Root-Pike WIN announces $25,359 in grants

The Root-Pike Watershed Initiative Network announced the following grants for the fall:

· $9,804 to the Chiwaukee Prairie Preservation Fund, Inc., Kenosha, to undertake a thorough inventory of plants in the Chiwaukee Prairie in Kenosha County, particularly rare native plants, map them using GPS, and update the Plant Checklist which was first compiled in 1912 and most recently updated in 1986.

· $6,280 to the Natural Resources Foundation of Wisconsin, Madison, to fund equipment that will be used to remove invasive plants and restore 30 acres of the Chiwaukee Prairie State Natural Area in Kenosha County, which is owned by the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources.

· $6,050 to the YWCA River Bend Nature Center, Caledonia, to fund a natural resource inventory, assessment and stewardship plan for 80 acres of the center’s lands.

· $3,225 to the Village of Hales Corners Environmental Committee to fund a natural lawn care demonstration project at a village fire station that will show how a healthy weed-free lawn can be achieved using natural compost tea and corn gluten, thus reducing polluted stormwater runoff caused by synthetic fertilizers and herbicides.

Six applications were submitted for grant funding in the cycle that ended August 25, 2008. Root-Pike WIN’s next grant cycle ends Feb. 2, 2009 and grants will be awarded in spring 2009.

Since 2001 Root-Pike WIN has awarded $382,857 to 83 watershed projects, thanks to financial support from SC Johnson Fund, E.C. Styberg Foundation, Racine Community Foundation and WE Energies Foundation. The Root-Pike watershed extends from New Berlin to Pleasant Prairie and includes portions of Waukesha, Milwaukee, Racine and Kenosha counties. The Root-Pike WIN 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.