Americana Foundation

With this grant, the Ecology Center and the National Wildlife Federation (NWF) will partner with grassroots group Need Our Water (NOW) in Oscoda, MI to create a PFAS community science monitoring and education program.  Under the program, residents will learn to sample and analyze foam on the surface of Lake Huron to determine whether it contains PFAS.  Ultimately, the model program will be replicated in other communities and be expanded to include sampling and analysis of water, wildlife, etc. for PFAS contamination.  The objective of the program is for PFAS-impacted community members to increase their control over decisions affecting their own health and support further advocacy.

Legacy recently took over the Raisin Valley Land Trust.  As a result, it has expanded its service area to include Lenawee County and its more than 340,000 acres of farmland.  This grant will enable Legacy to reach out to, and create partnerships, with landowners and stakeholders in Lenawee County so that it can continue critical land conservation work in its new service area.

Americana's grant will enable Huron Pines to provide professional planning and project management services to communities in Northern Michigan that are interested in land conservation and water quality improvements but do not have the technical knowledge or expertise to engage stakeholders, initiate strategic planning and priority setting processes, or leverage large funding opportunities.  Huron Pines' professional expertise will enable and empower Northern Michigan communities to develop long-term strategies that protect the natural resources and high-quality natural areas that characterize their communities.  

In partnership with the US Department of Agriculture, US Department of Fish and Wildlife Service, National Parks and State Parks, SER Youth Build Academy (SYBA) will use this grant to engage 40 Detroit youths (ages 16-24) in Youth Conservation Corps (YCC) projects, to preserve natural habitat at Michigan National State Parks to make them more attractive for visitors through various enhancement projects.

Planet Detroit is building a collaborative center for local journalism on environmental and public health news and information for Metro Detroiters.  With this grant, Planet Detroit will publish a 6-part series of informative digital guides to explain and connect issues related to climate change that can otherwise be difficult to understand.

The Alliance of Leadership Fellows (ALF) will use this grant to develop a series of Climate Crisis Dialogues (webinars followed by podcasts) designed to share perspectives about the differing impacts of the climate crisis and to build new connections between advocates for change.  Through this effort, ALF anticipates reaching thousands of people around the world, sharing information and connecting leaders with actionable agendas.   ALF believes that bringing leaders together to share information, passions, diverse perspectives, potential solutions, and actions is the first step in making progress on the significant global issues of the time.

This grant will help American Farmland Trust to expand the Farmland Pollinator Protection Project (FPPP) statewide, develop a statewide registry for the sale and purchase of Pollinator Habitat Credits (PHC), work with farmers to plan and restore 150 acres of pollinator habitat on protected farmland, and conduct outreach to corporations and other PHC buyers to secure investments.

This grant will enable FLOW to develop a communications and outreach plan that will engage young people in understanding the threats and taking meaningful action to protect the Great Lakes. 

With this grant, the I-Collective will address issues relating to food sovereignty within the Indigenous community in Detroit by increasing access to culturally relevant foods, creating educational materials, and introducing programming geared towards cultivated relationships between the land and one another. 

This grant will support Feed Flint, a program that provides locally grown, chemical-free, fresh produce to residents living in and around Flint while providing our youth and residents jobs, workforce development, and volunteer opportunities. Feed Flint delivers takeout meals, produce boxes with recipes, and home deliveries as part of our work to guide and support families in moving towards sustainable abundance. We do this through the South Flint Soup Kitchen, Market Stands, the Asbury Cafe, and our Mobile Food Trailer.

This grant will support the development, creation, and presentation of a new dramatic program to activate the Detroit Central Farmers Market, which is being reconstructed and installed at The Henry Ford’s Greenfield Village. The market will serve as a learning laboratory to share important stories of historical innovations in agriculture and connect them to issues surrounding foodways, sustainability and the environment.

This grant will enable Edible Flint to expand educational programming at the Edible Flint Educational Farm, which models urban farming techniques to inspire and support healthy food production, and will support Edible Flint's Garden Starters program, which supplies and supports residential gardeners in Flint and Genesee County.

This grant will help fund a program that processes high-quality surplus food from local growers, food manufacturing byproducts, overripe produce, and commercially-sized foods to create healthy, culturally appropriate meals for food insecure Detroit families.

This grant will enable HUDA to rejuvenate an urban garden created by volunteers at HUDA, a free clinic in north Detroit, to connect patients of the clinic with fresh food and other strategies for healthy eating and wellness.

This grant will support the production of a PBS documentary film that will draw viewers into the worlds of farmland preservationists, stream ecologists, and fisheries and wildlife biologists working together to restore water quality, revive aquatic habitats, and return traditional hunting and fishing resources to the Indigenous people and all regional residents during a time of dramatic climate change.  The film will focus on the activities of the Tribal Stream and Michigan Fruit Belt Collaborative, a group led by the Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians that is re-opening streams and wildlife corridors and improving agricultural practices in a region decimated by deforestation and private land development.

With this grant, Old Sturbridge Village will develop a unique, experiential learning opportunity in a yearlong study of historic agriculture for middle school students at a school that targets “hard to reach/hard to teach students.”

This grant will enable the grantee to develop interpretative programming at the Delano Homestead to honor the legacy of Native American and Black farmers that used sustainable farming methods to maintain steady harvests and soil fertility across generations.

With this grant, the Superior Watershed Partnership (SWP) and the Great Lakes Conservation Corps (GLCC), in collaboration with community partners including Partridge Creek Farms (PCF) and the Keweenaw Bay Indian Community (KBIC), will establish a network of native plant gardens. Plants and seeds produced from project efforts will be utilized for prioritized restoration projects and/or saved to sustain the project for years to come.

WDET will use this grant to produce 10 stories focused on grassroots organizations engaged in regenerative and sustainable practices in the Detroit region. The focus will be diverse voices that represent the wide variety of experiences and modalities that Metro Detroiters are utilizing to repair and reconnect with our land and each other.

This Grant will support a program operated by Our Kitchen Table ("A Sense of Place) that seeks to improve the availability of local food among residents in a low-income neighborhood in Grand Rapids through community gardening, nutrition education, and other services.  This grant will support the program and enable OKT to broaden its reach to include members of the Latin, Native American, returning citizen, and differently abled populations.

With this Grant, FLOW will convene a workgroup of nationally recognized experts, key stakeholders, and decision-makers to develop a common understanding of Michigan's groundwater problems and reach consensus on measures to strengthen groundwater protection and address contamination and depletion.

This Grant will support the Greening of Detroit's Detroit Conservation Corps program, which provides Detroiters with apprentice-based landscape, agriculture and urban forestry training.  The grant will support the use of Lafayette Greens urban garden as an outdoor classroom and teaching site, and to support two new part-time Garden Assistant job opportunities at Lafayette Greens for DCC graduates.

This Grant will enable Growing Hope to scale up its teen programming, which provides Ypsilanti teens with meaningful employment that builds their identity, leadership skills, and confidence and educates them to become leaders within the local food system.  Growing Hope will use its urban farm to host a paid teen program that prepares youth for jobs and careers in sustainable agriculture while creating the next generation of leaders who can advocate for and create a better food system.

This Grant will support the Alliance's efforts to develop technical and legal information to contest the construction of a marina development that threatens the resources at the mouth of the Kalamazoo River.

This Grant will help North Oakland Headwaters Land Conservancy purchase two wetland parcels in the Shiawassee River headwaters that is one of the last two habitat locations of the globally-endangered Powesheik Skipperling Butterfly and establish a stewardship fund for its protection.