Larimer County Department of Natural Resources proudly awarded $20,748 in grant funds to support a dozen community and neighborhood projects that help connect people to the land.
The awards were given to a variety of individuals and organizations in Larimer County through the department’s Small Grants for Community Partnering program. They were presented to grantees by county commissioners and staff during a ceremony at last month’s Open Lands Advisory Board meeting in Loveland.
The 12 grantees, projects, amounts and locations include:
Grantee, Project Name, Award Amount, Location
• Audubon Rockies, Habitat Hero $2,000, Fort Collins
• Bird Conservancy of the Rockies, Colorado Bluebird Project, $1,586, Devil’s Backbone Open Space
• Bruns Estates Homeowner Association, Bruns Estates Open Space Project, $399, East Loveland
• Colorado Foundation for Agriculture, Understanding Water for Classrooms, $2,000, Poudre School District
• Colorado Youth Outdoors, CYO Swift Ponds Interpretive Signage, $2,000, Eastern Larimer County
• Dean Acres HOA, Lee Lake Health, $1,500, Northwest Fort Collins
• Estes Valley Community Garden, Irrigation Component, $1,372, Estes Park
• Grayhawk Knolls HOA, Grayhawk Knolls Trail, $1,890, North Fort Collins
• Kate Wilkins, Bison Research, $2,000, Soapstone Prairie Natural Area and Red Mountain Open Space.
• Soaring Eagle Ecology Center, Little Observatory, $2,000, Red Feather Lakes
• The Growing Project, Educational Garden/Teens for Food Justice, $2,000, Fort Collins
• The Springs at Mariana Homeowners Association, Enhancing Common Area with Native Plants and Birdhouses, $2,000, South Loveland
Small Grants for Community Partnering is an initiative of Larimer County Department of Natural Resources to disperse a portion of Help Preserve Open Spaces sales tax dollars for projects that help connect people to the land. Annually, $20,000 is set aside from the tax funds for grant awards up to $2,000 per project per year. Since 2008, through 2016, Larimer County has awarded $227,981 for 155 community and neighborhood projects.
For more information about the program, contact Zac Wiebe, grant program coordinator, at (970) 619-4534 or zwiebe@larimer.org, or visit www.larimer.org/openlands/smallgrants.htm. To learn more about Larimer County’s parks and open spaces, visit our website at http://www.larimer.org/naturalresources/.
Photo by Charlie Johnson