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| NFWF Grant UPDATE |
You are here: Newsletters > December 2002 > NFWF Grant UPDATE
Pasture progress continues
by Linda Veblen
The 2002 Chesapeake Bay Small Watershed Grants Program of the National Fish and Wildlife Found. (NFWF) is providing a $25K challenge grant to help restore, manage pasture lands, and control soil erosion in the Piney Creek Watershed.
The award money will be used to purchase and erect fencing for 50 acres on Rendezvous Farm, ERRI's headquarters, and provide a manure storage facility.
Each existing pasture will be split into two, and the back pasture that has lain fallow for several years will be divided in two and put into use. Horses will be rotated to different pastures once the grass is 2" high. This will allow each pasture to rest and grow for 2-3 weeks before horses are turned out on it again.
The grant is a 2:1 challenge grant, which means ERRI must provide $50,000 worth of labor, cash contributions or donations toward the project. We kicked-off work on the pasture restoration in October with the help of volunteers from the Maryland Department of Corrections, Johns Hopkins University (JHU) Outdoors Club members, JHU professors and students, and ERRI volunteers.
Pasture soils have been sampled, will be analyzed at JHU, and will provide a baseline for the study. We have logged over 2000 hours of contributed labor on the project, and work will continue through the winter months. We hope to have the fencing installed by July.
We still need volunteers for fence line clearing and fence installation. We also need cash donations for, or contributions of, fence posts, gates and concrete for the manure storage facility. Please contact Linda Veblen at 410-472-9447 for additional information.