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The Tampa Bay Estuary Mini-Grant Program Awards $123,000 to Community Groups

The Tampa Bay Estuary Program has awarded $123,000 to 25 community groups for projects that directly involve citizens in restoring and improving Tampa Bay. This year’s Bay Mini-Grant program attracted 40 applicants. Members of the Estuary Program’s Community Advisory Committee evaluated the grant proposals, recommending 25 for full or partial funding up to $7,500.

Funds for the Mini-Grant program come from sales of the Tampa Bay Estuary license plate – also known as the “Tarpon Tag.” The 2009-2010 recipients, by county, are:

Hillsborough County

A What !?! Awareness, $420 – Tampa’s Mendez Exceptional Center
A K-12 school for special needs students, Mendez students will participate in EDventures to gain an understanding of stewardship of Tampa Bay.

Hydroponic & Organic Low-Impact Garden, $500 – Cadette Girl Scout Troop C-671
Girl Scouts from South Tampa and MacDill Air Force Base will research and construct an organic and hydroponic garden to learn about sustainable, eco-friendly agricultural techniques. They will share their lessons learned with other Girl Scout troops and donate the fresh produce they grow to a local food bank.

Sustainable Landscape Choices, $7,500 – Hillsborough County Extension
This grant is part of a larger effort to demonstrate “green” design and landscape concepts through highly visible pilot projects -- in this case, three Tampa Fire Stations, including the historic Ybor City facility. Cisterns will be installed, along with Florida-friendly landscapes, a community vegetable and fruit garden, and a “green wall” to measure the effects of energy conservation strategies. Guided tours will be offered to the public.

Little Manatee River Scrub Jay Restoration Project, $1,764.76 – Little Manatee River State Park
Volunteers will work with staff to restore scrub habitats and encourage occupancy by endangered Florida scrub jays. Both mechanical treatment and controlled burns will be used to remove invasive plants.

RIP (Recycling Invasive Plants), $6,030 – Lowry Park Zoological Society of Tampa, Inc.
Lowry Park Zoo will team with a local middle school serving underprivileged students to teach the importance of removing invasive plants from local waterways and how the health of the water impacts the health of the local flora, fauna and manatees. Students will collect invasive plants to supplement the zoo’s manatee diet and share their knowledge through Zoo Ventures outreach programs.

Invasive Plant Removal and Watershed Education, $6,000 – Mayor’s Beautification Program, Inc.
Volunteers will remove Brazilian pepper, lead tree, air potato and other invasive plants from five parks in the bay area (McKay Bay Nature Park, DeSoto Park, Blackwater Hammock, Temple Crest and Picnic Island). The grant also will fund a brochure highlighting threats to area waterways and how citizens can help.

Save Lake Roberta: The Restoration of a Natural Lake in Tampa, $6,253.10 – Old Seminole Heights Neighborhood Association
This grant will fund water quality improvements at a small urban lake in Tampa, including removal of invasive plants, installation of a trash catchment device, storm drain marking and shoreline restoration with native plants.

Restoration of The Forest Conservation Area, $3,540 – The Forest of Countryway Homeowners Association
Residents and volunteers will restore a two-acre wetland conservation area by removing Brazilian pepper trees and replanting with native trees.

Manatee County

Turtle Talks Activity Books, $2,913.50 – Anna Maria Island Turtle Watch, Inc.
Funds for this grant application will support reprinting two turtle activity books for elementary-aged children written by then high-school student Zander Srodes and distributed through Anna Maria Island Turtle Watch. The books have since been translated into three languages and distributed in eight countries.

Spring Break Camp at Felts Preserve, $6,525 – Around the Bend Nature Tours, Karen Fraley
Sixty disadvantaged students will attend a week-long camp during spring break at this small preserve maintained by Manatee Audubon Society to learn about invasive plants, the role of wetlands in water quality, and migratory birds’ dependence on wetlands for survival.

Mariposa Key Restoration Project, $7,447 – Manatee-Sarasota Fish and Game Association
Multiple government agencies and non-profit groups are partnering to restore six acres of coastal habitat on Mariposa Key including removal of exotic vegetation and debris, replanting native plants and maintenance and monitoring.

Palma Sola Park Plantings and Habitat Restorative Initiative, $4,000 – Palma Sola Botanical Park Foundation, Inc.
Volunteers from Bradenton-area schools will work with park staff to transform the shoreline along the southern edge of the gardens by removing invasive plants and replacing them with native plants. The restored area will provide habitat for small mammals and roosting sites for nesting birds.

Pinellas County

Save The Bay, Throw Poop Away, $4,368 – City of South Pasadena
Sealed pet waste stations will be installed at three public parks that permit leashed dogs. To support their use, information about the environmental impacts of pet waste will be distributed through the city’s newsletter, website and TV station.

Habitat Flor-Da Manatee, $2,685 – Kayak Nature Adventures, LLC.
About 250 people will participate in nine habitat clean-up kayak trips to collect trash and debris from Boca Ciega Bay and learn how household waste and stormwater runoff can impact manatee habitat.

Field Trip to Tampa Bay Watch, $1,500 – Osceola Middle School
Students from this Seminole school will travel to Tampa Bay Watch and participate in the EDventures program. Afterwards, they’ll create a Power Point, video presentations and podcasts.

Bi-Annual Bear Creek Clean-Up, $6,710 – Pasadena Bear Creek Neighborhood Association
Volunteers will remove debris and trash along Bear Creek, which drains to Boca Ciega Bay, and post signs to raise awareness of the creek’s importance.

McKay Creek Greenway Gone Batty!, $7,496.19 – Pinellas County Extension Service
A large community bat house will be placed on the edge of the conservation property with custom interpretive education signage identifying Florida’s native bats and the benefits they provide.

Watershed Improvement Partnership between Shorecrest Preparatory School and Placido Bayou Community Association, $3,126.50
The neighborhood association will partner with nearby Shorecrest Preparatory School to remove invasive vegetation and debris from three lakes within the neighborhood. Native plants will be replanted along the shore of the lakes and water quality results will be monitored for changes.

Least Tern Roof Nesting, $7,500 – The Friends of Weedon Island
A new nesting area for least terns will be built on the roof of the Weedon Island Cultural and Natural History Center. Visitors will learn about the terns through interpretive signage and using binoculars to view the nesting area from the observation deck.

Ocean in Motion, $7,500 – The Pier Aquarium, Inc.
Touch tanks will be set up at six local schools for a 4- to 5-week period, with corresponding classroom curricula and field experiences to teach students about the diversity of the Tampa Bay ecosystem.

Baywide (Hillsborough, Manatee and Pinellas Counties)

Climate Change in Tampa Bay: An Education Outreach Project, $6,950 – The Florida Aquarium
Four one-day teacher workshops exploring climate change with a curriculum developed by National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration will be conducted for elementary and middle school teachers in Pinellas, Manatee and Hillsborough counties.

Diamondback Terrapins: A Community-Based Conservation Education Program, $7,500 – Florida Turtle Conservation Trust
This comprehensive initiative will highlight the ecological importance of the imperiled diamondback terrapin. The grant will finance an educator’s guide for elementary and middle school children and a teacher workshop. It also will purchase 8,000 bycatch reduction devices to be distributed to local fishermen, since suffocation in crab traps is a major cause of terrapin mortality, and involve the public in reporting terrapin sightings.

Digital Boating and Angling Guide to Tampa Bay Updates and Enhancements, $6,784 – FWC, Fish and Wildlife Research Institute
The popular online version of the Tampa Bay Boater’s Guide will be enhanced through the addition of detailed boating restriction zone maps, paddling trails and kayak launches, photos of boat ramps and piers, and expanded information about the natural habitats and animals of Tampa Bay.

Oiled Wildlife Response, $1,620.25 – Save Our Seabirds, Inc.
More than 100 community volunteers will receive comprehensive training to prepare them to handle and treat oiled birds and other animals in the event of an oil spill in Tampa Bay.

Estuary EDventures-Coastal Restoration through Service Learning, $6,000 – Tampa Bay Watch, Inc.
Students, educators, and community members will work to restore approximately three acres of shoreline at Fort DeSoto Park and Terra Ceia Aquatic Preserve. Coastal plants will be planted to improve dune, wetland and upland habitats at the parks. The EDventures service-learning program combines estuarine curriculum with hands-on learning field trips and restoration projects.