WNJ Exclusive: New Jersey Audubon and Raritan Community College Receive TogetherGreen Innovation Grant Funding for Raritan River Conservation Work
"Never underestimate ingenuity and innovation. The approaches that will help us tackle the enormous environmental challenges confronting us today are going to come from unlikely and unpredictable places,” said Audubon President David Yarnold. “Each Innovation Grant project is an opportunity for Audubon to partner with local organizations to test and implement creative approaches to build healthier communities and achieve significant conservation results. And as our alliance with Toyota shows, when organizations work together, we can exponentially magnify our impact.” New Jersey’s Raritan River watershed is home to over a million people and a haven for an astonishing variety of wildlife, including at least seven endangered or threatened bird species. Along with federally threatened plant species like swamp pink and Nuttal’s mudwort, those bird populations are clinging to life in the watershed which has been plagued by industrial waste. Conservation groups like New Jersey Audubon are anxious to figure out how best to protect these species, but there are still huge gaps in knowledge about species site preferences and how urbanization affects these species nesting productivity and migration patterns. According to Nellie Tsipoura, Senior Scientist and Director of Citizen Science at New Jersey Audubon, “the Lower Raritan River is known for being heavily industrialized and polluted; what most people don’t realize is that as many of the local factories have shut down and moved out, the remaining ‘overgrown’ areas provide habitat for birds and other wildlife. Through clean-ups we can improve this habitat and by surveying for birds and plants we can evaluate the success of our conservation efforts”. Since 2008, the TogetherGreen Innovation Grants program has awarded over $4.7 million to more than 160 environmental projects nationwide. The 2011 awardees are receiving grants ranging from $5,000 - $50,000. Funds were awarded to partnerships, mostly between Audubon groups (local Chapters or programs of Audubon’s large national network) and organizations in their communities. This year’s grant projects involve more than 150 partner organizations nationwide. Many of the projects focus on engaging audiences that have traditionally been under-served by the conservation movement, from urban youth to rural ranchers. For complete details about the 2011 TogetherGreen Innovation Grants projects, please visit: www.togethergreen.org/grants. 
Photos courtesy of New Jersey Audubon Society
Categories: WNJ Exclusives
Tags: New Jersey Audubon togethergreen raritan valley community college conservation environment
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