{"id":34223,"date":"2021-09-09T10:45:07","date_gmt":"2021-09-09T14:45:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/?p=34223"},"modified":"2021-09-09T10:45:07","modified_gmt":"2021-09-09T14:45:07","slug":"friends-of-maryland-state-parks-fund-conservation-and-education-projects","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/2021\/09\/09\/friends-of-maryland-state-parks-fund-conservation-and-education-projects\/","title":{"rendered":"Friends of Maryland State Parks Fund Conservation and Education Projects"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u2018Small Grants, Big Impact\u2019 Program Launched in 2020<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

\"Photo<\/a>

Work is done on the “Trail of Change” at Pocomoke River State Park in spring 2021. Photo courtesy Friends of Maryland State Parks.<\/p><\/div>\n

Maryland State Parks are completing 15 projects with the assistance of a new grant program of the <\/span>Friends of Maryland State Parks<\/span><\/a>, improving trails and habitats and enhancing opportunities for kids and adults to learn about aquatic river life, pollinators, terrapins and more.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Launched in 2020, the Small Grants, Big Impact! Program is designed to inspire people from all backgrounds to connect with, celebrate, and support Maryland State Parks and their community-based programs. Through its Small Grants program the nonprofit provides $1,000 grants to state parks to help them achieve their mission.<\/span><\/p>\n

The recently awarded grants, totaling $13,619, provided funding that has enabled parks throughout the state to collaborate with community partners to improve shoreline habitats, build wildlife interpretive displays, create pollinator gardens, and hire Youth Conservation Corps to assist with projects such as trail restoration and building boardwalks.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe funding received has enabled parks to complete projects and improvements that ordinarily would not have been accomplished,\u201d\u00a0 Maryland Park Service<\/a> Superintendent Nita Settina said. \u201cThis opportunity sparked creativity among the grantees [state parks], who completed, among other things, four pollinator garden installations, three trail renovations, and improvements to animal enclosures for our Scales & Tales ambassadors at two parks.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Parks and their projects funded by Small Grants this year are:<\/span><\/p>\n

Assateague State Park<\/a> \u2013 pollinator garden<\/span><\/p>\n

Deep Creek Lake State Park<\/a> \u2013 Sang Run orchard<\/span><\/p>\n

Elk Neck State Park<\/a> \u2013 interpretive displays for Nature Center<\/span><\/p>\n

Helen Avalynne Tawes Garden<\/a> \u2013 trail renovation of Western Maryland section of the garden<\/span><\/p>\n

Merkle Natural Resources Management Area<\/a> \u2013 Scales and Tales mobile animal carts<\/span><\/p>\n

Merkle Natural Resources Management Area<\/a> \u2013 pollinator garden<\/span><\/p>\n

Patapsco Valley State Park<\/a> \u2013 pollinator garden<\/span><\/p>\n

Pocomoke River State Park<\/a> \u2013 Trail of Change puncheon (boardwalk)<\/span><\/p>\n

Susquehanna State Park<\/a> \u2013 Hidden Valley Trail puncheon (boardwalk)<\/span><\/p>\n

Tuckahoe State Park<\/a> \u2013 diamondback terrapin enclosure<\/span><\/p>\n

Tuckahoe State Park<\/a> \u2013 tree planting<\/span><\/p>\n

Statewide<\/a> \u2013 Monarch Butterfly traveling trunk<\/span><\/p>\n

Statewide<\/a> — snorkeling program supplies<\/span><\/p>\n

More information on each project can be found on the <\/span>Friends of Maryland State Parks website<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cAs the Maryland Park Service enters this new decade, our parks are being used more than ever by an estimated 20 million annual visitors,\u201d said Mel Poole, Board President, <\/span>Friends of Maryland State Parks<\/span><\/a>. \u201cIt is important for us to give back to keep our parks vital for this and future generations.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The Small Grants, Big Impact! Program supports creative and\/or critical conservation and education projects and the small grant funding can be leveraged with volunteer activities and\/or state funding to go even further in helping a state park achieve its goals. <\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u2018Small Grants, Big Impact\u2019 Program Launched in 2020 Maryland State Parks are completing 15 projects with the assistance of a new grant program of the Friends of Maryland State Parks, improving trails and habitats and enhancing opportunities for kids and adults to learn about aquatic river life, pollinators, terrapins and more.\u00a0 Launched in 2020, the  Read the Rest…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":146,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[957,12],"tags":[5243,5205,5154],"class_list":["post-34223","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-appnews","category-parks","tag-friends-of-maryland-state-parks","tag-maryland-park-service","tag-state-parks"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34223","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/146"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34223"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34223\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":34230,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34223\/revisions\/34230"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34223"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34223"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34223"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}