$244,000 in grants to fund environmental education efforts in California

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recently announced environmental education grants totaling more than $244,000 for three California organizations that will teach students from the elementary to high school level.

“We’re delighted to support these student-focused environmental projects,” Alexis Strauss, EPA’s acting regional administrator for the Pacific Southwest, said. “These projects will unleash much youthful energy and creativity in support of our local watersheds.”

In Quincy, California, the Plumas Audubon Society will use a $91,000 grant to teach 750 rural students from Plumas, Lassen and Sierra counties about the area’s bird species and actions they and their families can take to combat climate change. Students will also take part in service-learning projects, which will create bird-friendly habitats in area lawns.

Education Outside, a San Francisco organization, won a $90,000 environmental education grant for a project titled Water Literacy to Action. The funding will go toward training 44 AmeriCorps members to teach lessons on watershed science in schools and communities throughout the area. All told, the project is anticipated to involve more than 12,000 students and 650 teachers in 44 elementary and K-8 schools in the San Francisco Unified School District.

The Napa County Resource Conservation District, located in Napa, California, received a $63,428 grant that will allow high-school students in the area to learn about environmental stewardship and climate change resiliency through hands on activities like field trips, leadership training, career exploration and service projects.