YVAS Conservation Grant
Each year, YVAS offers a conservation grant of up to $1,000. The grant may be awarded to an individual(s) or a group(s) engaged in a project which supports the YVAS mission: “to promote enjoyment and protection of the natural environment through education, activism and conservation of bird habitat.”
We are excited about the opportunity we have to help students engage in fulfilling our mission and we encourage you to apply for a Conservation Grant. Any applicant under the age of 18 must provide a letter of support from a supervising teacher. Applications need to be received by February 1 of each year.
To download a copy of the YVAS Grant Procedures, click here: Grant Procedures
To download a copy of the YVAS Grant Application, click here: Grant Application
For further information, contact Pam Pipal at ppipal@charter.net or Deb Regele at debregele@gmail.com.
Some past YVAS Conservation Grant recipients are:
2016: Megan O’Reilly with Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks received $1,000 to assembled five educational bird trunks. Each trunk contains materials and a curriculum for instructors to teach important lessons about birds to children. The trunks are available for checkout from the MFWP as of May 2017.
2015: Jay Sumner of the Montana Peregrine Institute received $1,000 to assist with transportation costs in its 16th and final year of surveying Peregrine Falcon productivity and populations in Montana. This falcon was delisted in 1999 and the study is providing a baseline population data base for Peregrine Falcons in Montana. Due to financial cuts, the US Fish & Wildlife Service was no longer able to cover costs.
2015: Trinity Pierce, Land Stewardship Coordinator for the Montana Audubon Center, received $400 to help with the purchase of shrubs for the Living Fences of Urban Shrubbery at the Montana Audubon Center. Planting dense shrubs provides protective corridors, foraging and nesting locations for many of our native species. Urbanization has altered so much of our natural spaces.
2014: Joyce A. Vera, ROCKS (Raising Our Community Kids Safely) and Cathy Stewart, formerly MT Fish, Wildlife and Parks in Miles City, received $1,000 toward the cost of installing a live feed camera above a bald eagle nest that sits in Miles City near the confluence of the Tongue and Yellowstone Rivers. It is used for various educational programs in Miles City and is available on the Internet.
2013: Sue Dow, Girl Scouts of Montana & Wyoming, received $650 for the Girl Scouts’ “WOW! Wonders of Water” Program. Supplies and participant fees for 50 second and third grade Brownies were covered.
2013: Matthew Light, received $264 to install markers on fences in known Greater-sage Grouse areas. The markers help protect native birds, especially grouse, from fatal fence collisions.
2013: Lisa Criswell, Hysham High School, received $500.00 for a supplies and travel for students to monitor activity of the red-headed woodpecker and to establish and monitor some nesting boxes for American Kestrels.