Grantee: Bronx River Alliance
Grant Amount: $61,800Matching Funds: $20,000Total Project Amount: $81,800
Provide technical assistance to eleven municipalities and 20 of their representatives with individualized feedback and in five workshops to identify needs and opportunities to finance improved storm and wastewater system improvements; and prepare funding applications for two communities in Westchester County. Project will foster improved water quality resulting from upgrades and repairs to aging storm and wastewater systems along the Bronx River and Long Island Sound.
Grantee: The Trust for Public Land
Grant Amount: $493,400Matching Funds: $2,700,000Total Project Amount: $3,193,400
Engage 60 students in project design and 700 people in environmental education; remove 22,360 sq. ft. of gray asphalt replacing it with 20,101 square feet of green infrastructure on two school playgrounds in the Bronx. Project will enhance school and community environmental education and recreational space in an underserved urban community and capture 2.7 million gallons of stormwater and 43 pounds of nitrogen pollution annually before it flows into local waterways.
Grantee: Citizens Campaign Fund for the Environment
Grant Amount: $181,000Matching Funds: $54,500Total Project Amount: $235,500
Install 4,200 square feet of rain gardens; deliver public education including educational literature, a video, signs, and a community forum about the project; and engage 10 volunteers to build and maintain the two gardens in the village of Northport. Project will enhance access to the shoreline and prevent 75.2 pounds of nitrogen, 15.9 pounds of phosphorus, and 4,456 pounds of suspended solids flowing annually into Northport Harbor and Long Island Sound.
Grantee: Cornell Cooperative Extension of Nassau County
Grant Amount: $250,000Matching Funds: $115,200Total Project Amount: $365,200
Develop a volunteer training program to engage people to cultivate oyster gardens for reef restoration; source and procure spat-on-shell oysters for gardening; conduct a pilot project in Manhasset Bay; and deliver an education campaign to teach 500 residents at 15 events about shellfish restoration in Manhasset Bay, in the town of North Hempstead. Project will provide a framework to contribute to restoration of oyster reefs, an important coastal habitat of Long Island Sound.
Grantee: Billion Oyster Project
Grant Amount: $436,900Matching Funds: $110,300Total Project Amount: $547,200
Conduct site assessments; produce 60 percent site designs; and engage community groups to identify locations for oyster restoration at three sites in Queens and the Bronx, New York. Project will provide a potential pathway to restore upwards of 10 acres of oyster reef and improve community coastal resilience, water quality and biodiversity in Long Island Sound waters.
Grantee: The Research Foundation for the State University of New York (SUNY Stony Brook)
Grant Amount: $477,200Matching Funds: $308,500Total Project Amount: $785,700
Develop a plan including hydrodynamic modeling of larval transport; refining habitat suitability maps and creating maps of oyster recruitment; and work with local partners to foster rebuilding of oyster populations in Oyster Bay/Cold Spring Harbor. Project will synthesize this information to support enhanced oyster recruitment, survivorship, and growth and establish a pathway to create shellfish reefs, an important coastal habitat of Long Island Sound.
Grantee: University of Connecticut
Grant Amount: $217,800Matching Funds: $57,700Total Project Amount: $275,500
Control invasive plants to improve 18 acres of beach and dune habitat on Great Gull Island. Project will benefit roseate and common terns, iconic species of Long Island Sound on Great Gull Island, which is a Long Island Sound Study Stewardship site and a high priority restoration site.
Grantee: Town of Brookhaven
Grant Amount: $70,000Matching Funds: $60,000Total Project Amount: $130,000
Remove invasive plants and replace them with native plants to improve 40 acres of coastal forest and prepare a plan to manage invasive plants long term at West Meadow Beach in Stony Brook. Project will improve ecological health and provide habitat for wildlife at an important coastal habitat of Long Island Sound.
Grant Amount: $203,500Matching Funds: $100,000Total Project Amount: $303,500
Connect 75 students with educational and professional development opportunities and college credit through the Bronx River Environmental Enrichment and Leadership for Students (EELS) program in the Bronx River watershed. Project will introduce young people from an underserved urban community to conservation education and career experiences focused on the Bronx River and Long Island Sound.
Grantee: The Research Foundation for the State University of New York (SUNY-Maritime College)
Grant Amount: $51,500Matching Funds: $31,700Total Project Amount: $83,100
Provide 22 field experiences involving habitat restoration, and environmental stewardship and research on the “Sea Lab” vessel; and deliver land-based teacher training and environmental festivals for 840 K-12 students and residents serving the Bronx, Queens, and Westchester County. Project will provide environmental education for urban residents, especially underserved communities, who lack opportunities to connect with and appreciate local waters including Long Island Sound.
Grantee: The Bronx is Blooming
Grant Amount: $250,000Matching Funds: $152,800Total Project Amount: $402,800
Engage 2,500 community members in 100 stewardship projects to enhance coastal forest; provide 55 local youth green job opportunities; conduct a stewardship festival; and provide school-based environmental education with outreach to 3,000 people about the Bronx River and Long Island Sound in the Bronx. Project will increase residents’ capacity for stewardship, revitalize the largest park in the Bronx and support an underserved urban community in the Sound’s watershed.
Grantee: ReWild Long Island
Grant Amount: $230,300Matching Funds: $107,300Total Project Amount: $337,600
Deliver the Community Gardens Program, including installing and maintaining 20 native plant gardens with 200 volunteers and 25 community partners; and deliver the Summer Program to Fight Hunger and Climate Change with 80 volunteers planting and tending a dozen gardens in Suffolk and Nassau Counties. Project will educate people about the benefits of native plant gardening to the environmental quality of Long Island Sound.
Grantee: National Audubon Society, Inc. (Audubon New York)
Grant Amount: $181,900Matching Funds: $46,600Total Project Amount: $228,500
Provide school and community environmental education and stewardship activities about wildlife and local climate change to 650 urban K-12 students and families, including students in hospitals; provide professional development for 90 teachers; train and engage 200 volunteers to enhance natural resources and deliver four public education programs at two urban parks in the Bronx and Queens. Project will enhance the community capacity to improve their local environment.
Descriptions of all 39 grants totaling $12 million awarded in 2023 are also available in a fact sheet.