New grants
Education wins $792,000 in new grants
The Stroud Center education section this year has received five grants totaling $792,533. The new grants are:
• A William Penn Foundation three-year grant for $482,790 for research and education throughout the Delaware watershed in Pennsylvania. Education programs funded by this grant will go to workshops and other training sessions for teachers and watershed organizations. The grant also provides funding for continued ecosystem research in the Schuylkill River watershed.
• Two Growing Greener grants from the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection. One, a two-year grant of $84,204, will fund an education program for the D.E.P. staff as part of the Watershed Academy and to teach watershed science to conservation groups throughout the state. The other, a 16-month grant of $95,971, will be used to upgrade the Center's Stream Day traveling exhibit. Thousands of families at community fairs and events have enjoyed this exhibit since 1996. The Pennsylvania Environmental Council and Gecko Graphics of West Chester will work with the Stroud Center on this program.
• Two contracts from the D.E.P Bureau of Watershed Management. One, a Citizen Monitoring Program contract worth $28,490, will fund the Stroud Center's continuing involvement in a statewide effort to train and mentor watershed groups involved in monitoring water quality in local streams. The other is a two-year contract for $98,000 to work with the Pocono Resource Council to provide technical assistance, mentoring and quality-control training to watershed groups.
• A Partnership for the Delaware Estuary grant of $3,078 will help the Center provide classroom and field programs in the Chester-Ridley-Crum Watersheds. Students learn about their local watersheds, stormwater runoff and they participate in a storm drain-marking program to help citizens understand the connection between local streets and streams.
