News

The Kodak American Greenways Program | The Conservation Fund a partnership project of the Eastman Kodak Company, The Conservation Fund, and the National Geographic Society, provides small grants to stimulate the planning and design of greenways in communities throughout America.

Greenways—corridors of protected public and private lands—link recreational, cultural, and natural features and provide multiple public benefits. They provide paths for people and wildlife; protect forests, wetlands and grasslands; and improve the quality of life for everyone. Often associated with rivers, stream valleys, mountain ridges, abandoned railroad corridors, and utility rights-of-way, greenways also can be built along canals, scenic roads or other linear features.

2009 Kodak American Greenways Program Grants

The Program operated by The Conservation Fund invites land trusts, local governments, and other organizations to submit proposals for small greenway project grants. Funded projects typically advance one or more of the following Program goals:

• Catalyzing new greenway projects
• Assisting grassroots greenway organizations
• Leveraging additional money for conservation and greenway development
• Promoting use and enjoyment of greenways

The 2009 application deadline has been extended to July 15. [All applications must be submitted electronically.

Award Amounts: Most grants range from $500 to $1,000. The maximum grant is $2,500.

Click here for access the guidelines for the 2009 Greenways Awards.

500 East Ave # 200 Rochester, NY 14607 – (585) 256-2130 Directions and more » www.geneseelandtrust.org

I had breakfast last week with Tom Frey and Gay Mills, head of the Genessee Land Trust. I learned all sorts of things I didn’t know, but most importantly, the Genessee Valley Land Trust is all about preserving green places, and connecting them to people and neighborhoods.

According to their newsletter, their new strategic plan outlines five conservation initiatives

• Create a ribbon of protected critical habitat and countryside near the shore of Lake Ontario
• Link our urban neighborhoods to the natural places of the City of Rochester and Beyond
• Partner with towns and farmers to extend the quilt of protected thriving farms
• Preserve the best and uncommon natural habitats
• Create greenways for wildlife between preserved habitats

I also learned that they share offices with the Rochester Area Community Foundation….

Image via Wikipedia

The High Line–world’s most innovative urban park (so far)– opened last week in New York City. Betsy and I visited it today. It’s beautiful, functional, and inspiring.

The High Line was an overgrown and abandoned elevated railroad line slated for demolition in a decaying neighborhood. A couple of dreamers with no particular qualifications met at a public hearing and advanced the idea that it should become a new public park. Ten years later, it is so. (History, Design Slideshow, my photos)

We were impressed by a number of things.

The merging of old and new, industrial and natural. (right)

The success of the social design and the instant community (below; note the kid- and wheelchair-friendly bleachers)

And the unity-in-diversity of the vistas.

And above all the demonstration that regular people can turn radical visions into life-enhancing realities.

I found Thomas Frey of the Genessee Valley Land Trust (and former Monroe County Executive) watering a tree at a new park on the corner of Clifford and Conkey Streets. Adjacent to that park (he explained) runs the former track of a CSW Railroad Spur that went from the Power Plant in High Falls all the way up to the top of the Genessee River near Charlotte. Tom helped the City of Rochester obtain a $2 million grant that will turn that trackbed into a bike path in the next year!

Besides offering to help us advance the Rochester Greenway, Tom told me more than I could fully absorb about the history of the various rail lines that criss-crossed Rochester in the past and provides us with such interesting opportunities for the future. What I *was* able to absorb is now recorded on the google Earth map at http://RochesterGreenway.org (and above right).

The conversation will continue.

This blog chronicles the progress of the RochesterGreenway project.

Presumably you’ve already been to
http://RochesterGreenway.org?
If not go there! Then come back.

Today I initiated this blog, where you may find day by day updates on the project.

On the right you’ll find a clipping service, featuring items of interest (if you’re interested in this kind of thing) from around the web.

Co-editors, apply within!