Grassroots Grantees
Of the Northern California Environmental Grassroots FundAn interactive database is currently under construction. This list includes our most recent Grassroots grantees. For a complete list or more information, please contact us.
Summer 2010
(announced 6/22/2010)
Clover Valley Foundation
General Support
Placer County
$3,500
Legal challenge to the City of Rocklin’s approval of a strip mall, housing development and highway in Clover Valley, an area with pristine oak woodlands with steep slopes, a perennial creek and prehistoric sites.
Friends of Five Creeks
Volunteer Partnerships
Fiscal Sponsor: Berkeley Partners for Parks
Alameda County
$3,000
To establish new creek restoration groups and to purchase native plants, weed wrenches, and GPS equipment for use by various groups.
Friends of Shollenberger Park (FOS)
General Support
Sonoma County
$3,000
To oppose the citing of an asphalt plant and heavy industry 200 feet from Shollenberger Park on the Petaluma River. The proposed asphalt plant is a significant threat to a sensitive ecosystem and wildlife sanctuary, as well as to the health and well being of nearby residents and visitors of all ages.
Heart of the Valley Services For Seniors, Inc.
Senior HHW Impact
Santa Clara County
$3,000
To educate and assist seniors with proper disposal of household hazardous waste from their homes.
Institute for Conservation, Advocacy, Research and Education
North Coast Stream Flow Campaign Coalition Project
Napa County
$3,000
To train grassroots watershed volunteers to restore North Coast stream flows and protect plants, fish and wildlife; challenge and end illegal water diversions and stream dewatering throughout the North Coast; and restore Public Trust values for our streams to assure that fishing, swimming and recreation will be available for all future generations.
Mountain Area Preservation Foundation
General Support
Nevada County
$4,000
To implement smart growth principles and protect open space in the Greater Truckee region.
Mountain Meadows Conservancy
Mountain Meadows Litigation and Outreach
Lassen County
$4,000
For a legal challenge to protect Mountain Meadows, an environmentally significant area with important cultural resources, from the adverse impacts of a proposed mega- ski resort.
No Wetlands Landfill Expansion
Redwood Landfill Expansion Challenge
Marin County
$3,000
Supports a legal challenge to Marin County’s approval of the expansion of the Redwood Landfill, which is on the edge of an environmentally sensitive marsh and the Petaluma River estuary.
North Coast Action
General Support
Mendocino County
$4,000
For remediation, research and education on the toxic legacy of the 434-acre Georgia Pacific mill site that stretches four miles along the northern coast of California and makes up one-third of the coastal town of Fort Bragg.
North Richmond Shoreline Open Space Alliance (NRSOSA)
California Youth Water Warrior Training & Tour
Fiscal Sponsor: EJ Coalition for Water
Contra Costa County
$3,000
For 5 youth from low-income communities in the Richmond/West Contra Costa area to participate in the “California Youth Water Warrior Training and Tour,” a 6-month intensive training program that includes hands-on water justice curriculum, a variety of skill building trainings, and a 10-day tour of California’s water system.
Noyo Food Forest
General Support
Mendocino County
$2,500
For a bilingual (Spanish) website on organic gardening and information about educational programs at their five public gardens, and for permanent, outdoor bilingual signs at the gardens.
Placer Group Sierra Club of the Mother Lode Chapter
Sierra Nevada Forestry Campaign
Fiscal Sponsor: The Sierra Club Foundation
Placer County
$3,000
For a public education campaign to end clearcutting on private forestland in the Sierra Nevada mountains. (While clearcutting is no longer allowed on Forest Service lands, over 1 million acres of privately-held timberlands are still at risk).
Produce to the People
General Support
Fiscal Sponsor: San Francisco Parks Trust
San Francisco County
$3,000
For a summer youth employment and education program that creates green jobs for high school students who will harvest backyard fruit, build and maintain community gardens, aid free food distribution sites, grow vegetables, make compost, and learn about food justice, environmental stewardship and community organizing.
Shasta County Citizens for a Healthy Environment
General Support
Shasta County
$4,500
To help local residents oppose a 268-acre gravel mining operation along a pristine stretch of the Sacramento River, which is designated critical habitat for the endangered winter run Chinook salmon.
Sustainable Marin
General Support
Marin County
$2,500
To harness the full potential of Marin’s grassroots sustainability movement by increasing the capacity of the parent group, so it can better support its six local grassroots chapters and affiliates.
Tsi-Akim Maidu Corporation
General Support
Nevada County
$5,000
For the Tsi-Akim Maidu Tribe to participate in the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) relicensing of hydroelectric operations in the Yuba River Watershed to protect and enhance ecological and cultural interests.
United for Change in Tooleville / Unidos para Cambio en Tooleville
General Support
Tulare County
$3,000
To create a stronger, more engaged and healthier community in Tooleville through leadership development, trainings, and community meetings to empower residents of this small farmworker community to advocate for safe and reliable drinking water, storm drainage, sidewalks, a park and community center.
West Oakland Asthma Coalition
General Support
Fiscal Sponsor: Prescott-Joseph Center for Community Enhancement, Inc
Alameda County
$3,000
Conduct indoor/outdoor environmental assessments for asthma triggers, train families on integrated pest management to avoid toxic chemical exposure, and to conduct health assessment at local schools, identify and correct indoor air quality problems.
Winnemem Wintu Youth Group
California Youth Water Warrior Training & Tour
Fiscal Sponsor: EJ Coalition for Water
Shasta County
$5,000
For 8 Winnemem Wintu tribal youth to participate in the “California Youth Water Warrior Training and Tour,” a 6-month intensive training program that includes hands-on water justice curriculum, a variety of skill building trainings, and a 10-day tour of California’s water system.
Spring 2010
(announced 3/19/2010)
Brisbane Baylands Community Advisory Group
General Support
Fiscal Sponsor: Agape Foundation
San Mateo County
$5,000
To support community involvement in guiding the clean-up of a heavily-contaminated 600-acre site near residential communities and the San Francisco Bay shoreline.
Central Coast Forest Watch (CCFW)
General Support
Santa Cruz County
$5,000
To monitor timber harvesting throughout the Central Coast area, including: review of the draft Coho Recovery Plan; litigation to protect Coho salmon; review and comments on problematic timber harvest plans; and networking of forest activists including a monthly e-news ‘Forest Update’.
Community Action Project (CAP)
General Support
Fiscal Sponsor: Ebbett’s Pass Forest Watch
Calaveras County
$2,000
To preserve environmental quality, open space and wildlands in Calaveras County by educating and engaging community members and grassroots groups.
Conservation Action Fund for Education
General Support
Sonoma County
$3,000
To promote transit-oriented development around the SMART Rail and Trail station sites in Sonoma and Marin Counties; hold public forums and sustainability workshops; and encourage community involvement in the transit and development planning process.
Dawn Institute
Garden Outreach and Educational Internship
Plumas County
$4,500
For garden internships that will provide hands-on experience in sustainable farming – from production to distribution. The interns will also organize and conduct a number of community events to raise awareness of the value of local sustainable agriculture and food systems among Plumas County residents.
Foresthill Residents for respOnsible Growth, Inc. (FROG)
General Support
Placer County
$5,000
For a legal challenge to Placer County’s approval of a large-scale development in a small Sierra Nevada foothills community located about 45 minutes from Sacramento.
Gallinas Watershed Council
General Support
Fiscal Sponsor: MarinLink, Inc.
Marin County
$5,000
To promote community-based stewardship to protect the Gallinas Creek watershed from the effects of channelization, trash, and local indifference; and to build support for creating miles of greenbelt park along the creek from the headwaters to the San Francisco Bay.
Green Wheels
General Support
Fiscal Sponsor: Northcoast Environmental Center
Humboldt County
$2,000
To advocate for sustainable transportation and land-use policies that promote walking, biking and transit in the Eureka/Arcata area.
High Sierra Hikers Association
General Support
El Dorado County
$4,000
To watchdog commercial packstock use and livestock grazing in national forests, wilderness areas and other public wildlands in the Sierras.
Indigenous Permaculture Program
Hoopa Reservation Garden Project
Fiscal Sponsor: Ecology Center
San Francisco County
$2,000
To expand the community food garden on the Hoopa Reservation; and to conduct educational workshops on food production, water conservation, and nutrition as it relates to diabetes and other medical conditions that are impacting the health of Native Americans in the community.
Living Lands Agrarian Network
Growing the Next Generation of Farmers
Nevada County
$3,500
To educate the next generation of ecologically-minded farmers through an internship program that teaches about organic, small-scale, sustainable agriculture. The interns help promote local food security by planning and participating in community events such as school-to-farm field trips, soup-night fundraisers, open-farm potlucks, home gardening workshops and harvest festivals.
Marin Water Coalition
“Conservation not Desalination” Public Awareness Campaign
Fiscal Sponsor: Social Justice Center of Marin Education Fund
Marin County
$3,000
To educate the public about the negative environmental and economic impacts of a proposed water desalination plant; and to encourage water conservation measures as a more sustainable alternative to desalination.
Mothers of Marin Against the Spray
General Support
Fiscal Sponsor: Pesticide Watch
Marin County
$1,000
To educate and engage mothers and families about how to reduce children’s exposures to environmental and household toxins; and to promote safer, nontoxic alternatives.
PUEBLO (People United for a Better Life in Oakland)
YOUTH (Youth Oakland United Through Hope) Leadership Development Program
Alameda County
$5,000
For a youth-focused green jobs training and food justice advocacy program based in East Oakland. Students will receive academic credit, training, and paid positions to redesign and reclaim underutilized parks; develop school-linked food production in urban open spaces; and advocate for healthy food access for East Oakland residents.
SPAWNERS
General Support
Fiscal Sponsor: The Watershed Project
Contra Costa County
$3,500
To conduct volunteer water monitoring and surveying programs, creek clean-ups, native gardening propagation and demonstration workdays, and riparian habitat restoration workdays; and to produce community outreach and education events, as well as bi-monthly newsletters and other publications.
Stop the Garden Bar Dam Campaign
General Support
Nevada County
$3,000
To prevent the construction of a new dam at Garden Bar on the Bear River. The proposed Garden Bar Dam would flood pristine blue oak woodlands, including over one thousand acres recently placed in conservation easement, and destroy anadramous fishery restoration efforts.
Valley Land Alliance
General Support
Merced County
$5,000
To protect Merced County’s land, water and air by preserving valuable farmland, promoting agricultural-tourism, and educating youth through a “sister school” program between Livingston and Palo Alto High Schools that includes farm field trips.
Winning Situation, Inc.
General Support
Alameda County
$3,500
To keep waste out of local landfills by encouraging people and businesses to donate, not throw away, unwanted usable goods to local nonprofits. Winning Situations collects nonprofits’ “wish lists,” solicits donations and transports the items to the nonprofits.
Winter 2009
(announced 12/10/2009)
AGUA – La Asociacion de Gente Unida por el Agua
Groundwater Protection Campaign
Fiscal Sponsor: The Environmental Justice Coalition for Water (EJCW)
Tulare County
$5,000
To protect the groundwater in the San Joaquin Valley, which disadvantaged communities and local schools depend on for drinking water. Funds would also be used to support the participation of Youth for AGUA members in the "Water Warrior Tour" during the summer of 2010.
Battle Creek Alliance
General Support
Fiscal Sponsor: SOL Communications
Shasta and Tehama Counties
$5,000
To advocate for sustainable timber harvesting practices, by prohibiting clearcuts and the use of herbicides in the headwaters of many of the State's watersheds.
Berkeley Community Gardening Collaborative
General Support
Fiscal Sponsor: Ecology Center
Alameda County
$2,500
To help establish a new network of community gardens that will transform an abandoned railroad Right of Way into a green corridor where low- and middle-income people will have access to open space and will be able to grow their own vegetables, and eat healthy and affordable food.
Lassen Forest Preservation Group
General Support
Fiscal Sponsor: Sierra Club Foundation
Butte County
$5,000
To monitor environmentally significant projects proposed in Lassen National Forest, and work with local communities and environmental organizations to educate the public, and foster support for more ecologically-protective forest management policies.
Mariposans for the Environment and Responsible Government
Rural Protection Project
Mariposa County
$5,000
To encourage Mariposa County to implement the 2006 Mariposa General Plan Update, which will protect rural open space and agricultural lands from sprawl development.
McCloud Local First Network
General Support
Siskiyou County
$2,500
To encourage environmentally friendly business development that will provide an alternative to the large-scale extraction economy in McCloud, a historic mill town. Plans include tourism promotion, local farmer's markets, and rails to trail projects.
Mount Shasta Bioregional Ecology Center
General Support
Siskiyou County
$5,000
To prevent devastating geothermal exploitation in the Medicine Lake Highlands, a vital aquifer for California and a sacred area significant to Native Americans and visitors.
Northern California Recycling Association
Protect Suisun Marsh Project
Solano County
$5,000
To prevent the expansion of the Potrero Hills Landfill in Solano County. Voter-approved Measure E limited the amount of garbage that could be brought into the county from other places to 95,000 tons per year. However, Solano County is currently importing about 700,000 tons of garbage annually from other counties.
Organic Sacramento
General Support
Fiscal Sponsor: Mother Support Network
Sacramento County
$4,000
To build local opposition to the proposed diversion of two-thirds of Sacramento River water; to educate Sacramento residents about Nestles' proposed water bottling plant; to promote the "Garden in Every Yard" campaign; to educate poverty-level school children and families on the health benefits of growing fresh, pesticide-free produce; and to generally promote the elimination of pesticides throughout Sacramento.
Paula Lane Action Network (PLAN)
General Support
Sonoma County
$3,000
To preserve critical wildlife habitat in an upland area of the Petaluma River watershed. The land is centrally located in a wildlife corridor and is an important groundwater recharge area. It provides habitat for hundreds of resident and migratory wildlife species, including the American badger.
Project OLE
Organizational Development
San Francisco County
$1,500
Project OLE (Outdoor Learning Environment) provides experiential, standards-based learning to 200 K-5th grade students at San Francisco Community School in their classrooms, organic garden and kitchen.
Rural Quality Foundation
General Support
Nevada County
$4,000
To prevent sprawl, poor quality development, and loss of open space, including protecting the Yuba Highlands area as open space and ranch land, and the expansion of the Empire Mine State Park.
Tulare County Citizens for Responsible Growth
General Support
Fiscal Sponsor: Sierra Nevada Alliance
Tulare County
$5,000
For county-wide outreach, education, coalition building and community organizing for smart growth in Tulare County, including directing development into existing communities, preserving agricultural land and protecting air and water quality.
Walk Oakland Bike Oakland
General Support
Alameda County
$4,500
To improve neighborhood and urban livability by making Oakland a better place to walk and bike. WOBO aims to lower Oakland's carbon emissions through enabling non-motorized transportation, and to ensure that all residents have access to quality public space, safe and welcoming streets, and better mobility options.
Wild Equity Institute
Restore Sharp Park
San Mateo County
$3,000
For advocacy to the restore Sharp Park, which is home to two of California's most imperiled animals: the San Francisco garter snake and the California red-legged frog. Owned by San Francisco but located in Pacifica, Sharp Park contains a money-losing public golf course that harms both species, and San Francisco continues to invest in its operation while reducing services in other parks.
Fall 2009
(announced 9/30/2009)
California Healthy Nail Salon
Collaborative
General Support
Statewide
$5,000
To address the environmental health issues facing the nail and beauty salon industry through a combination of policy advocacy, research, outreach and education.
Campesinas Unidas Del Valle de San Joaquin
General Support
Tulare County
$5,000
For leadership development, trainings and community meetings to empower residents of rural communities to address the health impacts of air pollution and pesticides.
Community Alliance for Rural Sustainability (CARES)
General Support
Tehama County
$3,000
To protect oak foothills, ranchlands and their watersheds from a poorly planned General Plan that would allow sprawl growth to add 375,000 people to rural northern Tehama County.
Community Grows
General Support
San Francisco
$3,000
To support environmental education, food security and sustainable community programs serving Hayes Valley and the Western Addition.
Connect the Dots
General Support
San Francisco Bay Area
$3,000
To help non-profit organizations reduce their environmental footprint, decrease consumption and energy use, and reduce operating expenses.
El Quinto Sol de America
Pesticide Organizing and Capacity-Building
Tulare County
$5,000
To build community organizing and leadership skills in farmworker communities facing environmental health threats.
Environmental & Agricultural Taskforce - Sacramento
General Support
Sacramento
$2,000
To support local and organic food production in the Sacramento Valley through outreach and organizing.
Friends of the Gualala River
Forest-to-Vineyard Conversion Opposition Campaign
Mendocino and Sonoma Counties
$5,000
To support expert legal, regulatory and scientific analysis of proposed plans to convert thousands of acres of forestlands to vineyards in Sonoma and Mendocino Counties.
Green Café Network
General Support
San Francisco Bay Area
$2,500
To help coffee houses in the Bay Area reduce waste, save energy and conserve water through public education and worker training.
Klamath Forest Alliance
Defending National Forest & Wildlife in the Klamath-Siskiyou Bioregion
Humboldt County
$5,000
To collaborate with local land managers, restoration councils and Native Tribes in opposing fire-logging on thousands of acres of remote and rugged forestlands in the Klamath River watershed.
MyValleySprings.com
General Support
Calaveras County
$5,000
To support grassroots advocacy for responsible land planning to protect thousands of acres of foothill oak woodlands from sprawl development.
Pesticide-Free Sacramento
General Support
Sacramento County
$5,000
To advocate for pesticide-free schools, parks, neighborhoods and workplaces.
Redwood Region Audubon Society
Organizational Development Support
Humboldt, Del Norte & Trinity Counties
$1,000
To help develop a five-year strategic plan.
San Joaquin et al
General Support
Merced County
$5,000
To monitor, track and participate in land use proposals related to development pressures on agricultural parcels.
SLO Green Build
General Support
San Luis Obispo County
$2,500
To provide sustainable and green building education and information to the public, industry and government.
Suisun Marsh Natural History Association
General Support
Solano County
$2,500
To help defray operations of wildlife rescue and rehabilitation programs that have released over 30,000 birds and animals back into the wild during the center's 32-year history.
West Oakland Community Advisory Group
Superfund Site Community Involvement
Alameda County
$1,000
To defray meeting expenses to encourage greater community participation in decisions related to the cleanup of the AMCO Superfund Site near Mandela Parkway in West Oakland.
Summer 2009
(announced 6/23/2009)
Alliance of Concerned Citizens of Novato
General Support
Marin County
$5,000
To prevent the privatization of the Novato wastewater treatment facility to a global corporation with a poor environmental track record.
Center for Sierra Nevada Conservation
Providing a Balance to the Forest Products Industry Influence on Teachers
El Dorado County
$5,000
To create a packet of high-quality, conservation-oriented educational materials to counterbalance materials provided by the timber industry at their annual "Forestry Institute for Teachers" camp, held each year in locations throughout Northern California. Materials will be distributed free of charge, and can be used in a variety of educational applications, as well as the FIT camps.
Citizens Looking at Impacts of Mining-GV (CLAIM-GV)
Campaign to Prevent Hard-Rock Mining in Grass Valley
Nevada County
$5,000
To prevent the reopening of a hard-rock gold mine at the edge of Grass Valley that could have devastating human health and environmental consequences.
Green Sangha
General Support
Marin County
$2,000
To develop community leaders and create new and stronger chapters, and to expand the "Rethinking Plastics" campaign aimed at eliminating single-use disposable plastics such as produce bags and water bottles.
Institute for Conservation Advocacy, Research and Education (ICARE)
California North Coast Stream Flow Project
Napa County
$3,000
For a retreat of North Coast watershed conservation leaders to strategize methods for improving water flows and riparian conservation activities, with a particular focus on stopping illegal water diversions that are currently de-watering streams and depriving people of their right to fish, swim and recreate.
Mountain Area Preservation Foundation
General Support
Nevada County
$5,000
To implement smart growth principles and protect open space in the Truckee region. Project elements include working with property owners, developers and the public to mitigate two large development proposals, and restoring a community park as a means of improving water quality for a nearby creek and revitalizing downtown.
Noyo Headlands Unified Design Group
General Support
Fiscal Sponsor: Coastal Land Trust
Mendocino County
$5,000
For community education, website upgrade, and a series of meetings to promote sustainable projects, energy-efficient design strategies and green zoning designations for the redevelopment of the abandoned and heavily contaminated 434-acre Georgia Pacific mill site in downtown Fort Bragg.
No Wetlands Landfill Expansion
Redwood Landfill Expansion CEQA Legal Challenge, & Air & Water Board Hearings
Fiscal Sponsor: Rose Foundation
$5,000
Supports a legal challenge to Marin County's approval of the expansion of the Redwood Landfill, which is on the edge of an environmentally sensitive marsh and the Petaluma River estuary.
Open Space Alliance, Inc.
General Support
Santa Cruz County
$5,000
Using agricultural and natural conservation easements to encourage small-scale, sustainable farming in Santa Cruz County.
Produce to the People
General Support
Fiscal Sponsor: San Francisco Parks Trust
San Francisco County
$3,000
For a summer youth employment program that hires high school students to harvest excess backyard produce in San Francisco, and redistributes the food to low-income families and individuals in the community through various food pantries, senior centers and community farm stands, thereby providing fresh and healthy food to people who may not otherwise have access.
San Joaquin Valley Cumulative Health Impact Project
General Support
Fiscal Sponsor: Fresno Metropolitan Ministry
Fresno County
$5,000
To launch an environmental justice-based cumulative health impacts campaign in the San Joaquin Valley to remedy the disproportionate burden environmental pollutants place on the poor, disadvantaged and communities of color.
Unidos para Cambio en Tooleville
(United for Change in Tooleville)
General Support
Tulare County
$3,000
For leadership development, trainings, and community meetings to empower residents of this small farmworker community to advocate for safe and reliable drinking water, storm drainage, sidewalks, a park and community center.
Ventana Wilderness Alliance
Silver Peak/Los Burros Abandoned Mine Project, Phase I
Monterey County
$4,000
Supports testing for toxics at abandoned gold and mercury mines on National Forest lands. At least two mines in the area have already been identified as discharging untested liquid mining waste into Steelhead spawning streams.
Yuba Historical Society
Sutter Buttes Subdivision Lawsuit
Yuba County
$2,000
Supports a legal challenge to Sutter County's approval of a 900-acre subdivision near Sutter Buttes, an isolated mountain rising from the Sacramento Valley, which is geologically unique, rich with biology, history and Native American attributes.
Spring 2009
California Indian Environmental Alliance
General Support
Fiscal Sponsor: National Indian Justice Center
Alameda County
$4,500
To address the environmental and health effects of the thousands of abandoned mines left over from the California Gold Rush, by empowering tribal members to make healthy informed decisions, advocate on their own behalf and initiate cleanup of toxins. Work includes community and health professional trainings.
Central Coast Forest Watch (CCFW)
Citizen Outreach and Education Tools Development
Santa Cruz County
$3,000
To "watch-dog" the regulation of timber harvesting throughout the Central Coast Region including completing and distributing a "How to" booklet for forest activism, and reviewing the National Marine Fisheries Service's draft Coho Recovery Plan.
Compost Club
Recycling Changes Everything Project
Sonoma County
$5,000
To reduce the garbage produced at schools by 75%, thereby helping the schools reduce their carbon footprint. The project will continue to work with ten Sonoma County K-8 schools, implement advanced compost techniques at three current schools, and introduce basic compost centers to seven new schools.
Conservation Action Fund for Education
General Support
Sonoma County
$5,000
To promote transit oriented development around the SMART Rail and Trail station sites in Sonoma and Marin Counties; engage, educate, and activate residents in the Santa Rosa General Plan update process; and hold public forums and sustainability workshops.
Dawn Institute
Garden Outreach and Educational Internship
Plumas County
$4,500
The garden internship provides hands-on experience in organic farming, marketing, outreach, and distribution of produce. In addition, the interns are responsible for organizing and conducting a number of events designed to increase awareness of local sustainable agriculture and food systems among Plumas County residents.
Foothill Collaborative for Sustainability (FoCuS)
School Garden Initiative
Calaveras County
$2,500
To teach children and their parents how to produce healthy food for their own use; to integrate the garden into the school curriculum through hands-on outdoor experiences; and to help provide fresh organic produce for use by the school cafeteria and the students' families. This project will be a prototype for other schools, community groups, and food banks in Calaveras and Tuolumne Counties over the next several years.
Foothills Water Network
General Support
Fiscal Sponsor: Sierra Nevada Alliance
El Dorado County
$5,000
To restore the Yuba, Bear, and American Rivers through collaborative negotiations in the re-licensing of the dams, most of which have 50-year old licenses written in an era when few protections for river health existed. The new licenses for the 25 hydropower facilities will determine environmental conditions for decades to come, and could maximize salmon restoration, restore aquatic health, and enhance recreational opportunities for 319 miles of river.
Friends of the Swainson's Hawk
Public Education
Sacramento County
$3,000
For new table top displays and interactive materials to educate children and youth on Swainson's Hawk nesting, foraging and migration activities. Friends of Swainson's Hawk works to protect and restore Swainson's Hawk's habitat by seeking permanent open space preservation in the Sacramento region.
Living Lands Agrarian Network
Funding the Future of Farming Project
Nevada County
$4,500
For an internship program that promotes small-scale, sustainable agriculture education. The interns will learn the fundamentals of sustainable agriculture growing on five acres, in four different microclimates, which will produce 15,000 pounds of food for the community.
Oakland Food Connection
Community Gardens
Alameda County
$5,000
For a 10-week summer job training and education program for at-risk youth. The program will teach students how to develop and maintain two backyard gardens during the summer months. The youth will learn about food production and how to distribute food to those in need.
Parents for a Safer Environment
General Support
Fiscal Sponsor: Pesticide Action Network North America
Contra Costa County
$5,000
To facilitate the implementation of least toxic pest management programs by various Contra Costa County Departments, as well as the Contra Costa Mosquito and Vector Control District, the Acalanes School District, the Town of Moraga and the Moraga School District; and to provide educational outreach via presentations on "Commonly Used Suburban Pesticides and Safer Alternatives" to decision makers and potential allies.
SPAWNERS
General Support
Fiscal Sponsor: The Watershed Project
Contra Costa County
$3,000
To conduct watershed stewardship through volunteer monitoring and surveying programs, creek clean-ups, outreach and education events, bi-monthly newsletters and other publications, native gardening propagation and demonstration workdays, and through riparian habitat restoration workdays.
Tolowa Dunes Stewards
Protecting Endangered Northcoast Dunes and Wetlands
Fiscal Sponsor: Smith River Alliance
Del Norte County
$5,000
To protect and restore the 11,000 acres of unique coastal dune, estuarine and wetland habitats. The area is home to 41 endangered and sensitive species, many of which are impacted by illegal off-road vehicle activity.
Valley Land Alliance
General Support
Merced County
$5,000
To educate and build alliances to protect our uniquely productive Central Valley farmland.
December 2008
AGUA-La Asociacion de Gente Unida por el Agua
Groundwater Protection Campaign
Fiscal Sponsor: Environmental Justice Coalition for Water (EJCW)
Tulare County
$5,000
To protect groundwater in the San Joaquin Valley upon which disadvantaged communities, including local schools, rely for their drinking water. AGUA will also help disadvantaged communities secure state funds for drinking water and wastewater infrastructure projects.
Alpine Watershed Group
General Support
Alpine County
$4,000
To preserve and enhancing the "California Alps" of rural Alpine County by organizing Alpine Creek Days, volunteer water quality monitoring, restoration programs, and continued fundraising efforts.
Chico Food Network
Dorothy F. Johnson Center Community Garden
Butte County
$3,000
For the creation of a community garden at the Dorothy F. Johnson Community Center. The garden will act as a learning and food production space for Chico's low-income Chapman neighborhood.
Citizens for East Shore Parks
General Support
Alameda County
$4,000
For improvements and planning for the Berkeley shoreline; advocacy to get Richmond's north shoreline designated as open space/parkland; participation in the City of Albany's waterfront planning process to assure shoreline parkland; and to continue public education about the importance of shoreline parks.
Foresthill Residents for respOnsible Growth, Inc. (FROG)
General Support
Placer County
$5,000
Community involvement and possible legal challenges to prohibit Placer County from allowing overwhelming development in a small Sierra Nevada foothills community.
Green Wheels
General Support
Fiscal Sponsor: Northcoast Environmental Center
Humboldt County
$4,000
To advocate for balanced and sustainable transportation policy which impacts the environment, greenhouse gas emissions, social justice, economic prosperity and physical health.
Mount Shasta Bioregional Ecology Center
Save Medicine Lake Highlands
Siskiyou County
$5,000
To prevent a massive and polluting geothermal development in this remote pristine and hydrologically important area by following up on a 9th Circuit Court victory; to legally reverse a second approved project; and to address other proposals and policies that further threaten the area, including geothermal threats around Mount Shasta.
Paula Lane Action Network (PLAN)
General Support
Sonoma County
$3,000
To preserve critical wildlife habitat in an uplands area of the Petaluma River watershed. The land represents groundwater recharge area in Sonoma County and habitat for hundreds of resident and migratory wildlife species, including the badger.
Project OLE
Growing Our Green Leaders
San Francisco County
$4,000
Project OLE (Outdoor Learning Environment) provides 200 K-5th grade students at San Francisco Community School experiential, standards-based learning in their classrooms, organic garden and kitchen. The goal is to create well-rounded, ecologically literate students who are conscious of their impact and are inspired to take action in their community.
PUEBLO (People United for a Better Life in Oakland)
Urban Youth Harvest
Alameda County
$5,000
For a job training and education program for at-risk youth that harvests backyard fruit and distributes it to those in need.
Santa Clara County Creeks Coalition
General Support
Fiscal Sponsor: Rose Foundation
Santa Clara County
$3,000
For community presentations to neighborhood and community organizations to generate focused advocacy actions by members of civic and neighborhood organizations in support of stream restoration.
Shasta County Citizens for a Healthy Environment
General Support
Shasta County
$5,000
To help local residents oppose a 268-acre gravel mining operation along the Sacramento River, which is designated critical habitat for the endangered winter run Chinook salmon, and to encourage participation in development planning to advocate for the preservation of open space and farmlands and to protect water and air quality.
Tahoe Area Sierra Club
General Support
Fiscal Sponsor: Sierra Club Foundation
Placer County
$4,000
To oppose development projects that adversely impact the health of Lake Tahoe. The grant will also help the organization lease office space to create a meeting/workspace and physical presence in their community and to hire a grant writer.
Tulare County Citizens for Responsible Growth
General Support
Fiscal Sponsor: Sierra Nevada Alliance
Tulare County
$5,000
For county-wide outreach, education, coalition building and community organizing for smart growth in Tulare County, including directing development into existing communities, preserving agricultural land and protecting air and water quality.
Walk Oakland Bike Oakland
Bike Broadway Campaign
Alameda County
$1,000
To improve neighborhood livability, vitality and sustainability by making Oakland a better place to walk and bike, which results in cleaner air and a healthier, physically active population. In Oakland, 85% of residents live within 2-miles of a transit center, making a walkable, bikeable city not only attainable but very practical.
September 2008
California Healthy Nail Salon Collaborative
General Support
Fiscal Sponsor: Asian Health Services
Alameda County
$5,000
To eliminate or reduce the use of toxins in nail salons that may be linked to cancer, reproductive health harm, respiratory illnesses, and other negative health effects.
Campesinas Unidas Del valle de San Joaquin
General Support
Fiscal Sponsor: CA for Pesticide Reform
Tulare County
$5,000
To educate rural communities in the Central Valley about the health impacts of air pollution and to teach campesinas (farmworkers) what to do when exposed to pesticide drift.
Central California Environmental Justice Network
Environmental Justice Network Conference
Fiscal Sponsor: Fresno Center for Non Violence
Fresno County
$2,500
To convene an environmental justice conference that will allow groups to network, and learn organizing and advocacy skills. The conference focus is eliminating pollution sources that have a disproportionate affect on low income and communities of color in the Central Valley.
Committee for a Better Alpaugh
General Support
Fiscal Sponsor: Environmental Justice Coalition for Water
Tulare County
$5,000
Leadership training and community education about environmental health issues that impact this small rural community of mostly Spanish-speaking, monolingual farmworkers.
Common Vision
Fruit Tree Tour
Fiscal Sponsor: International Humanities Center
Statewide
$4,000
For a 10-week tour to 30 schools in underserved communities throughout California. The day-log program includes planting trees, West African agricultural drumming, hip-hop, sustainable ecology curriculum, and Common Vision's veggie-powered, forest-mural busses.
Community Clean Water Institute
Water Quality Monitoring of the Lower Russian River
Sonoma County
$3,000
To add the Lower Russian River and Mark West Creek Watershed to their existing water quality monitoring program. Grant will be used to purchase water monitoring equipment and to recruit local residents to conduct monitoring.
Friends of Pinole Creek Watershed
General Support
Fiscal Sponsor: The Watershed Project
Contra Costa County
$3,000
To inspire and educate people to protect and restore Pinole Creek through hands-on stewardship, water quality monitoring, creek restoration, native plant garden, educational meetings and a newsletter.
Green Hope Veterans
Alternative Fuels Workshop
Fresno County
$1,000
To organize and promote a workshop on alternative fuels.
High Sierra Hikers Association
General Support
El Dorado County
$4,000
Watchdog commercial packstock use and livestock grazing in wilderness areas and other public wildlands.
High Sierra Rural Alliance
Monitoring and Advocacy Program
Sierra and Plumas Counties
$5,000
To advocate for healthy and sustainable communities, preservation of agricultural lands from urban development, and conservation of the immeasurable natural resources in the region.
LITE Initiatives
Bikes Mechanic Seed Funding Project
Sonoma County
$4,000
To build organizational capacity that supports programs to encourage people to drive less, walk and bike more, and to take public transit.
MyValleySprings.com
General Support
Calaveras County
$4,500
To promote responsible growth and development through public participation in community planning in order to preserve the quality of rural life in the greater Valley Springs area.
National Disease Clusters Alliance
General Support
Statewide
$4,000
For "first response" services, tools, and support for communities impacted by suspected disease clusters linked with environmental contamination.
Organic Sacramento
General Support
Fiscal Sponsor: Pesticide Watch Education Fund
Sacramento County
$2,500
For computer equipment and software needed to conduct their campaigns, which include establishing pesticide free zones in Sacramento, eliminating aerial spraying, and increasing sustainable urban agriculture in Sacramento.
San Joaquin Et Al
General Support
Fiscal Sponsor: San Joaquin Raptor/Wildlife Rescue Center
Merced County
$2,500
To monitor, track and participate in land use projects in Merced County in order to protect the environment and natural resources, as well as promote public process and open government.
Winnemem Wintu Tribe
General Support
Fiscal Sponsor: Environmental Justice Coalition for Water
Shasta County
$5,000
For stewardship of the McCloud, Sacramento and Pitt River watersheds, including the restoration of salmon populations and opposition to the enlargement of the Shasta Dam.
June 2008
California Food and Justice Coalition
For General Support
Fiscal Sponsor: Community Food Security Coalition
Alameda County
$4,000
Conduct background research, recruit campaign partners, engage in collaborative strategic planning with allies, and generate compelling campaign materials aimed at creating a local, sustainable and just food system in California.
Center for Sierra Nevada Conservation
For Building Capacity in the Grassroots: Northern Sierra Nevada Stop Clearcutting California Campaign"
Tehama and Shasta County
$5,000
To improve the capacity of new activists through assistance with timber harvest plan review, training, field monitoring, and assistance with technological skill building and computer equipment needs.
Clover Valley Foundation
For General Support
Placer County
$5,000
Legal challenge to the City of Rocklin's approval of a strip mall, 558-unit development and a cross-valley highway in Clover Valley, a pristine oak woodlands with steep slopes, a perennial creek and prehistoric sites.
Coast Action Group
For General Support
Fiscal Sponsor: Redwood Coast Watersheds Alliance
Mendocino County
$3,000
Education, advocacy and litigation to ensure that water quality on the North Coast is protected during timber operations, land development and forestland conversion projects.
El Quinto Sol de America
For Clean Water for Tulare County
Fiscal Sponsor: Pesticide Action Network North America
Tulare County
$5,000
Community organizing, fostering civic participation, and using art and culture as an outreach and education tool to increase awareness of environmental health and justice issues among farmworker communities in Tulare County.
EnviroJustice
For Contra Costa Justice Campaign for Safe, Sustainable and Just Communities
Contra Costa County
$2,500
Organizing faith-based communities to advocate for the safe, sustainable and just development of the former Concord Naval Weapons Station.
Friends of the Petaluma River
For General Support
Sonoma County
$5,000
To protect and improve the Petaluma River and wetlands through conservation programs, educational materials, scientific research and public outreach.
Healthy Fish, Healthy Californians Collaborative
For General Support
Fiscal Sponsor: Lao Khmu Association
Sacramento County
$4,000
To support a network of organizations working to reduce contamination in our waterways and to develop community based strategies to mitigate the health effects of bioaccumulative contaminants in fish.
North Coast Action
For General Support
Fiscal Sponsor: California Center for Community Democracy
Mendocino County
$5,000
For monitoring, research and education on the health hazards of toxic contamination at the 434-acre Georgia Pacific mill site that stretches four miles along the northern coast of California and makes up one-third of the coastal town of Fort Bragg.
Open Space Alliance, Inc.
For General Support
Santa Cruz County
$5,000
Using agricultural and natural conservation easements to encourage small-scale, sustainable farming in Santa Cruz County.
Truckee Climate Action Network
For General Support
Nevada County
$3,000
To reduce climate change through collaboration with businesses, organizations, special districts, local government and individuals to design and implement programs to achieve carbon neutrality.
West Oakland Asthma Coalition
For General Support
Fiscal Sponsor: Prescott-Joseph Center for Community Enhancement
Alameda County
$4,000
Community education about the environmental causes of asthma in a neighborhood where children are seven times more likely to be hospitalized for asthma than other children in California.
Wolf Creek Community Alliance
For Toxic Mining Legacy Identification, Planning and Outreach
Nevada County
$3,000
To educate agencies and the public about the toxic threats of reopening a gold mine in Grass Valley, and to continue to advocate for the remediation of the mine. Also, identify other acid-mine drainage sites on Wolf Creek and tributaries and document heavy metal contamination.
Winter 2008
Brisbane Baylands Community Advisory Group
For General Support
Fiscal Sponsor: Agape Foundation
San Mateo County
$4,800
Technical assistance for water and air quality testing, expert opinions on environmental reviews, and research on the source of the toxic legacy of the Brisbane Baylands, 600-acres of contaminated soils at the edge of SF Bay. The site is fragmented by multiple cities, multiple ownerships, and multiple agencies with varying jurisdictions.
California Indian Environmental Alliance
For General Support
Fiscal Sponsor: National Indian Justice Center
Alameda County
$4,500
Organizational growth and planning to address the environmental health effects of the thousands of abandoned mines left over from the California Gold Rush. An estimated 11 million pounds of mercury is working its way from the mines to rivers, lakes, streams, marshes and bays.
Central Coast Forest Watch
For Citizen Outreach and Education Tools Development
Santa Cruz County
$5,000
"How-to" booklet for forest activists, watchdogging timber harvest plans in the Central Coast, and dissemination of information about agency actions, watershed and forest related workshops, Board of Forestry updates, and other information.
Colusa County Citizens for Safe Water
For General Support
Colusa County
$2,700
Opposition to the siting of a landfill at Cortina Ridge that would pose a toxic threat to nearby creek watersheds and possible contamination of groundwater, posing hazards to people and agriculture.
Daily Acts
For General Support
Sonoma County
$5,000
To hire an office manager to organize sustainability tours, expand existing programs and manage volunteers; develop household sustainability models that will save low-income households money; and create guide for organizing sustainability tours.
Friends of Del Norte
For Restoring the West's Largest Coastal Lagoon to Wildness: A Campaign to Win Permanent Protection for Lakes Earl & Tolowa
Del Norte County
$5,000
To win permanent protection for the wildlands and wetlands of Lake Earl, an important wildlife refuge on the Pacific Flyway.
Friends of Five Creeks
For New Grassroots Community Partnerships
Fiscal Sponsor: Berkeley Partner for Parks
Alameda County
$4,000
Seed money to establish 5 new projects: stewardship of East Bay shoreline; restoring native plants to 3 historic rock parks; adopt-a-railroad right-of-way in West Berkeley; native plants and interpretive signs along Codornices Creek; and to publicize a state-wide web-based database on native plants by place or watershed (www.calflora.org).
Parents for a Safer Environment
For Reforming Pesticide Usage by Contra Costa County Departments
Fiscal Sponsor: Pesticide Action Network, North America
Contra Costa County
$5,000
To monitor Contra Costa County's implementation of an integrated pest management policy to reduce the use of toxic pesticides, and for outreach to medical clinics and drug stores about lice abatement methods that don't include pesticides.
Sierra Club Pajaro River Watershed Committee
For Integrating Communities with the Pajaro River
Fiscal Sponsor: Sierra Club Foundation
Santa Cruz County
$5,000
For a conceptual plan to integrate the Lower Pajaro River with the communities of Watsonville and Pajaro. The plan will include restoring dumping zones back into riparian areas, constructing wetlands, bike trail link to coastal communities, pocket parks, public access trail through urban areas, and preservation of the Pajaro Valley Ohlone Indian site.
SPAWNERS
For General Support
Fiscal Sponsor: The Watershed Project
Contra Costa County
$3,000
Volunteer monitoring programs, creek-side re-vegetation projects, native plant demonstration garden, creek clean-up days and development of educational programs for public school students in West Contra Costa County.
Sustainable Nations Development Project
For General Support
Fiscal Sponsor: Seventh Generation Fund
Humboldt County
$5,000
For educating Yurok farm managers; creating a viable seed saving facility; producing food for tribal youth and elders; hosting traditional elders to share knowledge of food production and sovereignty; outreach to Native and non-Native neighbors to re-establish bioregional trade networks; water efficiency workshops; and an Indigenous People's Straw Bale Construction Workshop.
Alliance for Sustainable Jobs and the Environment
For Grassroots Environmental Participation in Pacific Lumber Bankruptcy Organinzing
Humboldt County
$3,000
To watchdog the Pacific Lumber Company bankruptcy proceedings to insure that the company's 205,000 acres of redwood forestland are managed in a way that protects the environment and provides long-term sustainable forestry and restoration jobs.
Alpine Watershed Group
For General Support
Alpine County
$4,000
Support for citizen monitoring, watershed restoration, erosion control best management practices, and "Alpine Creek Days" in an area at the headwaters of 5 major rivers.
Foresthill Residents for responsible Growth (FROG)
For General Support
Placer County
$4,000
Community involvement to prohibit Placer County from amending its General Plan to allow overwhelming development in a small Sierra Nevada foothills community.
Friends of Canyon Creek
For CEQA Lawsuit Project
Shasta County
$3,000
Legal challenge to the City of Redding's approval of a 271-lot subdivision because it failed to address how grading and road construction would effect critical creekside steelhead habitat.
Green Wheels
For General Support
Fiscal Sponsor: Northcoast Environmental Center
Humboldt County
$1,000
Alternative transportation planning including advocating for a multi-use trail between Arcata and Eureka.
Hayes Valley Neighborhood Parks Group
For BEET Rangers (Brigade of Environmentally Educated Teens)
Fiscal Sponsor: Tides Center
San Francisco
$2,500
An environmental stewardship, youth leadership program for at-risk high school students, that includes designing and implementing restoration projects at a local park of the students' choice, working under the guidance of the city recreation and parks department.
Los Padres Forestwatch
For General Support
Santa Barbara County
$2,000
To protect and restore the natural and cultural heritage of public lands along California's Central Coast though community involvement, scientific collaboration and legal advocacy.
Mattole Restoration Council - Forest Practices Review Program
For Mattole Forestlands Protection Project
Humboldt County
$4,500
Develop, promote and implement a land conservation strategy for the Pacific Lumber Company-owned timberlands in the Mattole watershed, which are currently under the dictates of the bankruptcy court.
Mount Shasta Bioregional Ecology Center
For Save Medicine Lake Highlands Advocacy
Siskiyou County
$4,000
Supports protection of a beautiful, remote, and biologically critical volcanic ecosystem that has spiritual and cultural significance to Native Americans and to the public.
Mountain Meadows Conservancy
For General Support
Lassen County
$5,000
For a legal challenge to a proposed mega-ski resort that would construct 4,000 new homes, three golf courses and a 600-acre ski resort on sacred lands that provide habitat to many endangered or threatened species.
People for Children's Health and Environmental Justice
For Fish Contamination Project
Fiscal Sponsor: Agape Foundation
Solano County
$5,000
To educate communities of color in the Vallejo area about fish contamination, allowing them to make informed fish consumption choices, and to facilitate meaningful community participation in local, regional and state decision-making affecting low-income communities of color.
Rural Quality Foundation
For General Support
Nevada County
$4,000
To provide community education related to five new development projects, the creation of an open space district, the expansion of Empire Mine State Park, and agricultural protection methods.
Save the Air in Nevada County
For General Support
Fiscal Sponsor: Green Research
Nevada County
$4,000
Outreach to community members about the effects of ground level ozone pollution, how to minimize their exposure, and to support solutions to air pollution. The Sierra Nevada foothills community of Grass Valley has some of the highest ozone pollution in the nation.
Shasta County Citizens for a Healthy Environment
For CEQA Complaint / Shasta Ranch Mining and Reclamation Project
Shasta County
$3,000
To help local residents oppose a 268-acre gravel mining operation along the Sacramento River that is designated critical habitat for the endangered winter run Chinook salmon. The heavy truck traffic to and from the mine will generate cancer causing diesel emissions and will create an unsafe mix of heavy haul trucks, passenger vehicles, pedestrians, cyclists and school buses.
Tolowa Dunes Stewards
For Protecting Endangered Northcoast Dunes and Wetlands
Fiscal Sponsor: Smith River Alliance
Humboldt County
$4,000
To protect and restore over 10,000 acres of unique coastal dune, estuarine and wetlands habitat that is home to 41 endangered and sensitive species that are threatened by illegal off-road vehicle activity.
Yuba Historical Society
For Sutter Buttes Preservation Campaign
Sutter County
$2,000
To involve ranchers and Native Americans in preventing the only mountain in the Central Valley from being carved up into 20 and 80-acre home sites, advocating for the creation of a park on the mountain's southern fringe, and establishing preservation incentives for landowners.
Summer 2007
Committee for a Better Alpaugh
For General Support
Tulare County
Fiscal Sponsor: Environmental Justice Coalition for Water
$5,000
Leadership training and community education about environmental health issues that impact this small rural community of mostly Spanish-speaking, monolingual farmworkers.
Community Clean Water Institute
For General Support
Sonoma County
$3,000
To add stormwater monitoring to their existing water quality monitoring activities. The combined data will be used for community education, will be provided to regulators, and will help city and county officials implement stormwater management plans.
Friends of the Swainson's Hawk
For Event Outreach
Sacramento County
$3,000
For volunteer recruitment and training; informational displays for tabling at events and festivals; a new brochure; and student activity sheets.
High Sierra Rural Alliance
For General Support
Sierra and Plumas Counties
$5,000
To advocate for healthy and sustainable communities, and preservation of agricultural lands from urban development.
Kids in Parks
For General Support
San Francisco County
Fiscal Sponsor: San Francisco Parks Trust
$3000
Experiential environmental education programs for students at two public middle schools serving mostly low-income families and people of color. Includes a pilot mentorship program, where 8th graders who have been through the program will mentor a new group of 6th graders.
MyValleySprings.com
For General Support
Calaveras County
$4,500
To promote responsible growth and development through public participation in community planning in order to preserve the quality of rural life in the greater Valley Springs area by preventing rapid and unchecked development.
Organic Sacramento
For General Support
Sacramento County
Fiscal Sponsor: Pesticide Watch Education Fund
$2,500
To expand the volunteer base for projects that include supporting and expanding the number of local school gardens; developing strategies for use of least toxic alternatives to controlling West Nile virus; and hosting a sustainability forum that includes implementing a strategic plan for sustainability in Sacramento.
Resource Restoration
For the Leadership Project
Mendocino County
Fiscal Sponsor: Trees Foundation
$5,000
For leadership, networking and facilitation to strengthen community involvement in establishing long-term forest and fisheries stewardship on the North Coast.
SPRAWLDEF - Sustainability, Parks, Recycling and Wildlife Legal Defense Fund
For Saving Suisun Marsh: Stopping the Potrero Hill Landfill Expansion
Solano County
$3,000
For scientific research into the ecological impacts of nearly doubling a 320 acre landfill on the edge of the Suisun Marsh. The expansion would destroy habitat for the golden eagle, tiger salamander and delta smelt.
Tulare County Citizens for Responsible Growth
For General Support
Tulare County
Fiscal Sponsor: Seirra Nevada Alliance
$4,500
For a part-time campaign coordinator to conduct community outreach, policy analysis and advocacy for smart growth in Tulare County, including directing development into existing communities, preserving agricultural land and protecting air and water quality.
Valley Land Alliance
For General Support
Merced County
$4,500
To help this all-volunteer organization transition to having 2 paid staff, and to set up an office and computer system. Their focus is to protect the uniquely productive Central Valley farmland.
Wilderness Arts and Literacy Collaborative
For General Support
San Francisco County
$3,000
For outdoor field curriculum for 150 mostly low-income students of color at two inner city San Francisco high schools. Projects include habitat restoration projects at McLaren Park and Bayview Hills and field studies.
WildPlaces Ecological Education and Restoration
For General Support
Tulare and Kern Counties
Fiscal Sponsor: International Humanities Center
$5,000
Operational support for rangeland and oak woodland restoration projects; ranch stewardship tours in cooperation with local ranchers; youth education and career development with disadvantaged and other youth; native plant nursery; invasive plant management; and a river clean-up and outreach program.
Spring 2007
Campesinas Unidas de Tulare County
For General Support
Tulare County
Fiscal Sponsor: Pesticide Action Network
$5000
To educate rural communities in the Central Valley about the health impacts of air pollution and to teach campesinas (farmworkers) what to do when exposed to pesticide drift.
Clover Valley Foundation
For General Support
Placer County
$5000
To preserve and protect a 622-acre valley in the Sierra foothills threatened by the development of 558 homes, roads and a retail center. Clover Valley is a biologically diverse ecosystem that has steep hillsides, a riparian corridor, oak woodlands and Native American historic sites.
Coast Action Group
For General Support
Mendocino County
Fiscal Sponsor: Redwood Coast Watersheds Alliance
$3000
Education and litigation to ensure that water quality on the North Coast is protected during timber operations, land development and forestland conversion projects.
East Bay Chapter, California Native Plant Society
For Priority Plant Conservation Areas
Alameda and Contra Costa County
Fiscal Sponsor: California Native Plant Society
$4000
To identify, map and prioritize rare plant communities and significant habitats that are most threatened in Alameda and Contra Costa Counties, and to use these maps and reports to inform the public debate about conservation priorities.
El Comite para el Bienestar de Earlimart
For Farmworker and Central Valley Communities Confront EPA on Toxic Fumigant Pesticides
Tulare County
Fiscal Sponsor: Pesticide Action Network North America
$5000
To mobilize Central Valley farmworker families and rural Latinos to attend and make public comments at EPA hearings on the re-registration of 5 dangerous fumigant pesticides that have poisoned farmworkers and communities located next to agricultural fields in the past.
Friends of the Dunes
For Community Supported Dune Ecosystem Restoration
Humboldt County
$1250
For monthly restoration days where community volunteers work to restore the fragile dune habitat near Humboldt Bay by hand-removal of non-native invasive plants.
Friends of the Petaluma River
For General Support
Sonoma County
$5000
To build the capacity of this new community-based group to protect and improve the Petaluma River and wetlands through conservation programs, educational materials, scientific research and public outreach.
Making Our Milk Safe (MOMS)
For General Support
Alameda County
Fiscal Sponsor: Social & Environmental Entrepreneurs
$4000
To educate pregnant women and nursing mothers about reducing exposure to toxic chemicals, and for legislative and corporate campaigns to eliminate harmful toxins from the environment.
Malcolm X Neighborhood Arts Collaborative
For Celebrating Solar
Alameda County
Fiscal Sponsor: Berkeley Public Education Foundation
$5000
Environmental education activities promoting alternative energy, sustainability and environmental health for children at a low-income, urban public elementary school, their families, neighborhood residents and 30 community organizations.
No Wetlands Landfill Expansion
For General Support
Marin County
$5000
Oppose the expansion of a landfill that is on the edge of an environmentally sensitive marsh and the Petaluma River estuary.
North Coast Action
For General Support
Mendocino County
Fiscal Sponsor: California Center for Community Democracy
$5000
For monitoring, research and education regarding the health hazards of toxic contamination at the former Georgia Pacific mill site in Fort Bragg. Dioxin was found at the mill site, and at various places throughout the community where fly ash was deposited. Locations that received fly ash include neighborhood soccer fields and an elementary school.
Suisun Marsh Natural History Association
For Marsh Restoration Plan
Solano County
$4000
For marsh reconstruction and self-guided marsh education trails for a program that provides environmental education for 13,000 people each year and conducts wildlife rehabilitation.
Truckee Climate Action Network
For General Support
Nevada County
$2750
Start-up funds for new group working to reduce climate change through collaboration with businesses, organizations, special districts, local government and individuals to design and implement programs to reduce carbon emissions.
Vallejo Watershed Alliance
For Vallejo Watershed Networking Workshop
Solano County
Fiscal Sponsor: Solano Land Trust
$2500For a one-day workshop to coordinate organizations and individuals who are working to protect, enhance and restore the habitat of the Vallejo watershed.
Winter 2007
Common Vision
Fruit Tree Tour
Statewide
Fiscal Sponsor: International Humanities Center
$4,000
For a 10-week tour to 30 schools in underserved communities throughout California. The day-log program includes planting trees, West African agricultural drumming, hip-hop, sustainable ecology curriculum, and Common Vision's veggie-powered forest-mural busses.
Compost Club
General Support
Sonoma County
$3,500
Start-up funding to help schools and businesses reduce landfill waste and conserve natural resources. Based on the experiences of another Grassroots grantee, which set up a student-run composting program in a K-6 school that recycles 850 lbs of food waste annually, and sells the compost thereby making it self-sustaining.
Daily Acts
Sustainability Tours
Sonoma County
$2,500
For sustainability tours in Northern California designed to fundamentally change people's understanding of personal environmental responsibility, including 3 tours in the Bay Area, and to create a tour template for other environmental groups to use.
Ebbetts Pass Forest Watch (EPFW)
Community Action Program (CAP)
Calaveras County
$5,000
To educate and engage citizens and grassroots groups about revisions to Calaveras County's General Plan to ensure that it will preserve environmental quality and include open space and wildland protections.
Friends of Pinole Creek Watershed
General Support
Contra Costa County
Fiscal Sponsor: The Watershed Project
$4,000
To inspire and educate people to protect and restore Pinole Creek through hands-on stewardship, water quality monitoring, creek restoration, native plant garden, educational meetings and a newsletter.
Indigenous Permaculture Program
General Support
San Francisco
Fiscal Sponsor: Ecology Center
$2,000
For Indigenous Permaculture Certificate trainings, development of a five-acre farm (including conversion from conventional to organic agriculture), 8 weekend workshops and acquisition of office space.
Lassen Forest Preservation Committee
LassenForest Preservation Project
Butte County
Fiscal Sponsor: Sierra Club Foundation
$5,000
Monitoring environmentally significant projects in the Lassen National Forest, supporting efforts which will reduce the threat of wildfires, enhance wildlife habitat, clean water and a healthy forest ecosystem.
North Richmond Shoreline Open Space Alliance
General Support
Alameda County
Fiscal Sponsorship: Environmental Justice Coalition for Water
$5,000
To help local community members advocate for community and environmental development which will create a corridor of open space along the North Richmond Shoreline.
Noyo Headlands Unified Design Group
Moving from Extraction Economy to Restoration Economy Project
Mendocino County
Fiscal Sponsor: Coastal Land Trust
$5,000
For outreach, education and engagement of city planners, the coastal community and "green investors" regarding toxic clean up and sustainable redevelopment of the abandoned and heavily contaminated 434-acre Georgia Pacific mill site in downtown Fort Bragg.
Parents for a Safer Environment
Contra Costa County Departments' Pesticide Use Reform
Contra Costa County
Fiscal Sponsor: Pesticide Action Network
$5,000
To monitor and encourage Contra Costa County to implement an integrated pest management policy to reduce the use of toxic pesticides (Contra Costa County agencies currently use 17 times more pesticides than the two neighboring counties combined.)
Redwood Environmental Education Institute
KidPower School Energy Education Program
Humboldt County
$2,500
For hands-on global warming and energy curriculum for third through sixth grades in Humboldt County schools and for the community.
Sebastopol Water Information Group
Groundwater Monitoring and Management
Sonoma County
Fiscal Sponsor: OWL Foundation
$5,000
For well water monitoring, data collection and analysis to advance the understanding of local groundwater resources in order to safeguard a viable, clean water supply for the future.
Sustainable Nations Development Project
Sustainable Nations Youth Program
Humboldt and Trinity County
Fiscal Sponsor: Seventh Generation Fund
$5,000
For intensive, hands-on training in drinking water and wastewater management systems and natural building techniques, including installing gray water irrigation systems, composting toilets and solar electric pumps, as well as growing organic produce for elders and the tribal Head Start programs, planting trees and medicinal plant gardens, leading edible wild plant walks, and making traditional baskets.
