ONTARIO— Ontario is calling on community groups to help protect, restore and enhance the Great Lakes by applying for a Great Lakes Guardian Community Fund grant.
Now in its fourth year, the fund provides a grant of up to $25,000 to not-for-profit organizations, schools, First Nations and Métis communities and other local groups for projects that have a direct environmental benefit to the Great Lakes. Past projects and activities supported by the fund have included: planting trees; creating rain gardens; restoring wetland habitat; controlling invasive species; cleaning up beaches or shorelines; and naturalizing stream banks and shorelines.
“I strongly encourage people to become local guardians of their lakes and apply for a Great Lakes Guardian Community Fund grant,” Glen Murray, Minister of the Environment and Climate Change, states in a press release. “This fund gives communities the opportunity to undertake activities that will make a real difference for the environment, while uniting community members around a common goal. The fund not only recognizes and supports our local Great Lakes champions, it empowers them to do their part to restore, protect and conserve our Great Lakes to keep them drinkable, swimmable and fishable.”
Applications will be accepted until October 23, 2015.