2020 Partners in Conservation Grants Awarded

Astor School, $25,000
Astor Playground Depave and Planting

The project removes nearly 10,000 square feet of asphalt from the playground area of Astor Elementary School and replaces it with trees, native plants, a food garden, and specialized landscaping that supports stormwater management.

Beyond Black, $15,000
Beyond Black Gardens & Farmers Market

This project involves the Play, Grow, Learn program and will engage Summer Works youth interns to build mobile raised beds for youth and families to grow food Farmers Market and in creating value added products in a commercial kitchen.

Camp E.L.S.O. Inc., $30,000
Wayfinders Expansion Project

Children of color receive science-based environmental education, along with targeted age-appropriate experiential learning. The project provides professional development opportunities for young environmental leaders of color and improves cultural responsiveness of Camp ELSO’s programs.

City of Gresham, $25,000
Urban Forestry Program Assistance

This project will enhance and expand Gresham’s urban forestry program, updating the Urban Forestry Management Plan, hiring a municipal urban forestry expert to assist with developing regulatory and non-regulatory tools, and collecting citywide, neighborhood scale and parcel level data for a Tree Canopy/ Inventory Initiative.

Confluence, $9,984
Indigenous Traditional Ecological Knowledge Study at the Sandy River Delta

Working with Indigenous partners at the Sandy River Delta, Confluence will create a demonstration project using Traditional Ecological Knowledge to tend the land and educate the community on ecological restoration that reflects the cultural and environmental values of Native people today.

Depave, $34,818
Depave 2020

Depave will develop, plan, and implement three depave and re-greening projects at elementary school in the Centennial and Portland Public School Districts, removing pavement, creating natureplay elements, installing native plants, and incorporating on-site sustainable stormwater management.

Ecology in Classrooms and Outdoors, $25,000
Ecology Enrichment in Elementary Schools

This project will reach 420 students with ECO’s hands-on lessons in classrooms, schoolyards, and natural areas. Integrated into curriculum is the opportunity for students to practice what they learn through habitat restoration under the mentorship of Native American interns.

Ecotrust, $57,500
Food Systems Leadership Fellowship

The Food Systems Leadership Fellowship is a train-the-trainer program designed to build the capacity of 10-15 local food systems leaders of color to successfully develop and implement regenerative agriculture projects that promote growing practices rooted in the conservation and restoration of our region’s resources. This collaborative initiative aims to address a lack of culturally-specific training opportunities needed to lead regenerative agriculture projects in East Multnomah County.

Friends of Trees, $73,188
Adult Urban Forestry and Restoration Training and Internship Program

Friends of Trees will organize and host a paid ten-week adult training program focusing on urban forestry and restoration related topics. Participants will attend weekly training and after completion will be connected with a paid internship.

Growing Gardens, $36,059
School Gardens: A Continuum of Programming for Youth Development

Complementing the existing elementary school garden program, project funding will help build out early childhood programming, pilot programs in high school, and connect multi-generational families to the Home Gardens Program.

Leach Garden Friends, $73,849
Leach Botanical Garden Community Habitat Restoration Project

The restoration project will return five acres along Johnson Creek to native habitat in conjunction with a major environmental education program engaging K-12 students, young adults, and community members.

Lower Columbia Estuary Partnership, $12,683
East Multnomah On-Water Environmental Education Project

In partnership with community organizations, 250 youth from diverse backgrounds will participate in Willamette River paddling trips on 29-foot Big Canoes.

Outgrowing Hunger, $24,475
Nadaka Restoration Stewardship & Education

Project will continue Friends of Nadaka’s environmental education and stewardship programs at Nadaka Nature Park including restoration internships and other workforce development, partner-led environmental education, and ecological vegetation restoration and management.

Portland Opportunities Industrialization Center Inc., $25,000
Student Crew Leadership Training Program

Through partnerships with Friends of Trees and Portland Parks & Recreation, this project will engage low-income youth and youth of color in project-based education and career-track natural resource mentorship.

The City Repair Project, $20,827
Unity, Community, and Green Space

City Repair in collaboration with Sabin CDC, an affordable housing provider in North/Northeast Portland, will transform conventional landscapes of grass to green spaces that include native plants, pollinator habitat, and food growing spaces on two Sabin CDC properties.

Tri-County Metropolitan Transportation District of Oregon, $60,000
Renewing the Green Pilot

TriMet will work collaboratively with community-based organizations to develop and pilot a program that engages community members in the restoration of the urban tree canopy near TriMet light rail stations and associated public spaces.

Voz Workers’ Rights Education Project, $51,436
Conservation and Natural Landscaping Skill Development among Day Laborer Community

This project will provide hands-on skill development to Voz workers, supporting meaningful environmental stewardship project activities that offer economic benefits for day laborers, build conservation capacity among the day laborer community, and promote an equitable local green economy.