Root-Pike WIN announces grants

The Root-Pike Watershed Initiative Network’s Resource Group awarded $13,610 in grants on Monday. Grant winners include:

$10,000 for Signage for the Root River Parkway, Racine County Department of Public Works. Signs will be installed at conspicuous points along the Root River corridor where the publicly-owned parkway intersects with or is in close proximity to public roads. The signs are intended to increase public awareness of over 675 acres of publicly owned lands that comprise the Root River Parkway, and to stimulate interest and support for the acquisition and protection of additional land in the corridor. The signs will be installed in August 2008.

$1,386 to Weed-Out! Racine, a volunteer program of the S.E. Gateway Group Sierra Club, for equipment & supplies to control the spread of exotic invasive plants in City of Racine parks and natural areas. Volunteers will remove honeysuckle, buckthorn, garlic mustard and dame’s rocket and restore areas with native trees, shrubs and plants.

$2,224 to Eye on Racine for a pilot cable television program created by Racine youth featuring Root-Pike WIN grant projects and volunteers. The purpose of the project is to increase awareness about Root-Pike WIN, especially among Racine youth who will also acquire interview skills and learn about television production. The production will be aired on CAR-25 twice a week for four weeks and a DVD will be donated to WIN for use in public outreach activities.

Six applicants applied for grant funding in the cycle that ended August 25, 2007. Root-Pike WIN’s next grant cycle ends February 3, 2008 and grants will be awarded in Spring 2008.

For the first time, Root-Pike WIN will offer a pre-application workshop intended to help applicants plan their projects and write stronger grants. The workshop is planned for December and the date, time and location will be announced soon.

“We want to work with applicants right from the beginning and help them write stronger grants, ones that are likely to get funded,” said Susan Greenfield, executive director of Root-Pike WIN. “Often, our grant application is the first one our applicants have prepared. Our goal is to help them succeed with projects that will protect, restore and sustain the ecosystem in the Root and Pike river watersheds,

The Root-Pike watershed extends from Kenosha County, through Racine, Milwaukee and Waukesha counties. Since 2001 the organization has awarded $311,170 to seventy-one watershed projects. The Root-Pike Watershed Initiative Network grew out of a group convened in 1998 by the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources to identify critical natural resource issues in the Root River and Pike River watersheds.

For more information, go Root-Pike WIN’s website, www.rootpikewin.org or contact Susan Greenfield at 262-898-2055 or sgreenfield@wi.rr.com.