Keep Maryland Beautiful Grants Awarded to Environmental Groups

Former Keep Maryland Beautiful recipient, Blue Water Baltimore, and partners led a project at Cross Country Elementary School to replace 18,000 sq. feet of blacktop with grass, trees and a new playground, eliminating several hundred thousand gallons of storm water runoff.

The Maryland Environmental Trust awarded a total of $9,600 to nonprofits, community groups and schools across the state to restore streamside habitats, create gardens and educate citizens about the environment as part of the Keep Maryland Beautiful program.  

The Margaret Rosch Jones Award is given for ongoing projects that have demonstrated success in solving an environmental issue, whether local or statewide. Named in memory of Jones, former executive director and moving spirit of the Keep Maryland Beautiful Program, this award recognizes groups that actively educate their community about litter prevention, beautification and sustainability, and that have successfully eliminated or reduced the causes of a local environmental problem.

The 2015 Margaret Rosch Jones Awards recipients are:

• Chesapeake Beach Oyster Cultivation Society in Chesapeake Beach
• Girl Scout Troop 110 in Towson
• It’s All About The Kids Education Organization, Inc. in Baltimore
• Land & Cultural Preservation Fund, Inc. in Frederick
• Robert E. Lee Park Nature Council in Baltimore
• Youghiogheny River Watershed Association in Oakland

Cross Country Elementary School before the enhancements.

Bill James Environmental Grants are awarded to nonprofit youth groups for the creation of new environmental education projects in their community. The grants are given in memory of former state Senator William S. James who worked to create Maryland Environmental Trust in 1967.

The 2015 Bill James Environmental Grants recipients are:

• Annapolis High School Environmental Club in Annapolis
• Christ Church Kent Island in Stevensville
• Friends of Tuckahoe & Martinak State Parks in Caroline County
• George Washington Carver Elementary School in Lexington Park
• Mattaponi Elementary in Upper Marlboro
• NASA Goddard Child Development Center in Greenbelt
• North County High School Greenhouse Club in Glen Burnie
• Southwest Baltimore Charter School in Baltimore
• SustainaFest in Annapolis
• University of Maryland College Park’s Gemstone Program Team CATTAILS

The Maryland State Highway Administration provides partial funding annually for these grants and awards. The state’s General Assembly established the Maryland Environmental Trust in 1967, and its first program, Keep Maryland Beautiful, was created later that same year. MET promotes the protection of open land through its Land Conservation, Stewardship and Local Land Trust Assistance programs.

Governed by a citizen board of trustees, MET is affiliated with the Maryland Department of Natural Resources and currently holds more than 1,065 easements totaling around 132,000 acres in Maryland.