12/18/15
PUBLIC INTEREST CENTER, (614) 644-2160
MEDIA CONTACT: Dina Pierce
CITIZEN CONTACT: Darla Peelle
Ohio EPA Education Grant to Support Clermont County Organization’s Monarch Protection Message
An interactive exhibit and support of a speaker’s bureau will help the Cincinnati Nature Center get out the message: Bring Back the Monarchs! The group is supporting Monarch Joint Venture, a national organization that along with others of its kind is helping identify best practices to support monarch butterfly habitat.
Monarchs depend on red milkweed to provide food for their caterpillars. Habitat for this plant is decreasing and red milkweed itself is sometimes seen as a weed and eradicated. In addition to creating its interactive exhibit, the Cincinnati Nature Center will develop brochures to be mailed and offer to speak with groups about the need for habitat preservation and using milkweed as part of a natural landscape.
The project is being funded in part with a $37,950 Ohio EPA grant. Seven grants were awarded statewide for $261,183. The Ohio Environmental Education Fund provides funding each year for environmental education projects serving kindergarten through university students, the general public and the regulated community.
Eligible grant recipients include environmental groups, public and private schools, colleges and universities, trade or professional organizations, businesses and state and local governments. Letters of intent for the next grant round are due to Ohio EPA no later than Jan. 8, 2016, and applications are due no later than Jan. 15, 2016. Prospective applicants are encouraged to contact the Ohio Environmental Education Fund on the web or at (614) 644-2873 to discuss project ideas.
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The Ohio Environmental Protection Agency was created in 1972 to consolidate efforts to protect and improve air quality, water quality and waste management in Ohio. Since then, air pollutants dropped by as much as 90 percent; large rivers meeting standards improved from 21 percent to 89 percent; and hundreds of polluting, open dumps were replaced with engineered landfills and an increased emphasis on waste reduction and recycling.
Ohio EPA Education Grant to Support Clermont County Organization’s Monarch Protection Message
Source: Ohio Environmental News