Wild Ones RFP - Seeds For Education Grant Request for Proposals

Request for Proposals

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The Wild Ones Native Plants, Natural Landcsapes' Seeds for Education Grant Program (SFE) provides small monetary grants for the purpose of establishing outdoor learning centers for child-centered projects that create native plant landscapes within the United States and Canada.

Eligible Projects must
1) focus on the enhancement and development of an appreciation for nature using native plants,
2) emphasize student and volunteer involvement in all phases of development,
3) emphasize the educational value of the proposed site,
4) show creative design and complete and thoughtful planning,
5 use of and teaching about native plants and the native plant community is mandatory and the native plants must be appropriate to the local ecoregion and the site conditions (soil, water, sunlight).
Information on local ecotypes is located HERE.
6) include a signature from a local chapter. The local chapter in western New York is Wild Ones Niagara Falls and River Region (Wild Ones Niagara). Contact information HERE.
7) Grant winners will be required to acknowledge Wild Ones as a funding source in project materials.

Project Examples:
Design, establishment, and maintenance of a native plant community  such as a prairiie, woodland, wetland, etc., in an educational setting such as an outdoor classroom,

Developing and maintaining an interpretive trail landscaped with native plant communities,

Developing a wetland area to study the effect of native vegetation on water-quality improvement

To be considered for the annual awared, non-profit groups such as schools, nature centers, house of worship, or simimilar organizations must  apply by Octover 15, 2010. Notification of awareds will be made by February , 2011.

The grant recipients are those that most successfully reflect the Wild Ones Mission to educate and share information about the benefits of using native plants in our landscape and to promore biodiversity and environmentally sound landscaping practices. Receipients are chosen by the Seeds for Education judges, a volunteer panel of educators and naturalists. The SFE Nursery Partners, a select groupd of native nurseries and propagators, also donate seeds and plants to the successful grant recipients.

Download an application HERE.

Wild Ones Native Plants, Natural Landscapes is a not-for-profit environmental education and advocacy organization. The Niagara Falls and River Region Chapter (Wild Ones Niagara) mission is to create in a sense of place through grassroots partnerships, advocacy and education about regional native plants and natural landscaping.

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Letter to Niagara River Greenway

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Letter to Niagara Greenway

I am completely disgusted with the recent announcements of Greenway Funding being given for a Dog Park and for renovations to Lewiston's Art Park. I love dogs, Artpark, and Lewiston, but to me this is a misuse of funds. I always thought the Greenway Grants were to be used for achieving a more "green" or
natural environment which also would provide better access to the riverfront. I don't see where either of these meet this criteria. Those of us who support [Robert Moses] Parkway removal and preservation of the gorge rim with a return to natural flora and fauna, and better hiking trails with better access to the riverfront are appalled! We wait and wait while dogs get a park and Artpark gets better seating
arrangements.

I signed with hopes of a response...
Beverly Bathel

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Niagara's ER Baxter Rant Will Be Published On Garden Rant

On August 30, Bob Baxter, a regular Fading Into Myth contributor, will be a guest blogger, “a Garden Ranter.”  From August 30 through Labor Day, garden bloggers from all over the web are scheduled to post pet peeves during a two week long (maybe longer), Garden Rant “Second Annual Guest Post Week.”

The four Garden Rant owners are looking for “the 10 Hottest Rants of the Year.” If Fading Into Myth’s award-winning poet/author/contributor surpasses, he’ll be presented with a “cute badge” to put on the Niagara Heritage Partnership’s website.

The Garden Rant submission guidelines are simple. Keep it short and lively. Make it highly opinionated. Rage or advocate. Tell it like it is. Those provocative qualities suit Baxter and he’s opining how it is here on the Niagara River and what needs to change. Baxter even offers a festival suggestion, though I hesitate to admit that in Niagara County, since the one he talks about might be mistakenly embraced.

The upcoming rant is pure Baxter. At times droll, mocking, big grin funny, controversial, truthful and punctuated with outrage. He’s still “Looking For Niagara,” the one we’ve almost lost to New York State Parks and Albany. (Review here. Video here.)

So, who’s behind the Garden Rant blog and what’s their story? One of the Garden Rant writers is a Buffalo, NY magazine editor. Another blog owner lives near Saratoga Springs. I also met the other two at the 2010 Buffalo Garden Meetup held in July, but can't remember what they do outside of their blog. By their own admission, they’re “convinced gardening matters, bored with perfect magazine gardens, in love with real, rambling, chaotic, dirty, bug-ridden gardens, suspicious of the “horticultural industry,” appalled by pesticide use, and turned off by activities that involve landscaping with plant materials.”

I think Baxter’s found four kindred souls as long as they don’t present him with a bouquet of daffodils. Not even an artificial one.

Remember to bookmark the date and website www.gardenrant.com. Then click over to www.niagaraheritage.org. You’ll know what to do. It will brighten his day. Afterwards, come back and tell us what you think.

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August In Bloom A Garden Bloggers Photo Journal

Our western New York summer has been hot and humid with very little relief from rain. One of the best attributes of using native plants in the garden is their extensive, deep root systems provides them with the ability to thrive and bloom without little supplementary watering. Blooming in the yard  great blue Lobelia, honeysuckle, clethra, goldenrod, asters, rubeckia, helianthus, monarda, trumpet vine, oakleaf hydrangea, penstemon, and tansy. Several shrubs have produced berries that will be eaten by migrating birds: elderberry, dogwoods, aronia.

Coneflowers in August

great blue lobelia

elderberry

Rubeckia with dogwood berries

Global Warming - What You Can Do For Pollinators

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FAQ
Q: What can we possibly do if the loss of bees is due to climate change? (Not poor sources of pollen)

A: According to the book I am reading, Keeping Bees, the major causes of bee decline are pesticide use, climate change, invasive species, and habitat fragmentation. Some predict up to 60% of the planet's species will be unable to find enough suitable habitat for their populations to be viable. What you can do follows:

1. “Grow bee -friendly plants, preferably native species local to where you live. Not cultivars, native. Some suggestions: asters, blazing star, golden rod, helianthus (sunflower), Joe-pye weed, coneflower, bergamot (bee balm), evening primrose, cinquefoil, milkweed, willows. Plan to plant so the garden is aesthetically pleasing. Most won't get the premise, which is why education is important.

2. Vegetables that attract bees include squash, tomatoes, strawberries, fennel, coriander, and other umbellifers. Raspberries and blackberries' flowers feed bees and their old stems provide a place for them to rest. Provide nest sites for bees. Blackberry and raspberry canes are used by small carpenter bees, masked bees, small relatives of the leaf utter bees and orchard bees use the old canes as nesting sites and they overwintering inside them.

If... you have wooden benches, fences, or a grape arbor, let the bees burrow into them.

If you have ground bees you should cherish them and consider yourself lucky.

Do not apply wood chips, pebbles, or other surface obstructing materials. Almost no bees will be able to reach the soil.

3. Do not use pesticides.

4. Buy organic food whenever possible.

5. Walk on the grass. Ground nesting bees prefer bare spaces created by those who ignore do not walk on the grass instructions.

6. Encourage bee-friendly practices at various government levels.”

Locally, letters went out in May asking our politicians to join a national movement claiming their level of government as a supporter of National Pollinator Week ( the last week of June). Not one elected official responded. We live in an agricultural region.

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