Americana Foundation

This grant will support the purchase of five cellular backpack transmitters (with associated data costs) that researchers at MSU use to track and map the migratory pathways of redtail hawks at the Mackinac Straits.

This grant will provide one year of supplemental salary support for a horticulture teacher at Randolph Career and Technical Center. The Randolph CTE provides high school students with a career pathway education program that includes hands-on learning, job shadowing, project learning, apprenticeships, and certifications in various fields, including horticulture.

This grant will support a partnership between Black to the Land Coalition, a team of urban Indigenous leaders, the City of Detroit, and other local organizations that are creating an urban sugarbush in Rouge Park. The purpose of the sugarbush is to connect Detroiters to Indigenous experts in the cultural tradition of making maple sugar. With this grant, the sugarbush organizers will provide equipment and supplies for gatherings at the site, engage a designer to develop a plan for permanent infrastructure, and retain Planet Detroit to create a short documentary about the sugarbush operation.

This grant will expand programs that connect small- and medium-sized farmers in northeast Michigan to communities in need of fresh local produce. Project partners will establish pop-up farmers markets in eight communities, connect farmers to food service facilities at senior centers, schools, and other institutions, and create opportunities for community organizations to establish a regional food system that promotes greater cooperation and coordination on food, agriculture, and health.

This grant will support a partnership between Detroit Hives, MSU’s Detroit Partnership for Food Learning and Innovation (DPFLI), and DPFLI's neighbors in Detroit that will design, plan, and implement a community pollinator garden. The garden will include more than 300 seasonal perennials, an integrated pest management plan, and educational signage. Detroit Hives will use the garden as a site for its Bee the Change program, which educates local families on the importance of pollinator conservation through workshops and community hive tours.

Avery Arts & Nature Learning Center will use this grant to support a nature education series designed to inspire the community in the Eastern UP to become more connected to the natural world. Adult presentations and workshops will address such at topics as the impacts of climate change, invasive species and wildlife management, land ethics, and environmental stewardship. Youth programs will consist of family learning opportunities about wildlife, the environment, and sustainability.

The Little Traverse Conservancy will use this grant to support the development and initial implementation of an Ecological Conditions and Response (ECAR) protocol to support stewardship planning and inform the implementation of stewardship activities at the 25,000 acres of lands it protects as nature preserves and working forest reserves.

Scrap Soils will use this grant to provide affordable and accessible food scrap collection service for up to 200 residents in the West Village neighborhood of Detroit, thereby reducing food waste by as much as 72,800 lbs per year and diverting as much as 182,000 lbs of CO2 emissions.

Keep Growing Detroit will use this grant to provide scholarships to as many as 10 beginning farmers in Detroit, so they can earn a certificate in organic farming from MSU's Organic Farmer Training Program.  The program is an intensive eight-month course of study that meets weekly and includes 16 interactive online learning sessions, 11 hands-on activities on home-based farms, and six field trips to working farms in Detroit, Lansing, Ann Arbor, Grand Rapids, Kalamazoo, and Traverse City.

This grant will support programs at a new Kids' Food Basket (KFB) farm in Holland, MI.  At the farm, KFB will provide food justice programming, equity education, and hands-on agriculture volunteer opportunities, and will grow fresh produce for distribution.  KFB works to eliminate childhood hunger by closing the gap between kids and agriculture and shifting the focus from food charity to food sovereignty.

This grant will support the expansion of Metro Food Rescue's Fruit Tree Harvest and Backyard Produce Project.  In this project, volunteers are engaged to collect unused or excess fruit from orchards and backyard growers and either deliver it to low-income families and seniors, or to local processors for use in making jams and jellies.

This grant will contribute to the construction of a reflection labyrinth at the Viewlands Reserve in Emmet County, MI and the installation of low-slope pathways at the Reserve to enable people with mobility challenges to access a wildflower meadow and other features.

Farmland is a highly specialized type of property that requires detailed knowledge transfer and trust between seller and buyer.  This grant will help shepherd Washtenaw County farmland to the next generation of farmers through a real estate website and land-linking support service connecting legacy farmers with farmers who need land.

Growing Hope will use this grant to equip the members of its community with the tools and knowledge needed to grow food, while uncovering their collective power to engage in, and develop, a more equitable food system.  The grant will be used to prepare the community to engage in food policy and to act collectively in order to preserve land for growing, and create spaces where food sovereignty can be actualized.

Americana's Next Gen cohort selected the D-LEEP program as a grant recipient to support efforts to work with students in Detroit and their families to plant wildflowers, trees, and gardens in their backyards and to connect with networks of other Detroiters who are growing food and/or native plants.

This grant will support the expansion of two programs in Genesee County: Inspiration Gardens, which features community gardens in which youth plant, grow, and harvest crops for their families and for donation to the Food Bank of Eastern Michigan; and Watch Me Grow, a floriculture and horticulture program for young people that the grantee administers in partnership with Motherly Intercession, a group that assists families with an incarcerated parent.

Americana's Next Gen cohort selected Six Rivers Land Conservancy to receive a grant to help repair and restore a pavilion, picnic tables, trail map, viewing platform, and benches at the Sutherland Nature Sanctuary so that they continue to provide education, enjoyment, and an outdoor nature experience to visitors.

Americana's Next Gen cohort selected Leelanau Conservancy as a recipient of a grant to support the Whaleback Restoration Project.  Leelanau will use the grant to remove several acres of invasive wineberry with the help of goats, and then seed the cleared land with native seeds.

MFNW has brought the international food waste certification, The PLEDGE on Food Waste, to Detroit and has committed to training 30 Detroit restaurants and assisting them in applying for the certification.  The program is expected to lower the restaurants' food costs, increase food donation and composting rates, drive diners to support participating restaurants, and promote Detroit's commitment to sustainability in food.  This grant from Americana will enable MFNW to work with restaurants to develop stories about their experience in the program to amplify the program's results and increase its reach.

The Straits of Mackinac are known nationally to be a migratory pathway for 17 different species of raptors.  Each spring and fall, the Mackinac Straits Raptor Watch (MSRW) works with professional raptor experts to identify and count migrating raptors across the Straits.  With this grant, MSRW will retain a professional educator with bird/raptor expertise to develop an educational program for the community that gathers during these activities.  Volunteer educators will use the program throughout the migratory season to inform the community about raptors, their natural histories, and migrations.

This grant will enable the Greening to build capacity to manage tree harvesting at the Greening's Meyers Nursery.  The Greening will use trees from the nursery to meet goals set by the Detroit Reforestation Initiative, which proposes to plant 75,000 trees in Detroit over the next five years.  The harvesting plan will include effective, efficient, and sustainable best practices for promoting increased tree production and will be implemented by dedicated teams of graduates from the Detroit Conservation Corps program.

This grant was requested by Marty Fluharty, Americana's past Executive Director, as part of a grant allocation that the Board of Trustees awarded in honor of her retirement in 2018.  Marty chose The Center for Michigan/Bridge Magazine because of her involvement in Bridge Magazine's early days and her ongoing commitment to balanced, well-researched, and unbiased journalism in Michigan.

At one time, the Rouge River was the most polluted river in Michigan and one of the most polluted in the Great Lakes.  Today, it is going through an amazing revival thanks to strong citizen involvement and advocacy.  This revival is being chronicled in a new book titled "Rouge River Revived", which tells the story of how people are bringing their river back to life.  This grant will support a book tour of all 48 communities in the Rouge River watershed to share lessons learned during this effort, inspire a sense of wonder for the Rouge River, and help develop a stewardship ethic in the next generation.

This grant will support the Growing Thriving Communities Initiative (GTCI), a program that helps increase food security by engaging community and youth leaders to grow and distribute free, fresh produce to Detroit residents, community organizations, and anyone in need.  Participants will utilize Cadillac Urban Gardens, a raised bed garden that grows for and with local community members, to explore urban agriculture and other environmental career fields through SDEV's youth summer internship program and expand the scope and reach of SDEV's Produce Distribution Program.  Through participation, youth will gain knowledge within agricultural and environmental fields all while supporting the growing, cultivation, and distribution of free produce to the SW Detroit community and beyond.

In 2020, Micah 6 Community purchased the essential elements of a new four-season greenhouse intended to expand capacity to grow food, with and for its Pontiac neighborhood.  During the pandemic, supply shortages, tumultuous staffing, and price increases on even basic construction delayed the delivery of the greenhouse and raised the price of construction beyond what was estimated.  This grant will provide essential funding needed to complete construction of the greenhouse and connect it to utilities.