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Media Release November 20, 2015
The Upper Peninsula Environmental Coalition announces a new Community Conservation Grant Program with a call for proposals due by January 10, 2016. The program is in honor of UPEC member Tom Church (Watersmeet) whose bequest in 2013 made this new fund possible. Tom is particularly remembered for his activities to foster thoughtful management of the Sylvania Wilderness and as the prime coordinator for the Agonikak Bike Trail on the Ottawa National Forest.
“It is an honor for UPEC to be able to continue Tom’s notable conservation legacy with this new fund” remarked Acting UPEC President Nancy Warren.
The Community Conservation Grant Program is designed to challenge U.P. communities to promote conservation values within their watershed or local area. In the past short-sighted actions by corporate or individual landowners often degraded the U.P. landscape. Today state and federal environmental regulations as well as the private conservancy movement work to protect natural areas for public benefit and to safeguard significant populations of wildlife, and the ecosystem processes which support them.
“Environmental problems sometimes seem overwhelming,” observed UPEC ‘s Nancy Warren, “but if we break them down into opportunities in our local area we discover there are always things that we can do.”
In the new grant program, the Upper Peninsula Environmental Coalition is doing just that. The Community Conservation Grants initiative focuses on communities that want to step up the protection of conservation values in their locality.
“Stepping up means finding ways to enhance native plant and animal life and the systems that support them,” said UPEC Board member and Past President Jon Saari. “It can be starting a community forest or preserve, or restoring a stream or wetland, or putting on a program about local medicinal plants, rare frogs or top predators. These are only examples. Local stakeholders can come up with their own ideas.”
UPEC has been around since 1976, acting as a self-styled watchdog to industry and government. “The watchdog role is important,” said Saari, “but it is often reactive and exhausting, with little to show for the effort. We wanted to be more proactive with this new grant program, finding community conservationists who want to improve wildlife habitat, as well as a greater public understanding of how natural systems function in their home communities.”
The grants, up to $10,000 each, are for planning local conservation projects that engage a variety of stakeholders within a community, from recreational and sportsmen’s groups to naturalists,township officials, churches, and schools. The UPEC Board anticipates the program will stimulate grassroots conservation activity in localities throughout the U.P.
“Scratch a Yooper,” said Saari, “and you will find a conservation ethic. Most who live here have a close tie to the outdoors, and want to protect this extraordinary place we call home.” While many U.P. communities have a mix of public and private protected lands surrounding them, UPEC feels there is a crucial need to continue to enhance this landscape we all hold dear.
Those desiring more detailed information about the new Community Conservation Grants program are asked to go to the UPEC website, www.upenvironment.org/upec_grants. The deadline for the first round of competitive grants is January 10, 2016. Awards will be announced by February 20, 2016.
