Bay Partners Grants
The purpose of the Sarasota Bay Estuary Program’s Bay Partners Grants is to promote environmental education, awareness, community involvement and stewardship, and to improve the overall quality of Sarasota Bay and its tributaries.  To further these goals, funding is available for projects that focus on Bay Education, Bay Restoration or Bay-Friendly Landscaping.

Types of projects eligible for funding
• Create a wildlife garden
• Remove invasive species and replace them with native plants
• Enhance an existing landscape with native plants
• Improve and beautify an existing foot/bike trail with Bay-Friendly Landscaping
• Micro-irrigate a Florida-Friendly landscape
• Enhance a pond with Florida native plants
• Improve an impacted tributary riparian habitat
• Design and implement a targeted Bay education and stewardship program
• Install Bay education signage
• Put in a rain garden or bioswale
• Retrofit a Bay-Friendly landscape
• Educate neighbors about pet waste and distribute biodegradable doggie bags

Types of projects NOT eligible for funding
• Creation of a playground
• Non-environmental programming
• Projects on private property
• Projects that damage rather than restore native habitat
• Addition or repair of walls, fish ponds, swimming pools, patios, decks, benches, light fixtures, road signs or any other non-natural feature of the neighborhood
• Projects related to compliance, regulation, code enforcement or penalties
• Projects that use invasive plant species identified on either FLEPPC plant list http://www.fleppc.org/list/list.htm

Grant Applications

Download Application for Bay Partners Grants 2010-2011. If you have any questions contact the Public Outreach Coordinator Sara Kane at 941.955.8085 or email sara@sarasotabay.org. 

DEADLINE:  Applications must be received by 4:00 pm on Tuesday, March 1, 2011.  Please submit four (4) copies of your application.  Emailed applications will not be considered.  The Sarasota Bay Estuary Program’s grants review committee will review the applications and the grants will be awarded in the fall of 2011.

2010 Bay Partners Grant Recipients

Fully Funded Requests

Scenic Waves Partnership Committee, City of Bradenton Beach $1,575 – Neighborhood Water Conservation Demonstration Project.  Install a rain catchment system at local neighborhood community center.  They will incorporate signage with “bay-wise” lessons and have a workday kick-off event.

Bay Haven Basics Plus and New College $950 – The Garden of Reign.  Transform a barren spot on campus to one that is sustained by a rain garden and hosts native plants. 

Palma Sola Botanical Park Foundation $2,000 – Palma Sola Botanical Park Bay Partners Planting and Habitat Restoration Project.  Enhance an existing landscape with native plants and improve impacted tributary riparian habitats. 

Manatee County YMCA, Bradenton Branch/Aquatics $3,000 – Bradenton Branch YMCA Bubble Blowers Program.  Students and families learn how to snorkel to conduct shallow water, inshore, grass flat cleanups.  Three events to be conducted in summer 2010.

Island Village Montessori Schools $3,000 – Island Village Community Bay Education Project.  Educate students and families about the importance of coastal ecology in Florida.  Students will have the opportunity to attend sea-camp and other educational experiences at Mote Marine Laboratory and Myakka State Park.

Windward Bay Condominiums $1,639 – Create a Saltwater Bioswale Demonstration Plot – Bay Friendly landscaping project for a demonstration plot of a bioswale with native plants.

Partially Funded Requests

Mote Marine Laboratory $1,000 – Mote High School Internship Education Program. High school students will participate in marine research by collecting data about the health of seagrass beds.  This will engage students in the scientific process and enhance their understanding of local marine life. 

Keep Manatee Beautiful $1,500 – Kingfish Boat Ramp Native Landscaping on Palma Sola Scenic Highway.  Enhancement project for boat parking lot to reduce stormwater runoff.

Simply Green Solutions $1,500 – Village on the Bay: Waterways Past, Present and Future.  Final design layout and creation of water education model for Cortez Fishing village.

Westchester Condo Association $1,000 – Restoration Project to enhance the Southern Boundary of the Westchester Condos.  Removal of non-native plants, restoration with native plants and installation of micro-irrigation equipment.

Wakeland Elementary School of International Studies $1,000 – Habitat Hoopla.  Creating a wildlife garden and classroom habitats.  Will have planting day that will involve students and parents.

Bayshore Elementary School $1,000 – Bayshore Elementary Bay Buddies Bunch – Cleanups and exotic plant removal at preserves.

Venice Area Audubon Society $1,000 – Barrels and Butterflies: Creating a Sustainable Wildlife Garden.  Refurbish an existing butterfly garden using Bay Friendly plants to create a sustainable irrigation system that will use rainwater.  Garden will be used for public education and monitoring of butterfly species.

Sunbow Bay Condo Association $2,500 – Demonstration Site for Condo Associations on Anna Maria Island Bay Fronts – Bay Friendly landscaping project with native plantings.  They will have an ongoing educational program to keep residents aware of the benefits of Bay Friendly landscaping.

Manatee County Natural Resources $2,300 – World Beneath the Waves: Exploring the Fauna of Sarasota Bay by Land and by Sea – Education program that will teach participants about the fauna of Sarasota Bay for hands-on aquatic collection and paddling sessions.

Community Education Grant Program
The Community Education Grant Program provides opportunities for people to create community-based educational experiences that lead to the protection and conservation of Florida’s ecosystem. When people participate in water resources projects near their homes, they develop longer-lasting involvement in environmental protection.  For more information: http://www.swfwmd.state.fl.us/business/communitygrants/

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