27 Watershed Education grants awarded

MARGARETVILLE, N.Y., April 30, 2007 - Twenty-seven Watershed Education grants totaling $125,439 were approved by the Catskill Watershed Corporation (CWC) Board of Directors April 24.

The grants will go to schools and non-profit organizations in New York City and its Catskill-Delaware Watershed, an area encompassing parts of Delaware, Greene, Schoharie, Sullivan and Ulster Counties. Projects funded by these grants are intended to increase awareness, understanding and appreciation of clean water, the City’s vast water delivery system, and the upstate Watershed which supplies 90 percent of the water consumed by nine million people.

A 13-member Public Education Advisory Group (PEAG) evaluated the proposals in this tenth round of funding. The recommendations must also be approved by the New York City Department of Environmental Protection (DEP).

Several of the grants will enable upstate and downstate students to share information and get to know one another. Perhaps the most innovative project involves six students from the Harbor School in Manhattan and six from Sidney Central School who will participate in a Mountaintop to Tap Trek this summer. The group, accompanied by teachers and adult guides, will spend three weeks hiking and boating their way from the High Peaks region of the Catskills to the Big Apple to spotlight the critical connection between the mountains and the city.

The CWC grant, awarded to Stroud Water Research Center which is coordinating the adventure, will fund an exhibition of student photos and journal entries generated during the trek. The exhibit will open at South Street Seaport Museum in Manhattan in October, and will subsequently travel to upstate venues.

The Seaport Museum will also receive funds for its program "For Learning on Water," which explains the linkages between the Catskill-Delaware water supply, urban consumers and the City’s own waterways.

CWC grants will also assist projects planned by the following schools and institutions serving K-12 students and teachers from the Watershed: Phoenicia and Kerhonkson Elementary Schools, South Kortright, Hunter-Tannersville, Roxbury, Gilboa-Conesville, Liberty, Margaretville (two projects) and Fallsburg Central Schools.

Northern Catskills Occupational Center received a grant to begin development of a nature trail and to teach water sampling protocols. Delaware-Chenango-Madison-Otsego BOCES will get funds to do a comparative study of two Watershed ponds, and Otsego-Northern Catskills BOCES will use its grant to extend training in the Catskills: A Sense of Place curriculum to 20 teachers in the Stamford and Gilboa-Conesville School Districts.

The Ashokan Field Campus of SUNY New Paltz, and the Catskill Center for Conservation and Development will also offer teacher training. The Roxbury Arts Group will expand its environmental offerings to children enrolled in its Nature and Art for Youth summer program in 2008.

In New York City, Renaissance Middle School, Bronx Academy High School, and Mott Hall School will receive grants. Clearpool Environmental Education Center in Carmel will get a grant to serve inner-city students from New York, and Girls Quest will get funds to bring Arm of the Sea Theater’s remarkable "City That Drinks the Mountain Sky" performance to the organization’s summer camp for city youth in Windham.

The Council on the Environment of New York City, Rocking the Boat in the Bronx, and the Brooklyn Center for the Urban Environment will also receive CWC grants.

The New York City-based Trout Unlimited office was awarded a grant to improve its website, newsletter and other communication tools linking city and upstate classes participating in the very popular Trout in the Classroom program.

For more information on past Watershed Education Grants and related programs, consult the Catskill-NYC Watershed Educators Network web site, www.WatershEducators.org

To learn more about the CWC and its environmental protection, economic development and education programs, go to www.cwconline.org, or call toll-free, 1-877-WAT-SHED.