Download Full List of Unrestricted General Grant Awards, 1991 to Present

Select Award Examples by year, below.

2004  |  2003  |  2002  |  2001  |  2000  |  1999  |  1998  |  1997 - 1991

COMMUNITY FOUNDATION ENDOWMENT PROGRAM
Greater Lowell Community Foundation - $150,000
To establish the Northern Middlesex Water Resources Endowment Fund. The Fund provides annual grant awards for projects that conserve, protect, improve, and educate people about water quality and riparian/land resources and supports special capacity building projects of watershed organizations and other groups focused on water related environmental concerns.

COMMUNITY FOUNDATION PARTNERSHIP INTIATIVE
South Shore & Neponset Valley Community Foundation - $25,000
To launch an environmental grantmaking program in the region by creating a collaborative of non-profits, watershed alliance councils and local community water providers.

DIRECTED GRANTS PROGRAM
American Heritage Rivers Support
Connecticut River Watershed Council - $42,500
To complete five projects related to the water quality of the Connecticut River in partnership with the Pioneer Valley Planning Commission, Franklin Regional Council of Governments, and the Connecticut River Watershed Team Leader. All projects are identified as priorities under AHRI designation and include public outreach regarding combined sewer overflows, bioengineered remediation of riverbank erosion, production of a Sustainable Riverbanks Primer, development of urban stormwater bylaws, and monitoring and removal of invasive water chestnut.

Center for Coastal Studies - $159,747
To fund, on an as-needed emergency basis the "Surveillance, Monitoring and Management of Northern Right Whales in Cape Cod Bay" for the 2001 monitoring season. The program consists of pre-patterned aerial surveys to identify whales in Cape Cod Bay for the purposes of individual and population monitoring, reporting of non-compliant fishing vessel activity, and reporting of entanglements.

Lloyd Center for Environmental Studies - $26,860
To begin first steps toward the implementation of the Massachusetts Environmental Education Plan including furthering environmental education in Pre K-12 curriculum reform and establishing a statewide support and communications system for environmental education.

New England Aquarium - $50,000
To support Harbor Discoveries, a marine science summer camp for Boston area youth in grades 4-9 through the funding of camp scholarships. Harbor Discoveries is the first camp to make extensive use of the Boston Harbor Islands as a living laboratory for aquatic science education and environmental stewardship.

Secretary's Environmental Education Awards - $2,500
(Awards from the Secretary of Environmental Affairs honoring the efforts of those who help foster environmental education.)
To support awards to twelve schools in Massachusetts for programs that benefit water quality in the Commonwealth. Westboro High School - $300; Old Rochester Regional High School - $300; Waquoit Bay area schools - $300; Hudson High School - $300; Hunnewell School, Wellesley - $200; Conte Community School, Pittsfield - $200; Morton Middle School, Fall River - $200; Greater Lowell Technical High School - $200; South Lawrence East School - $200; Huntington School, Brockton - $100; Roderick School, Wrentham - $100; Smith School, Danvers - $100.

UMASS/Boston - $5,000
To support the printing and distribution of the proceedings from the conference, Marine Aquaculture and the Environment: A meeting for stakeholders in the Northeast.

GENERAL GRANTS PROGRAM
Cape Cod Center for Sustainability - $6,000
To conduct the Tourism and Optimum Use of Resource (TOUR) Project, an effort to educate, involve and assist the hospitality industry, citizens and visitors with water conservation efforts on Cape Cod. Educational materials will be developed and disseminated to hotels, restaurants and campgrounds to encourage water conservation from seasonal and year-round residents and within the industry itself.

Cape Cod Stranding Network - $20,000
To conduct the second year of Investigations of Marine Mammals Beached on Cape Cod, entailing the analysis of blood and tissue samples collected from dead and/or stranded animals and providing data relevant to the health of the populations, the incidence of human induced trauma and mortality, and the identification of release parameters which can then be applied to issues of species management and conservation, water quality, and marine resource management.

Citizens for the Protection of Waquoit Bay - $12,300
To develop and conduct a survey of local residents in an effort to raise awareness and concern about the impacts of nitrogen loading in Waquoit Bay and to increase public acceptance of comprehensive wastewater planning solutions.

Deerfield River Watershed Association - $14,875
To conduct the Deerfield River Watershed Volunteer Wetland Monitoring Project involving surveys of marshes for calling amphibians and selected waterbirds in order to collect baseline data on wetland wildlife communities, increase public awareness of the value and diversity of wetland resources and increase the level of protection for these resources.

Friends of the Muddy River - $9,100
To stencil the storm drain system in the highly urbanized Muddy River watershed, alerting the public to the connections of the storm drain system to the river and helping to reduce pollutants entering the river.

Massachusetts Association of Conservation Commissions - $20,000
To create an Advanced Certificate program in environmental protection that will provide sophisticated legal and scientific education for the professionals, semi-professionals and citizens who administer the Massachusetts Wetlands Protection Act as well as plan for, acquire, and manage community open spaces.

Massachusetts Audubon Society - $12,000
To conduct experiential watershed education programs at two MAS sanctuaries, Berkshires Sanctuary and Joppa Flats in Ipswich. The programs are designed to help teachers feel comfortable combining natural history, math, geography and history into an integrated watershed education unit that is in line with the state curriculum frameworks.

New England Board of Higher Education - $18,000
To enable four nonprofit organizations to participate in the 2000 Environmental Internship Program by supporting student stipends for internships within nonprofit agencies working on water resource issues across the state.

New England Mountain Bike Association - $5,000
To rehabilitate a multi-use trail system with major emphasis placed on restoring a wetland resource critical to the public water supply in the Town of Bourne and to educate school children and resource users of the importance of preserving public drinking water sources and natural habitats.

New England Wildlife Center - $20,000
To bring NEWC's innovative water education program, H2O to 2,500 3-5th grade students in the under-served Boston and South Shore communities of Brockton, Dorchester, Mattapan, Rockland, Roxbury, Hull and Weymouth. The students will develop a first-hand understanding of how water functions in their own bodies, animals and plants.

Riverways Program - $10,000
To develop an Urban Rivers Fellows Program consisting of graduate students working on five urban river projects across the state. Issues addressed by the Fellows may include brownfields redevelopment, public access, stormwater pollution, greenway development, and/or habitat/fishery restoration.

Roca, Inc. - $15,000
To support the Youth STAR Wetland Restoration Project, in which ten full-time members design wetland education workshops and conduct community forums in support of wetland restoration and preservation efforts in Rumney Marsh in Revere and Mill Creek in Chelsea.

Taunton River Watershed Alliance - $10,000
To conduct BugWatch, a long-term study of benthic macroinvertebrates in the Taunton River watershed. The program will supplement TRWA's ongoing water quality analyses with ongoing habitat assessment and evaluation of land use changes and will further efforts to build a school-based watershed education program.

The Watershed Institute, Inc. - $20,000
To launch an Ecological Cities Program in Massachusetts to identify and define urban ecosystems and to provide legal and technical tools for protecting and restoring urban natural resources with a focus on the connection between land use and water quality.

WFCR-UMASS/Amherst - $11,276
To support the continuation of the natural history radio series, Field Notes, with a special emphasis on segments related to water quality.

Wheelock College - $15,000
To support the compilation, posting and archiving of live research data on northern right whales that will be used as the basis for WhaleNet's educational projects.

NEW ALLIANCES PROGRAM
Berkshire Regional Planning Commission - $15,000
To conduct interviews with community residents, municipal officials and other stakeholders to collect thoughts about pertinent watershed perceptions and issues. The information from these interviews will be utilized to organize moderated community forums to discuss current issues and foster greater trust between environmental agencies and citizens.

The Coalition for Buzzards Bay - $25,000
To conduct the "Cranberry Lands Conservation Project" to identify workable conservation options for cranberry uplands, form a partnership between watershed and land conservation organizations and the cranberry industry, and permanently protect a cranberry property in the Buzzards Bay watershed.

Housatonic Valley Association - $15,000
To support the formation of the Housatonic Business and Environmental Roundtable that will work to formulate a list of actions to address water quality issues in the watershed.

Marine Biological Laboratory - $20,000
To simultaneously sample offshore and inshore populations of squid, in collaboration with the Northwest Atlantic Marine Alliance (NAMA), for the purpose of determining whether separate and discrete populations exist. The population structures will be determined using molecular genetic techniques (DNA fingerprinting) and the data will be distributed to federal and state regulatory authorities to assist in the development of informed policies to manage this maximally exploited fishery.

Massachusetts Audubon- North Shore Conservation Advocacy - $20,250
To create a partnership and dialogue between business owners, representatives from the tourism industry, chambers of commerce and the environmental community regarding the value of the area's natural resources and the barriers to their protection and management. Research will also be conducted regarding the economic value of a healthy environment to regional visitor service and outdoor tourism-based businesses.

New England Aquarium - $12,854
To reconvene the North Atlantic Right Whale Consortium. The Consortium fosters improved communication and information exchange between stakeholders, promotes collaborations between industry and science and builds bridges between scientific studies and management strategies to conserve right whales.

NEW HORIZONS PROGRAM
Center for Coastal Studies - $150,000 (over three years)
To track the nitrogen inputs and impacts in Cape Cod Bay using the stable isotopic composition of nitrogen as an in situ tracer of the movement of sewage nitrogen into the planktonic food web of the Bay. The project's goal is to protect Cape Cod Bay's marine resources by monitoring the possible effects of nitrogen effluent from the new Boston sewage outfall and to provide at least one early-warning indicator to help the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority assess the impact of sewage on the bays, and, if necessary, take corrective action if the outfall's contingency plan needs to be activated.

Massachusetts Bays Program - $10,000
To convene the conference, A New Vision for Environmental Protection in the 21st Century: Using Biology to Signal Ecological Health that will explore the use of biological indicators to evaluate the health of critical resource areas such as wetlands. The goals of the conference are to influence decision-makers to re-evaluate existing programs and to create policies that focus on qualitative, rather than quantitative, indicators as measures of the success of protection efforts.

State University of New York- Stony Brook - $22,599
To conduct a study in Boston Harbor to determine the potential of sediments receiving significant inputs of sewage-derived contaminants to cause reproductive impairment, and the extent to which the nonionic detergent metabolite, nonylphenol (NP), contributes significantly to any effects observed. The results of the project will serve to inform management decisions on appropriate monitoring approaches for this group of compounds and any potential restrictions on the continued use of nonionic detergents.

REGIONAL PLANNING SUPPORT PROGRAM
Buzzards Bay Project - $10,000
To support the construction of a boat waste oil collection and waste oil/bilge water separation facility in New Bedford Harbor to service commercial vessels, particularly the commercial fishing fleet. In addition, a comprehensive outreach program is planned to enhance voluntary waste oil recovery and recycling, as well as improve compliance with hazardous waste and waste oil regulations among oil retailers.

Buzzards Bay Program - $50,000
To support the "Tidal Restriction Remediation and Education Program in Buzzards Bay" project by identifying landowners of tidally restricted properties and assisting with restoration efforts and grant writing assistance.

City of Gardner - $25,000
To undertake an inter-municipal effort to protect the Otter River corridor for recreation, wildlife habitat, and water supply by conducting the necessary technical work to identify a strategy for protecting parcels along the river and improving public access and passive recreational opportunities. The City will also develop an "Adopt a Stream" shoreline survey team and work with local educators and the Millers River Watershed Council to incorporate course modules on the Otter River into Gardner High School's Environmental Science course.

THREATENED & ENDANGERED SPECIES BIODIVERSITY PROGRAM
Massachusetts Audubon - $10,000
To support the Coastal Waterbird Program to help the owners/managers of threatened coastal bird habitats improve land management by designing erosion control projects, collecting data, training local management staff, and assisting the state with regulatory decisions.

New England Aquarium - $24,796
To conduct research to determine the abundance, map the distribution, characterize the activities, and investigate the health status of harbor porpoises in Boston Harbor.

New England Wild Flower Society - $20,125
To support volunteer surveillance of natural areas with significant wetlands and endangered species populations for the presence, abundance, and distribution of invasive plant species. The endangered populations will be monitored and any threat by invasive plant species will be evaluated for management action.

The Nature Conservancy - $20,812
To create a five-member "Stewardship Exotics SWAT Team," in cooperation with the Student Conservation Association, to control and eradicate invasive species from 30 acres of critical habitat, and work with and educate members of the local community to improve their understanding of and concern for the conservation of native biodiversity.

Tufts University- Department of Biology - $23,463
To conduct research on vernal pool species with the goals of continuing and expanding amphibian monitoring, determining whether upland habitat availability limits some amphibian populations, and determining whether there is a critical amount of upland habitat loss beyond which species go extinct despite the presence of suitable habitat.

WATER QUALITY MONITORING PROGRAM
Massachusetts Audubon Society- Broad Meadow Brook - $14,643
To establish a Quality Assurance/Quality Control Plan, expand the present monitoring program to include flow monitoring and macroinvertebrate sampling, assist the City of Worcester with implementation of its EPA Stormwater Management Plan, and expand community outreach efforts.

Massachusetts Water Watch Partnership- UMASS/Amherst - $22,500
To expand the geographic and programmatic scope of MWWP's assistance to volunteer monitoring groups. Services include the establishment of technical advisory committees (TACs), written study designs/quality assurance project plans (QAPPs), data interpretation, program review and integration of each group's efforts with EOEA-sponsored Watershed Teams and other volunteer monitors in their watersheds.

Merrimack River Watershed Council - $12,857
To establish a long-term monitoring program in the watershed by providing organizational and technical training and support to newly formed stream teams in the watershed.
 

Award Examples, Current & Past*

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