?
· Why do we get economic signals that are antithetical to our deeply held values and common sense?
· Why do our deepest aspirations for goodness, for inclusion and generosity not cumulate into a peaceful and equitable society?
In short he asked: "Why do we live in two worlds instead of one?"
Two worlds? It's hard to avoid rhetoric or political jargon. But there are two dominant worldviews influencing our daily lives. Do you shop in your small downtown stores or the big box stores on the strip? Do you buy at the farmers' market and coop or at the supersized super-market? Do you buy at your local bookstore or online at amazon.com?
There are many ways to shift to a worldview that puts equality, democracy, citizenship, civil and human rights, liberty, freedom and a healthy, sustainable world first and foremost. In the coming months, there will be many ways to personally engage yourselves, your neighbors and your communities in the important process of defining a worldview for the 21st Century.
What might that mean in 2004 and beyond? Plain and simple, it means figuring out who votes and who does not vote in your community, and to be sure that the core values of environment and sustainable communities are part of the debate. As a 501(c)(3) public charity, NEGEF
will never endorse one candidate over another, but we will urge all of you to become involved in voter engagement in the months ahead.
JOIN us in 2004 and become social change activists, not just environmental activists. There are a number of things you can do to stop the erosion of our democracy. Many organizations within the region will be hosting "How To Organize" parties over the next couple of months: How to host candidate events where questions important to you and your group can be asked; how to identify friends and neighbors who share your concerns about local issues and be sure they will vote; how to find folks to serve on local committees and commissions or even run for local office.
You can find like-minded people at "Meetups," gatherings for people who want to work on progressive issues. For meetups nearest you, log on to www.nationalvoice.org. Contact your state League of Conservation Voters to help spread the environmental message. Check out www.neaction.org for other voter engagement activities.
Paul Hawken also said: "The environmental movement must become a civil rights, a human rights movement." 2004 will give us many opportunities to connect with others who care about a livable future. Wishing you the very best involvement in the months ahead. With our collective energies, 2004 could be a very good year. Happy Holidays from all of us at NEGEF.
---Cheryl
You can find Dreams of a Livable Future online. Go to www.utne.com. In the search box type in Dreams of a Livable Future.
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GRANTEE
SUCCESS
STORIES
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Cumberland Concerned Citizens - Cumberland, Rhode Island
The Cumberland Concerned Citizens was created in the fall of 2001 in response to a proposal for the development of a golf course and 288 condominiums and apartments on 223 acres of land that the town's comprehensive plan had identified as important to preserve to protect the watershed area of the town water system. Their mission was "to protect Cumberland's wetlands, watershed, open space, history and character".
Although the first members of Cumberland Concerned Citizens reacted to a proposal in their back yards, they quickly grew and expanded their vision to help save some of Cumberland's fast disappearing natural landscape. They reached out to residents across the town who were also concerned with the seemingly uncontrolled growth and unbalanced land use and about the potential impact of the development on the water resources of the town, both from large water withdrawal and from the application of large amounts of pesticides to the golf course.
The developers submitted their application for a "special use permit" for the 18-hole golf course in October 2001. Cumberland Concerned Citizens hired an attorney and challenged the proposal as a violation of the town's comprehensive plan for land use. With support from other organizations including the Cumberland Land Trust, Audubon of Rhode Island, The Nature Conservancy and the Rhode Island Environment Council, Citizens succeeded in defeating the golf course. One developer settled for building eight homes on 60 acres and another landowner sold 68 acres to the town that used state open space grant monies to protect this parcel that was within the town's drinking water watershed.
The issue became more complicated when the most recent development proposal for 343 condominiums on the remaining 98 acres came in under the revised Low and Moderate Income Housing Act. Passed during the last legislative session, the law now includes for-profit developers who can side-step normal municipal zoning procedures and compre-hensive plans if they include at least 20% as affordable housing in a town that does not meet a 10% affordable housing standard mandated by the state. Cumberland and at least five other communities have received applications under this newly amended law.
Currently in the third phase of their project, Cumberland Concerned Citizens is appealing to the Rhode Island Supreme Court the town Zoning Board's decision to approve 160 of the proposed 343 condominiums on land zoned for 35 single family homes. The town of Cumberland also has a case against its own zoning board before the Supreme Court, as well as a case in Rhode Island Superior Court against the State Housing Appeal Board, challenging the constitutionality of the affordable housing act that gives the zoning boards unlimited power in review of affordable housing projects and authority over other town boards, including the planning commission and the town council. The town has spent in excess of $100,000 in legal expenses and time defending its own land use and growth.
Joe Pailthorpe, one of the founders and leading voices of Cumberland Concerned Citizens, has moved far beyond his original opposition to the golf course and condominiums and is in it "for the long haul". He has used the knowledge he has gained as a result of his experience with the Concerned Citizens to help groups around the state who are faced with large new development proposals that challenge their town's ability to control its own growth. He has testified at the state house, and is a member of the town committee who just had its plan for affordable housing accepted by the state, the first community to do so under the new state law.
The town's new plan encourages developers to build affordable housing in areas where the land and the infrastructure can support it. Cumberland is now in a better position to reject affordable housing proposals that do not match its plan, as long as the town follows through and creates affordable housing. Cumberland's plan maps out how the town will reach the 10% affordable housing goal. Included are zoning changes that would allow mill buildings and an industrial park to be converted to housing and allow multifamily houses to be built in urban areas on empty lots. It also calls for zoning changes that would let developers put more houses into a development when they agree to sell some units at below - market prices.
It has been over two years since Cumberland Concerned Citizens first met, and its members continue to advocate for the protection of the natural resources of their town. Supporters of affordable housing in areas designated in the town plan, they are awaiting the court decisions that will determine whether or not their town will be able to decide how its landscape, both natural and human, will look for generations to come.
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NEGEF TRAINING OPPORTUNITY
NEGEF's next training will be on Saturday, February 7th in Cranston, Rhode Island. Jointly sponsored with the Rhode Island Land Trust Council, R.I. Rivers Council, and the R.I. Association of Conservation Commissions. Matt Wilson of Toxics Action Center will present "Building and Maintaining Your Group" and Andy Robinson will offer "Big Money for Small Groups". Email us or give us a call if you would like more information or to register.
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NEGEF'S
BITS&
PIECES
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Have Some Idle Time?
Do you have "idle" time these days? We're talking about vehicles that are left running at the convenience store, post office, drive-up windows, and during the ever-popular morning car warm-up. This habit is guided by misconceptions and is tantamount to throwing money out the tail pipe, not to mention the damage to our health and the environment.
Anyone who needs more motivation than high gas prices to go "idle-free" should check out the "Facts and Myths About Idling" page from Mississauga, Canada (www.city.mississauga.on.ca/idlefree/facts.htm). It notes that driving is the best way to warm up your vehicle, much better than idling. Vehicles need no more than 30 seconds to go from ignition to driving, even on the coldest of days. Over ten seconds of idling uses more fuel than restarting the engine. Additionally, frequent restarting has little impact on engine components while excessive idling can actually cause damage to cylinders, spark plugs and exhaust systems.
According to the EPA, long-term exposure to motor vehicle emissions is linked to lung cancer and a host of other respiratory illnesses including asthma. Further, auto emissions are a major source of greenhouse gasses that are causing climate change.
So how can you decrease unnecessary vehicle idling?
---Reduce "warm-up" idling to 30 seconds.
---Turn your engine off if parked or stopped for more than 10 seconds.
---Avoid using a remote car starter.
---Spread the word to family and friends.
One of our grantees, Save Our Groundwater in Barrington, NH, is working to prevent large commercial water withdrawals from an aquifer that provides water for a number of local communities. While they are working to protect the water supply in the region, there are also other issues around the rising consumption of bottled water. We recently received this article from the American PIE Ecoalert:
"Pure and Simple"
Bottled water is flooding the shelves of markets everywhere. According to a recent World Wide Fund for Nature study, the bottled water industry is worth over $22 billion with world consumption growing by 7% a year.
Hundreds of bottled water brands are marketed globally, though the same
corporations own a majority: Coca-Cola, PepsiCo, and Nestle.
Americans are drinking bottled water in record numbers - over 5 billion gallons consumed annually according to the Bottled Water Association. People turn to bottled water out of a belief that it is healthier for them and more environmentally sensitive than tap water. The World Wide Fund for Nature study, however, concludes that while both tap water and bottled water are generally safe - yet equally vulnerable to safety concerns - the consumption of bottled water is unquestionably more harmful to the environment.
Bottled water should not be considered a sustainable alternative to tap water. The impacts are obvious: Manufacturing, trading and transporting bottles all over the world, fuel consumption and the release of polluting particles into the atmosphere, and the myth of recycling. Most plastic bottles are being incinerated, ending up in landfills, or simply littering the landscape. According to a recent state report from California, only 16% of plastic water bottles are being recycled in that state, and nearly 3 million bottles are trashed every day.
The delivery of pure tap water is and should remain a public service. The long-term solution for safe drinking water is to clean up municipal
supplies. A corollary step - pure and simple - for concerned consumers is the installation of a quality water purification system.
Although the trees are now covered with snow, we can look forward to the return of the green leaves of spring. When we are looking for a nice cool place to get away from the hot summer sun, we head for the trees. The following article from "Forest Notes", the newsletter of the Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests, caught our attention last summer.
"Roots, Bark and Boughs Are All About Giving Back"
Whether they grow deep in the woods or decorate a busy Main Street, well-tended trees offer an astounding array of benefits:
· An acre of trees absorbs enough carbon dioxide in a year to equal the amount produced by driving a typical car 26,000 miles.
· Over a 50-year lifetime, a tree generates $31,250 worth of oxygen, provides $62,000 worth of air pollution control, recycles $37,500 worth of water and controls $31,250 worth of soil erosion.
· Urban trees can cut street-level, airborne soot up to 60%.
· Trees remove airborne pollutants such as sulfur dioxide, ozone and nitrogen, as well as trace toxic metals, including cadmium, nickel, chromium and lead.
· For every 5% of tree cover added to a community, storm water runoff is cut by about 2%.
· Healthy, mature trees add 10-20% to a home's market value.
· By shading roofs and walls, trees can cut daytime air conditioning costs up to 58%. By blocking cold winter winds, trees can cut heating costs. Homes surrounded by trees save between 20-25% in energy costs, compared to homes in wide-open areas.
· The cooling effect of the water evaporating from a healthy tree is equivalent to 10 room-sized air conditioners running 24 hours a day.
· Trees shading parking lots and roads can keep entire cities
cooler. Sun-baked asphalt make cities "heat islands" that are 5-9
degrees hotter than surrounding areas.
· Shade trees can extend the life of asphalt paving 10-15 years. Without shade, oil-based binders that hold paving together vaporize more quickly, weakening the asphalt.
· Well-positioned trees reduce noise pollution, screen unsightly views and reduce soil erosion.
· By slowing storm water runoff, trees reduce the amounts of pollutants reaching streams, including phosphorous and potassium.
· With trees, commercial retail areas are more attractive to shoppers, business parks lure more clients, apartments rent more quickly and tenants stay longer.
· For every dollar a city spends on planting and maintaining trees, it gets $3.80 back in total benefits.
· Crime drops in areas with healthy, well-maintained trees.
And for those of you who do not want to send your old athletic shoes to the landfill, here is an alternative suggested in E Magazine.
For folks with athletic shoes headed for the landfill, Nike has established the Reuse-a-Shoe program. Since it began in 1993, the program has recycled some 13 million pairs of athletic shoes into surfaces such as soccer, football and baseball fields, weight room flooring, synthetic basketball and tennis courts, playground tiles and floor padding. The program accepts all athletic shoes as long as they don't contain any metal. The Nike website offers a list of collection locations as well as an address to which old shoes can be mailed. The company also hopes to eventually recycle old shoes into new ones.
The Clean Washington Center is another organization researching athletic shoe recycling. The group is looking at manufacturing doormats and shoe soles out of recycled footwear.
For people with wearable athletic shoes they would like to be rid of, there's also the option of donating sneakers to local charities and thrift stores. Some organizations, such as the Children's Rights Foundation (CRF), are making a significant effort to place used shoes where they are needed most. CRF accepts shoes at its Florida-based operation, and then distributes them to needy and at-risk children and their families within the U. S. and abroad. CONTACT: Children's Rights Foundation, (407) 695-8222, www.crfi.org/retail.html; Clean Washington Center, www.cwc.org/tires/t97rpt.htm; Nike, (800) 344-6453, www.nike.com.
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NEGEF
GRANTMAKING
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At the Grantmaking Committee meeting in June, $73,500 was awarded to 41 different groups around New England. The following groups received funding:
Ashby Land Trust - Ashby, MA
$1,500
To help pay for an informational brochure to be used in the campaign to raise money for the preservation of Mt. Watatic.
Berkshire Environmental Action Team - Pittsfield, MA
$2,000
To support work in Berkshire County on a variety of issues, the main focus being to hold the Pittsfield Conservation Commission accountable for enforcing state wetland laws.
Clarendon F.I.R.S.T. - North Clarendon, VT
$2,500
To determine if there is a cancer cluster in the village of Clarendon, and if so, determine if there are environmental causes, and then work to clean up and/or prevent future exposure.
Clean Power Now - West Barnstable, MA
$2,500
To inform and educate the public and local officials about the factual merits and positive health and environmental benefits of wind power in support of the offshore wind power proposal for Nantucket Sound.
Cold River Local Advisory Committee - Alstead, NH
$1,000
To develop a watershed-wide physical, chemical and biological monitoring and outreach program for the Cold River Basin in southwest New Hampshire.
Concerned Citizens of Waterbury - Waterbury, VT
$1,500
To help fund the group's participation in ACT 250 hearings regarding a proposed Shaw's supermarket located outside of the downtown village of Waterbury.
Cumberland Land Trust - Cumberland, RI
$1,500
To design, print and distribute a brochure, "The Cumberland Greenway…" and to raise public awareness to secure funds and volunteers to complete a greenways system project.
Defenders of Greenwich Bay - Warwick, RI
$2,000
To continue with the appeal of a permit given for the Greenwich Bay Marina Expansion by the CRMC.
Environmental Concerns Coalition - Milford, CT
$1,500
To help fund project work for Freedom Lawns and Storm Drain Markers, and to deliver ECC's and DEP's brochure to every household in Milford.
Friends of Cox Pinnacle - Brunswick, ME
$2,000
To continue with the fundraising campaign to raise $125,000 by January 2004 to preserve a 103-acre parcel for recreational trail use and wildlife habitat.
Friends of Mount Holly - Belmont, VT
$1,500
To garner community support and raise funds to support a Vermont Land Trust project to protect 70 acres of land, including 30+ acres of farmland along Route 155 in Mount Holly.
Friends of Pittsford Village - Pittsford, VT
$1,500
To support the continuing campaign to site a new post office building within the center of Pittsford Village.
Friends of the Hockanum River Linear Park - Vernon, CT
$1,500
To help fund biological studies to provide baseline data of the quality of the eco-systems on sites in the headwaters region of an important watershed that is being threatened by big box development.
Friends of the Sandwich Range - Center Sandwich, NH
$1,500
To help fund the campaign to add eight extensions to the existing Sandwich Range Wilderness and the designation of Sandwich Notch as a Historic Area.
Friends of Trout Pond - Freedom, NH
$1,500
To continue community education and awareness for the preservation of a 2,000-acre property for a town forest.
Gardner Alliance for Responsible Development - Gardner, MA
$1,500
To prevent sprawl and promote smart growth, and to promote and preserve open space and conservation restrictions.
Green Decade Coalition/Newton - Newton, MA
$1,750
To help fund a project that will educate Newton citizens, reduce their energy bills and improve the local and global environment through the implementation of personal climate action plans for their homes.
Green Mountain Conservation Group - S. Effingham, NH
$1,500
To help fund summer interns who are working on GMCG's Water Quality Monitoring Program which includes one site in each town and fourteen sites on Ossipee Lake.
Loon Echo Land Trust - Bridgton, ME
$1,500
To help fund "Mapping Our Landscape", a mapping project that will create maps for conservation planning, stewardship programs, marketing, education and fundraising.
Lulls Brook Watershed Association - Hartland Four Corners, VT $2,000
To appeal a permit for a 9500 gallon-per-day indirect discharge septic system on the banks of Lull's Brook.
Martins Pond Association - North Reading, MA
$2,000
To fund a variety of watershed initiatives.
Medford Climate Action Network - Medford, MA
$2,000
To help fund the "See The Light" campaign to encourage residents to switch to compact fluorescent lights.
Middlebury Global Warming Action Coalition - Middlebury, VT
$1,500
To organize and implement greenhouse gas emissions reduction programs for the Middlebury area through a methodology developed for communities by the ICLEI's Cities for Climate Protection Campaign.
NOFA/MA - Barre, MA
$2,000
To expand the scope and vision of "Gardening the Community" and to provide a model for other Springfield schools and their communities through the production of healthy food and the generation of awareness about environmental issues.
North Andover Rights of Citizens - North Andover, MA
$2,000
To prevent the installation of a wireless service facility in the middle of a residential neighborhood.
North Hartford Seniors in Action - Hartford, CT
$2,000
To persuade the city of Hartford and the Hartford Transit District to switch to low-sulfur diesel fuel with particulate traps in existing elderly transport fleets and to convert to natural gas vehicles as funding for new fleets becomes available.
Organization for Watershed Living (OWL) - Houlton, ME
$2,000
To help residents of the Meduxne-keag River Watershed communities understand lake and river ecology and the parameters that are used to assess water quality in each by developing a citizen science program.
Orono Land Trust - Orono, ME
$2,000
To help fund the campaign to protect the Bangor-to-Old Town Conservation and Recreation Corridor, a continuous swath of undeveloped land for wildlife habitat and public use.
Partrick Wetlands Preservation Fund - Westport, CT
$1,000
To protect a 55.9-acre piece of property, the largest aquifer recharge area locally, with 36 acres of wetlands from proposed development.
Pemaquid Watershed Association - Damariscotta, ME
$2,000
To train a corps of citizen volunteers to survey the Pemaquid Pond and McCurdy Pond watershed for soil erosion, polluted runoff and other signs of nonpoint source pollution, and then work with landowners to reduce or eliminate any problems identified in the survey.
Potters Avenue Neighborhood Group - Providence, RI
$2,000
To renovate 11 vacant lots and create a community garden and green space.
Purgatory Watershed Conservancy - Mont Vernon, NH
$2,000
To help fund the campaign to raise funds to purchase 78 acres of forest located in the Purgatory Brook Watershed.
Residents Against the Trash Transfer Station on South Street - Pittsfield, MA
$2,500
To prevent the siting of a construction and demolition processing and transfer station on the bank of the only clean branch of the Housatonic River within 500 feet of a city park.
Rockingham Land Trust - Exeter, NH
$1,750
To support a fundraising campaign to acquire and protect a 30-acre property on the Lamprey River in Epping, NH.
Sabattus Hill Huggers - Sabattus, ME
$2,000
To protect the environment, public health and natural resources through ensuring that all excavation projects and other operations are required to follow local environmental and land use regulations.
Saugus Action Volunteers for the Environment - Saugus, MA
$2,500
To produce and mail to all Saugus residents newsletters that give a true picture of what is at stake if a third burner expansion for the trash to energy incinerator is approved.
Sebasticook River Watershed Association - Unity, ME
$2,000
To protect water quality, wildlife habitat, and public access through land conservation on the shores of Great Moose Lake and Sebasticook River.
Stratton Area Citizens Committee - Jamaica, VT
$1,500
To help fund participation in Act 250 hearings in order to prevent excessive water withdrawals by Stratton Corporation from an aquifer that provides water for a Class A brook and the local swimming hole.
Town of Shutesbury Climate Action Committee - Shutesbury, MA
$1,000
To help fund a college student who will help the Town conduct a thorough inventory of its energy use, using the Cities for Climate Protection program software, to use the information to draft a Climate Action Plan, and to implement educational programs to achieve the energy conservation goal of the Action Plan.
WAKE UP! Wakefield - Wakefield, MA
$2,000
To help fund the appeal of a decision by the Wakefield Conservation Commission that allows a stream running under an area proposed for a supermarket to be moved to make room for excavation and construction.
Western Maine Citizens for Clean Air and Water - West Paris, ME
$2,000
To initiate a pilot study to inform citizens about air pollution and train them to participate in a community-based air monitoring program.
And at the November meeting, the Grantmaking Committee awarded $67,500 to forty groups. The following groups recently received NEGEF grants:
Androscoggin Land Trust - Auburn, ME
$2,000
To help fund the Androscoggin River Corridor Conservation Project in an effort to reduce the threat of sprawl on the areas surrounding Lewiston and Auburn.
Ash Creek Conservation Association - Bridgeport, CT
$2,000
To organize and participate in DEP hearings to oppose the construction of a 50-foot boat dock in the Ash Creek Tidal Estuary.
Aziscohos Lake Preservation Committee - Wilsons Mill, ME
$1,500
To help fund environmental monitoring, impact studies and lake level analysis, combined with pushing for enforcement of existing provisions of Aziscohos Hydroelectric Project's license and permits.
Barrington Open Space Coalition - Barrington, NH
$1,000
To help fund an advocacy campaign in favor of a $1.1 million bond initiative to be used for land conservation and protection.
Brattleboro Climate Protection - Brattleboro, VT
$2,000
To help fund the Ten Percent Challenge Campaign to help Brattleboro achieve its goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 10% by 2010 through the implementation of an energy-efficiency program for residences, businesses and institutions.
Carlisle Pesticide Awareness Group - Carlisle, MA
$1,500
To start a pesticide awareness campaign in our town to educate residents about the hazards of pesticides and using safer alternatives.
Citizens Against the Smell - Brockton, MA
$2,000
To inform residents about the odors, leachate and truck traffic and to stop the dumping of contaminated materials and coal ash at the Thatcher Street Landfill.
Citizens for Safe Farming - Charlotte, VT
$2,000
To educate the public about the dangers of a proposed 2500-animal mega-dairy that would include a 2.5-acre 6.8 million gallon manure lagoon.
Coalition for Sound Growth - Essex, CT
$1,500
To protect a critical 1,000-acre parcel that is a critical natural resource area of the lower Connecticut River Valley and the last and largest undeveloped coastal wetland and forest property between the CT River and New York City.
Coalition for the Health of Aggregate Industries Neighbors - Swampscott, MA
$1,500
To help fund the campaign to save Jackson Park and a 6-acre buffer zone, both ecological barriers protecting the neighborhood from Aggregate Industries quarry.
Colchester Land Trust - Colchester, CT
$1,000
To help fund a community awareness, membership and donor drive.
Concerned Citizens of Stoughton - Stoughton, MA
$1,500
To help fund the organization's work around minimizing the impacts of development on the sensitive wetland environment of the Goddard Woods.
Concerned Parents for Environmental Justice - New Haven, CT $2,500
To educate and organize New Haven parents around the diesel school bus issues, including harms associated with diesel exposure, the three-minute idling law, and the links between diesel and asthma.
CT Foundation for Environmentally Safe Schools - Newtown, CT
$1,500
To promote programs, policies and resources that protect children and school personnel from harmful substance such as mold, radon, lead, asbestos and pesticides found in schools.
Cumberland Concerned Citizens - Cumberland, RI
$2,000
To continue the group's opposition to the town of Cumberland's Zoning Board decision to approve 160 condominiums with an appeal to the Rhode Island Supreme Court.
Dan Hole Pond Watershed Trust - Center Ossipee, NH
$1,000
To help pay for the costs associated with a fundraising campaign for the purchase and protection of 295 acres of forestland on Thurley Mountain.
Environmental Neighborhood Awareness Committee of Tiverton - Tiverton, RI
$2,500
To oversee a timely and effective cleanup of a soil contaminated neighborhood in the Bay Street area of Tiverton.
Epping Conservation Commission - Epping, NH
$1,500
To produce three newsletters to inform people about the natural resources available to them, how smart growth will protect them, and how they can get involved.
Fairwind Vermont - Londonderry, VT
$1,500
To create a locally-based citizen action organization that promotes the fair development of wind energy resources.
Fertile Ground - Williamsburg, MA
$2,000
To help fund phase two of Fertile Ground's pilot teaching garden at the Helen James Elementary School, established by kindergarten children, their families and youth from Nuestras Raices in Holyoke.
Friends of Burlington Gardens - Burlington, VT
$1,500
To help fund "Gardens for Burlington Neighborhood", a grassroots initiative to establish four new neighborhood gardens that are managed and sustained by low-income city residents.
Friends of Spy Pond Park - Arlington, MA
$2,000
To undertake a pilot study to plan for and remove or control invasive plant species, and to replace them with native plant species.
Griffin Park Citizens Against Toxic Streams - Bangor, ME
$2,500
To pressure the city of Bangor to take a variety of actions to ensure the health and quality of life of Griffin Park residents and the surrounding environment.
Haverhill Environmental League- Haverhill, MA
$1,500
To advocate and campaign to increase participation in recycling using community based social marketing.
Kickemuit River Council - Warren, RI
$2,000
To finish a sewer connection testing program to protect the Kickemuit River watershed, estuary and well water in Warren.
Maine Chapter of the Izaak Walton League - Kents Hill, ME
$2,000
To help fund outreach efforts to ensure that the new chapter continues to grow at the current pace.
Mill Cove Conservancy - Warwick, RI
$1,500
To protect Mill Cove by fighting the rash of speculative development and to provide lot owners with options that would result in turning private vacant lots in public open space.
Mount Holly Mountain Watch - Mount Holly, VT
$1,500
To help fund the group's involvement as a party in Act 250 hearings regarding the expansions at Okemo and Killington ski areas.
Neighbors Opposed to a Polluted Environment - Lexington, MA $1,500
To sustain and supplement the organization's wetland appeals in Woburn and Winchester.
Ossipee Lake Alliance - Freedom, NH
$1,500
To formalize relationships with other Ossipee Lake associations, hold the first annual Alliance Leadership Conference with lake stakeholders, and support ongoing operating costs.
Pascommuck Conservation Trust - Easthampton, MA
$1,500
To help support the fundraising campaign for the Burt/Clapp Street land protection project.
Regional Environmental Council - Worcester, MA
$2,000
To help fund the "Environmental Health and Household Toxics" project that partners with health care providers and affordable housing advocates to educate residents about the health effects of toxic chemicals in the household and promote preventative measures.
Reject Any Fast Tracking - Cumberland, RI
$2,000
To challenge the proposed housing development near Diamond Hill Reservoir, Rhode Island's largest open space, and to safeguard the aquifer, wetlands and the total ecological environment critical to the reservoir's role as the primary water supply for over 90,000 residents.
Residents Opposing Quarry in Neighborhood - Graniteville, VT
$1,500
To continue the group's opposition to the citing of the largest aggregate quarry in the state of Vermont in a residential neighborhood.
Rowley Conservation Commission - Rowley, MA
$1,500
To purchase ten water quality monitoring kits and print twenty manuals for the establishment of a Volunteer Stream Team Program in the town of Rowley.
Save Ingate Land - Belchertown, MA
$2,000
To protect a 385-acre wildlife corridor property in the Pioneer Valley from a proposed equestrian community of 125 high-end homes and 200 horses.
South County Conservancy - Charlestown, RI
$2,000
To improve the group's visibility in the community via increased communication to all citizens.
Southern Vermont Genetic Engineering Action Group - Brattleboro, VT
$1,500
To continue the town-to-town resolution campaign to organize and educate people around the health and environmental effects of genetically modified foods.
Southern Vermonters for a Fair Economy and Environmental Protection - Putney, VT
$1,000
To make 30 or more public presentations throughout southern Vermont about the threat of climate change and global warming and about solutions based on increased renewable energy, energy efficiency and conservation.
Watchdogs for an Environmentally Safe Town - Westminster, MA
$1,000
To continue to educate on the impacts of privatization in the state park system and work for the protection of Old Growth Forest on state-owned property.
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GRANTEE
CONTACT
INFORMATION
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Just a reminder - If you want to get in touch with others in the NEGEF network who are working on issues similar to yours, you can find them on our website. Visit our website, click on Grantee Contact Information and go to the Issue that you are working on. You will see that each issue is divided into Subissues where our grantee groups are then listed in alphabetical order. We have
"assigned" each group to a particular issue based on its project proposal. Some of you may actually fit under a couple of our issues, so you may have to visit more than one place. If you would like your group to be listed under another issue, or if the contact information is incorrect, please email us and let us know so we can make the changes.
If you have a website, your website address is listed under Grassroots Web Links, again by Issue. If you do have a website and it is not listed, please let us know. We update the site whenever we get new information, and we welcome any and all changes so that we can keep the site current.
We also have links to websites of larger organizations whose site has useful information. Check out the list of those sites, and let us know of any others that you have found to be particularly important or useful for the work that you do.
Thanks for your help with this. If you maintain your own website, you know how important it is to keep it up to date. We welcome and appreciate any suggestions for improving our site.
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MARK YOUR CALENDARS!
The NEGEF ANNUAL RETREAT will be May 7-8, 2004 in Eliot, Maine. We will send more details in March. Watch for your Retreat brochure and registration materials.
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GRANTEE
STAFF &:
ADVISORS
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Staff
Cheryl King Fischer, Executive Director
Linn Perkins Syz, Program Administrator
Ginny Callan, Program Officer
Board of Directors - 2004
Stephen Miller, President - Islesboro Islands Trust
Rich Davison, Vice President - Sudbury Foundation
Quita Sullivan, Secretary - Alternatives for Community and Environment
Dini Merz, Treasurer - Proteus Fund
Paul Bruhn - Preservation Trust of Vermont
Benno Friedman - Housatonic River Initiative
Gioia Perugini - Jessie B. Cox Charitable Trust
Daniel Ross - Nuestras Raices
Ted Smith - Kendall Foundation
Grantmaking Committee - 2004
Valentine Doyle - Lawson Valentine Foundation
Carolyn Fine Friedman - Fine Family Foundation
Amy Hunt - Massachusetts Environmental Trust
David Karoff - Rhode Island Foundation
Fred Kosnitsky - Vermont Earth Institute (Vermont Activist)
Sue Phelan - GreenCAPE ( Massachusetts Activist)
Naomi Schalit - Manie Rivers (Maine Activist)
Jerry Silbert - Quinnipiac Partnership (Connecticut Activist)
New Hampshire and Rhode Island activists to be selected in early 2004.
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NEW
APPLICATION
FORM
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Our new Application Form is now available on this site. It has a new look to it, with a one-page Cover Sheet, a two-page Narrative that includes your project proposal and project budget, and a two-page Applicant Profile that will give us a better "snapshot" of your group and your community. The information from the Profile will also help us as we evaluate the impact of our small grants program. You should plan to use this new form from now on. Give us a call if you have questions about any of it.
Please remember that we hold you to the limitation on the number of pages. Our Grantmaking Committee members have a lot of applications to read each round.
Thanks!
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NEGEF
CONTACT
INFORMATION
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P. O. Box 1057
Montpelier, VT 05601
(802) 223-4622 (phone)
(802) 229-1734 (fax)
info@grassrootsfund.org (email)
www.grassrootsfund.org (website) |
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