LOVELAND – In its 25th grant cycle, the Larimer County Department of Natural Resources is proud to announce $25,066 in grants to support ten community and neighborhood projects that help educate and connect people to the land. The 2023 awards will support a wide range of organizations spanning across Larimer County through the department’s Small Grants for Community Partnering program. To-date, Larimer County has awarded $395,421 for 232 community and neighborhood projects.

Larimer County Natural Resources is honored to celebrate and recognize all of the exemplary projects awarded by the Small Grants Program over the past 25 years through a commemorative website created in partnership with Colorado State University’s Geospatial Centroid.

The 2023 grantees, projects, amounts and locations include:

• 21st Century Gardens, Supplies for seed starting, $850, Fort Collins
• Colorado State University, Native wildflower and pollinator research at Eagle’s Nest Open Space, $2,215, Livermore
• Estes Valley Watershed Coalition, Wandering Wildlife Society programs and talks, $1,680, Estes Valley
• Homeward Alliance, Murphy Center Garden Beautification and Accessibility Project, $674, Fort Collins
• Ivy Stockwell Elementary PTO, Community education and engagement, Phase VI, Outdoor Classroom Project, $3,000, Berthoud
• No Barriers USA, Fire mitigation project, $2,970, Livermore
• Northern Colorado Wildlife Center, Increasing capacity of NCWC’s newly acquired Environmental Education Classroom, $3,500, Northern Colorado
• Red Feather Lakes Community Library, ‘Connecting Community Through Nature’ workshops, $3,500, Red Feather Lakes
• Sproutin’ Up, Solar installation project, $3,200, Fort Collins
• Wolverine Farm Publick House, Poudre River Pollinator project, $3,477, Fort Collins

Small Grants for Community Partnering is an initiative of Larimer County to disperse a portion of Help Preserve Open Spaces sales tax dollars for projects that:

• Enhance natural areas
• Create public linkages with existing open lands and parks
• Offer opportunities for environmental education, outdoor recreation or nature interpretation
• Provide opportunities for people to connect with the land through agriculture or increased access to open spaces and natural areas
• Develop new research on Larimer County open spaces

For more information about the program, contact Jennifer Almstead, Fund Development & Projects Specialist, at (970) 619-4569 or jalmstead@larimer.org, or visit larimer.org/small-grants.