Submitted by Beki Howey,
Maryland Environmental Trust
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Three Frederick groups will receive awards to restore streamside habitats and community gardens. The grants are part of the Keep Maryland Beautiful program, from the Maryland Environmental Trust, and funded by the Department of Natural Resources and the State Highway Administration, a division of the Maryland Department of Transportation.

Volunteer Frederick and the Urbana Elementary School were awarded grants under the Margaret Rosch Jones Awards for projects that have already demonstrated success in solving an environmental issue, whether local or statewide. The Jones award is given in memory of Margaret Jones, the executive director and moving spirit of the Keep Maryland Beautiful Program for many years. The grants will fund restoration work on Glade Creek and the Great Heron Wetlands, Urbana, Frederick County. Urbana Elementary School will restore the Urbana Branch of the Little Bennett Creek that rises in the corner of the school yard.  The Great Heron Wetlands was initiated in 2000 to provide an outdoor hands-on learning environment for students and to promote awareness of impacts to the Chesapeake Bay Watershed.  The wetland is also monitored by the Watershed Management Division of Frederick County Government. The expansion along Urbana Branch will increase the area of monitoring, contributing to good quality data on water quality.

The Frederick Community Garden Association has been awarded a Bill James Grant for nonprofit youth groups with new environmental education projects in their community. The Bill James Environmental Grants are given in memory of William S. James, who worked to create Maryland Environmental Trust in 1967. The Association will beautify a garden site to remove invasive plants and create native pollinator gardens. The gardens also bring people and food closer together. The garden at Cannon Hill, formerly an abandoned lot at the back of an industrial site in downtown Frederick has undergone a massive transformation since 2009. The new garden will be a model that visitors can take ideas home to their own home gardens and local organizations.

A statewide land trust governed by a citizen board of trustees, The Maryland Environmental Trust, was established in 1967 by the Maryland General Assembly to preserve privately owned farm and forest lands and significant natural resources. MET is one of the oldest and most successful land trusts in the country. It holds 985 easements and has protected over 120,000 acres across the state. MET promotes the protection of open land through its Land Conservation Program, Monitoring and Stewardship Program and Local Land Trust Assistance Program. MET also provides grants to environmental education projects through the Keep Maryland Beautiful Program.

The Maryland Department of Natural Resources (DNR) is the state agency responsible for providing natural and living resource-related services to citizens and visitors. DNR manages more than 449,000 acres of public lands and 17,000 miles of waterways, along with Maryland's forests, fisheries, and wildlife for maximum environmental, economic and quality of life benefits. A national leader in land conservation, DNR-managed parks and natural, historic, and cultural resources attract 12 million visitors annually. DNR is the lead agency in Maryland's effort to restore the Chesapeake Bay, the state's number one environmental priority. Learn more at www.DNR.Maryland.gov.