Environmentally Active Groups Encouraged to Apply <br> for Annual Keep Maryland Beautiful Awards

Maryland Department of Natural Resources

Environmentally Active Groups Encouraged to Apply
for Annual Keep Maryland Beautiful Awards
ANNAPOLIS, MD — In an effort to recognize nonprofit groups or communities that advance environmental issues and/or address environmental problems, the Maryland Environmental Trust (MET) is accepting applications for the Margaret Rosch Jones Award and the Bill James Environmental Grants.
The grants are part of MET’s Keep Maryland Beautiful program, which is funded by the Department of Natural Resources and the State Highway Administration, a division of the Maryland Department of Transportation.

The Margaret Rosch Jones Award of up to $2,000 is awarded to voluntary nonprofit groups or communities that make continuing plans for a project that has already demonstrated a basic understanding and resolution of an environmental issue.

The Jones award is given in memory of Margaret Jones, the executive director and moving spirit of the Keep Maryland Beautiful program for many years. MET reminds citizens of her devotion, energy and ingenuity by presenting an award in her name to a group whose voluntary activities personified these attributes that Jones brought to her work. Applicants must also meet one or both of the following criteria:

Groups that have been active in educating people in their community about at least one of these concerns: litter prevention, community beautification and local or statewide environmental issue(s).

Groups that have been successful in eliminating or reducing the causes of a local environmental problem rather than address the symptoms.

The Bill James Environmental Grants of up to $1,000 are awarded to school groups, science and ecology clubs and other nonprofit youth groups for proposed environmental education projects. The grants are given in memory of William S. James, who drafted legislation to create MET, incorporating the activities of the Governor's Committee to Keep Maryland Beautiful.

The objectives of the grants are to:

encourage a sense of stewardship and personal responsibility for the environment;

stimulate a better understanding of environmental issues;

aid in the elimination or reduction of a local environmental problem; and

encourage education about growth management and the protection of rural areas and sensitive resources while discouraging sprawl development.

Applications may be downloaded from our website: www.dnr.maryland.gov/met/keepmd.html or obtained from the Maryland Environmental Trust, First Floor, 100 Community Place, Crownsville, MD, 21032-2023. Completed applications must be received by March 31, 2007.

December 27, 2006
The Maryland Department of Natural Resources (DNR) is the state agency responsible for providing natural and living resource-related services to citizens and visitors. DNR manages more than 449,000 acres of public lands and 17,000 miles of waterways, along with Maryland's forests, fisheries and wildlife for maximum environmental, economic and quality of life benefits. A national leader in land conservation, DNR-managed parks and natural, historic and cultural resources attract 11 million visitors annually. DNR is the lead agency in Maryland's effort to restore the Chesapeake Bay, the state's number one environmental priority. Learn more at www.dnr.maryland.gov