Grants fund land use & preservation initiatives
The Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation announced $4,160,000 in awards to 60 environmental organizations under its latest round of grant making.

The foundation seeks to help environmental leaders improve livability as it relates to current patterns of land consumption and development in New Jersey. Funds primarily support: efforts to preserve major ecosystems and open space; to make the link between land preservation and healthy, local food systems; and to engage communities in landuse decisions that increase park and recreational open space, and address water supply, quality and reuse, brownfield reuse and the reduction of environmental toxins.

Dodge Foundation President and CEO David Grant noted, "We are seeing an important trend in the expression of the people land connection." Grant added that the "save land for the sake of the land" argument is being supplemented by "messages and stories of how communities meet basic needs and improve the quality of life through smart land-use design and practices."

The mission of the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation is to support and encourage those educational, cultural, social and environmental values that contribute to making our society more humane and our world more livable. For more information, including how to apply for grants, visit www.grdodge.org or call (973) 540-8442.

Local environmental organizations on the list of grant recipients include:

American Littoral Society, Highlands, www.littoralsociety.org, $80,000 for general operating support, including efforts to protect the land to protect the sea;

Clean Ocean Action, Highlands, www.CleanOceanAction.org, $80,000 for general operating support, including coastal community pollution prevention efforts;

Clean Water Fund, Belmar, www.cleanwaterfund.org, $80,000 for the Preventing Harm: A Path Toward Environmental Justice project;

NY/NJ Baykeeper, Keyport, www.nynjbaykeeper. org, $75,000 for general operating support. Recipients also include:

Association of New Jersey Environmental Commissions, Mendham, www.anjec.org, $250,000 for ANJEC's Smart Growth Planning small grants program;

Eastern Environmental Law Center, Newark, $175,000 for general operating support;

Edison Wetlands Association, Edison, www.edisonwetlands.org, $50,000 for general operating support;

Genesis Farm, Blairstown, www.genesisfarm. org, $35,000 to support the Foodshed Alliance;

GreenFaith, New Brunswick, www.greenfaith.org, $50,000 for chapter development and the Restoring Eden Sustainable Food Resource initiative;

National Center for Neighborhood and Brownfields Redevelopment New Brunswick, http://policy.rutgers.edu/brownfields, $25,000 for the continuation of Highlandsbased Protecting CriticalWater Resources project;

The Nature Conservancy, Chester, www.nature.org, $140,000 for general operating support, including large-scale and bio-diverse critical lands protection;

New Jersey Audubon Society Bernardsville, www.njaudubon.org, $100,000 for conservation planning activities and park land, open space and ecosystem protection advocacy, and $10,000 for education and outreach activities related to open space preservation funding;

New Jersey Conservation Foundation, Far Hills, www.njconservation.org, $175,000 for general operating support, including land acquisition, stewardship and public policy initiatives;

New Jersey Sustainable State Institute, New Brunswick, www.njssi.org, $40,000 to support the Sustainable Communities Project; and

Northeast Organic Farming Association of New Jersey, Pennington, www.nofanj. org, $15,000 for general operating support and development of Garden-to- Table curriculum.