Lehigh Valley Greenways Conservation Landscape Awards Mini-Grants

Lehigh Valley Greenways Conservation Landscape announced 15 local recipients of state mini-grant conservation awards at a ceremony on May 10 at Upper Saucon Township Community Park in Lehigh County.

The event included remarks by Secretary Cindy Adams Dunn of the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, as well as representatives from Lehigh County and Northampton County.

The mini-grant awards are part of Lehigh Valley Greenways Conservation Landscape program, administered by the Delaware & Lehigh National Heritage Corridor and funded by a grant from the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, Bureau of Recreation and Conservation, Environmental Stewardship Fund.

The 2016 application round closed in February and attracted a large group of applications requesting just shy of $130,000 total.

Lehigh Valley Greenways awarded the available $77,000 to 15 recipients throughout the two-county region to advance the goals of: land conservation, outdoor recreation, community revitalization, and local education.

The 2016 mini-grant recipients include:

-- Watershed Coalition of the Lehigh Valley, $10,000 to support Master Watershed Steward projects constructing rain gardens in Plainfield Township and Pen Argyl Borough, completing a green roof display and workshop with Wildlands Conservancy, and developing an educational display at Illick’s Mill in collaboration with multiple partners;

-- City of Allentown, $10,000 to complete a Phase II Environmental Site Assessment to advance connection of Cedar Creek Parkway and Little Lehigh Parkway Path;

-- Lehigh County, $8,000 to update signage and complete stream protection at Trexler Nature Preserve;

-- Muhlenberg College, $8,000 to provide environmental field trips for urban high school students at Poole Wildlife Sanctuary and Muhlenberg College campus;

-- Bethlehem Township, $7,500 to install signs, fencing and enhancements at the Delaware & Lehigh Trail, Farmersville Road Trailhead;

-- City of Easton, $5,000 to install directional signs along the Two Rivers Trail System in partnership with Townships of Forks and Palmer and Boroughs of Tatamy and Wilson;

-- Upper Mt Bethel Township, $5,000 to enhance the community park entrance with native plants and heritage signage;

-- Upper Saucon Township, $5,000 to embark on a comprehensive sign replacement and wayfinding project to make signs more uniform to park visitors, provide easier navigation along park trails, and improve wayfinding for the Saucon Rail Trail;

-- Moore Township, $4,250 to create a stewardship and access plan for 168-acre Appalachian Park;

-- Bushkill Township, $3,500 to plant a native grass and wildflower meadow at Ballas Tract;

-- Nurture Nature Center, $2,395 to create an interactive watershed exhibit for ongoing education programs;

-- Lafayette College, $2,300 to build an educational bioretention area on campus;

-- Lehigh Gap Nature Center, $2,040 to support a riparian restoration project in Allentown’s Fountain Park led by local students from Roberto Clemente Charter School; and

-- Lehigh Gap Nature Center, $2,015 to coordinate school garden workshops for educators

-- Penn State Extension, $2,000 to implement 4-H environmental science workshops.

Lehigh Valley Greenways is one of seven Conservation Landscapes supported by DCNR and includes more than 25 organizations and municipal partners in Lehigh and Northampton Counties dedicated to the conservation of and connection to our natural resources.

For more information, visit DCNR’s Lehigh Valley Greenways Conservation Landscape  webpage or contact Claire Sadler at 610-923-3548 ext 226 or send email to: claire@delawareandlehigh.org.