Mini-Grants Program Recipients
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2011 Total Awarded- $20,955.60
SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry $4,510.00 for the ‘Inner Harbor Rain Garden: Restoring Ecosystem Function and Connection to Place through Green Infrastructure’ to develop a functional demonstration rain garden at the Inner Harbor adjacent to the Onondaga Creek Walk offering environmental education workshops for grade school students.
Liverpool Public Library $4,995.60 for ‘On Safari Backpack Kit’ to create multipurpose field trip kits for circulation to anyone with an Onondaga County Public Library card. These kits will add further opportunities for family recreational fun around the Onondaga Lake watershed.
Izaak Walton League $4,450.00 for ‘Developing a User Friendly Watershed Database’ to enable convenient and rapid comparison of water quality data collected by school groups, teachers, and other interested users.
Otisco Lake Preservation Association (OLPA) $5,000.00 to produce a ‘Water Cycle Brochure’ to link the relationships between storm water, ground water, and waste management, and to highlight the goal of safe clean water and protection of our drinking water supplies.
Onondaga Earth Corps (OEC) $2,000.00 ‘Organizational Assistance to the Onondaga Earth Corps’ to engage and fully inform OEC youth crews on the ecology and sustainability of the Onondaga Lake watershed and assist them to share that knowledge.
2010 Total Awarded - $23,765.67
Baltimore Woods Nature Center: $4,994.35 for the ‘Nature in the City 3rd Grade Stream Exploration at Elmwood Park.
Friends of Rosamond Gifford Zoo: $5,000.00 ‘Rosamond Gifford Zoo’s Rain Garden and Cistern’ to create a rain garden with interpretive signage to explain how a rain garden functions, install a cistern to collect water from the zoo’s roof to supply water to the rain garden and promote the Save the Rain campaign, and install appropriate interpretive signs.
Friends of the Town of Dewitt: $4,030.00 ‘Town of Dewitt Franklin Park Project’ to establish native trees, shrubs, and perennials to increase wildlife habitat and reduce standing water in a low lying area prone to flooding; host an educational workshop on native plants and vegetation controls for storm water management; and provide trees to homeowners to plant on town right of way in front of homes.
Nine Mile Creek Conservation Council: $881.32 for production of an updated water trail brochure to provide the public with current river and watershed portages, routes, access points, etc.
Northside Collaboratory: $4,400.00 for ‘Green Infrastructure Education for Urban Communities’ to host two community workshops, install two rain gardens, bioswales, and/or tree trenches, install two rain barrels on not for profit or public properties on the Northside, and install interpretive/educational signage at respective green infrastructure proposed projects.
SUNY ESF: $2,460 for ‘Onondaga Lake Stewards’ to support the 2010 summer camp program. Summer camp participants ages 12-16 engage in hands-on environmental science activities.
Town of Dewitt-Parks and Recreation: $2,000.00 for ‘Rain Garden Demonstration and Stewardship Project’ to support installation of four rain barrels and associated gutter, and material for a rain garden.
2009 Total Awarded - $13,013.00
Liverpool Central School District: $5,000 for the ‘Living Lake Project’ to make Onondaga Lake part of the 5th grade educational program in the Liverpool School District.
Upstate Freshwater Institute: $5,000 to educate students at LaFayette High School and all five of the Syracuse city high schools, about the diversity of the aquatic macroinvertebrate community of Onondaga Lake.
Syracuse Center of Excellence: $3,013 for construction of a green roof and installation of permanent signage for the ongoing green infrastructure demonstration project at 515 Tully Street on the Near Westside.
2008 Total Awarded - $9,994.00
Center for Nature Education: $1,600 to continue and expand the dissemination of EnviroMails, a listing of environment-related events, meetings, resources and announcements that are e-mailed to central New York residents.
Cornell Cooperative Extension: $5,000 for a Phosphorous Free Fertilizer Demonstration on athletic fields at Onondaga Lake Park, and distribute free soil testing kits and phosphorous free fertilizer to residents within the Onondaga Lake Watershed. The purpose of the project is to demonstrate that zero-phosphorous can be used to maintain the quality and appearance of yards and gardens.
State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry: $3,394 for a summer camp program titled ‘Something Fishy About Onondaga Lake’. Summer camp participants ages 12-16 engage in hands-on environmental science activities by netting, measuring and tagging fish, recording water quality data, and discuss the research and its management implications.
2007 Total Awarded - $26,914.00
Centers for Nature Educations, Inc. at Baltimore Woods - $3,200 to continue and expand the dissemination of EnviroMails, a listing of environment-related events, meetings, resources and announcements that are e-mailed to central New York residents
Dunbar Associations, Inc. through YWCA Syracuse & Onondaga County - $5,000 for hands-on environmental education for Inner City teenagers through a series of educational field trips and workshops to foster and encourage an appreciation of the value of Onondaga Creek to the students and community. The program will include a minimum of 20, three-hour sessions with participating teens, including field trips to Onondaga Creek, Onondaga Lake and appropriate institutions.
Friends of Rosamond Gifford Zoo at Burnet Park – $4,864 to support ‘Zoo Camp: Onondaga Lake Explorers’ a program to educate children on conservation issues concerning the Onondaga Lake watershed, with an emphasis on what the campers could do within their own families and communities to help. Camp included field trips to areas around Onondaga Lake, including Onondaga Lake Park, the Tully valley mudboils, and the Metropolitan Syracuse Wastewater Treatment Plant.
Liverpool Central School - $4,625 to support the elementary science center ‘Our Watershed and Our Onondaga Lake, Phase III’ to expand the water-testing component of Liverpool School’s 5th grade science program from five schools in the previous phase, to include all ten elementary schools.
Onondaga Creek Kids – $4,500 to support the ‘Onondaga Creek Corridor Native Riparian Seed Collection and Plant Propagation’ project. The project will educate approximately 150 Edward Smith Elementary students about Onondaga Creek and its watershed and will include field trips to urban and rural sections of the creek for species identification, SUNY-ESF greenhouse and Roosevelt animal collections, and Onondaga Nation to learn Haudenosaunee history and practices.
Roosevelt Wildlife Station of SUNY-ESF – $4,725 to support the ‘Taking the Lake to the Library’ program designed to increase children’s understanding, appreciation and sensitivity to Onondaga Lake and the dynamic watershed feeding the lake.
2006 Total Awarded - $33,734.80
Atlantic States Legal Foundation - $5,000 to print and distribute translations of the New York State Fish and Game Health Advisory to English, Spanish, Russian, and Vietnamese populations in Syracuse.
Center for Nature Education - $2,500 to continue and expand the dissemination of EnviroMails, a listing of environment-related events, meetings, resources and announcements that are e-mailed to central New York residents.
Center for Nature Education - $2,500 to support construction of a kiosk to display educational and interpretive information at Onondaga Lake.
Cornell Cooperative Extension of Central New York - $5,000 to increase public awareness of invasive species such as the water chestnut, and control thriving populations on Onondaga Lake and Seneca River.
Dunbar Association - $5,000 to support a one year educational program of field trips and workshops to promote interest and appreciation of Onondaga Creek to young adults in the area.
Huntington Family Center - $1,355 for a project titled ‘Taking Back the Waters’ aimed at cleaning up Onondaga Creek and Onondaga Lake with an emphasis on natural habitat education.
Liverpool Central (Elementary) - $3,747.80 to expand the 5th grade science program, specifically the water-testing component, to educate elementary school students about Onondaga Lake.
Onondaga Creek Kids (Extension of ‘Friends of Onondaga Lake’) - $5,000 to support an 18 month education program at the Westcott Community Center on Onondaga Creek and Onondaga Lake.
Roxboro Middle School - $2,632 to support the Beartrap Creek restoration project. Students will take water samples, remove invasive species, and monitor fish populations at Beartrap Creek.
Wildfowlers - $1,000 to construct and place wood duck nesting boxes on Onondaga Lake to provide waterfowl habitat.
2005 Total Awarded - $31,728.00
Centers for Nature Education - $2,500 to continue and expand the dissemination of EnviroMails, a listing of environment-related events, meetings, resources and announcements that are e-mailed to central New York residents.
Central New York Chapter of the Izaak Walton League - $5,000 to design and produce educational displays about carp in Onondaga Lake. The displays will be used at the Onondaga Lake Carp Fishing Tournament and other applicable events.
Fund for the Environment - $5,000 to produce a video to promote Onondaga Lake as a viable resource for recreational fishing.
LeMoyne College - $4,800 to develop and implement a summer science camp ‘Project Clean Water’, where elementary students will learn the importance of water as a natural resource.
Onondaga Cortland Madison Counties BOCES - $4,428 to introduce water-testing and watershed education into 5th grade classrooms in the Liverpool and North Syracuse school districts. The program title is ‘Our Watershed and Our Onondaga Lake’.
Project Watershed Central New York - $5,000 to work with student teams to review the results of water monitoring data and examine project stream site images of the 2004 Onondaga Watershed Database Inquiry project.
Save the County Land Trust - $5,000 for ‘Protecting the Natural Resources of the Nine Mile creek Sub-Basin: An Invasive Plant Education and Management Project’ to develop public awareness concerning the impacts and spread of invasive species in the Nine Mile Creek sub-basin and to initiate control of Japanese Knotweed within the riparian corridor.
2004 Total Awarded – $26,430.00
Canopy - $2,500 to this green space advocacy group to develop and print an educational brochure about Onondaga Creek titled ‘Imagine Onondaga Creek, Your Urban Waterway’.
Cornell Cooperative Extension of Onondaga County - $4,000 to complete a rain garden demonstration project at the Zen Center of Syracuse for education and hands-on training to establish rain gardens as a tool to prevent non-point source pollution and stormwater runoff.
Nine Mile Creek Conservation Council - $3,300 to support Nine Mile Creek Watershed Day that will bring local officials and residents together to protect natural resources and to develop of a “State of the Watershed” report and management plan.
Onondaga County Resource Recovery Agency - $5,000 to promote hazardous waste collection and proper disposal of household hazardous materials by developing and direct mailing multilingual brochures and fliers, and providing educational information to local community centers.
Onondaga Yacht Club - $5,000 to identify and monitor invasive aquatic plants in the Lake, purchase and install a portable dock and improve a public access ramp to promote recreational boating on Onondaga Lake, and design and construct an educational kiosk.
Project Watershed - $1,630 to provide training for high school science teachers and other adult volunteers to participate in stream monitoring programs and expand the available database for water quality parameters in Onondaga Lake tributaries.
Syracuse University - $5,000 to upgrade the Project Watershed Database, the largest publicly accessible volunteer stream-monitoring database in New York State.
2003 Total Awarded - $25,000.00
Boy Scout Troop 139 - $3,500 to clean up area around Nine Mile Creek between Route 390 and Onondaga Lake, and create bird habitat and observation opportunities.
Friends of the Rosamond Gifford Zoo - $4,000 for landscaping, interpretive signage, and an education station at the zoo addressing the positive effects of native plant species on non-point source pollution.
Izaak Walton League - $5,000 for a stream restoration and habitat enhancement project at Beartrap Creek. Work included surveys of habitat distribution on Beartrap Creek and Ley Creek and GIS model of Beartrap Creek. An ecological analysis report was completed for the pilot study.
Marcellus High School Science Department - $5,000 to complete Onondaga Lake Educational Module to address Onondaga Lake historical, biological, political, and social issues.
Nine Mile Creek Conservation Council - $2,500 to launch site improvements and a watershed management conference
Project Watershed Central New York - $5,000 for a database of water quality data from Onondaga Lake tributaries created by teachers and students from schools within the watershed working with Project Watershed and Syracuse University’s Living School Book.