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C2E Offers Community Grant Funding

The Tucson Conserve to Enhance (C2E) program offers funding for Community Enhancement Projects to improve local washes and neighborhood natural habitats. The Spring 2013 funding round is currently closed. For this round C2E focused on community groups seeking to improve their neighborhood streetscapes and urban washes.

Projects eligible for a Community Enhancement Project grant must directly benefit a neighborhood’s natural areas and waterways through conservation or restoration practices, including passive rainwater harvesting in common areas, green infrastructure to mitigate stormwater runoff, native vegetation restoration, and soil conservation and erosion control in or near washes.

Proposals from local groups or organizations, comprised of three or more individuals from separate, unrelated households are welcome. Groups of interested neighbors, neighborhood organizations, schools, churches and other local organizations with a physical presence in the proposed project area are all eligible. Grant awards will range from $2,500 to $10,000.

Click here to download the Spring 2013 application packet. Application Deadline: February 8, 2013. Additional instructions and information are available for download here. You can also view the presentation from our December 2012 grants workshop here.

Funds for the Community Enhancement Project grants are raised through direct contributions from C2E participants and donations to the Tucson Water bill check box. The first C2E-funded restoration project was completed in October by Tucson Audubon at the Atturbury-Lyman Bird and Animal Sanctuary trailhead in southeast Tucson. Read more about the project and the volunteer effort that helped make it possible here. For more information on how to participate in the program, click here.

 

C2E Announces 2013 Grant Awards

The Tucson Conserve to Enhance (C2E) program is pleased to announce four new Community Enhancement Projects to be funded by C2E grants in 2013! And Watershed Management Group is proud to be a partner on two of the projects.

And the grantees are…

Anna Henry Elementary School, located in Ward 2 on Tucson’s far east side, will receive $8,250 to implement a wash improvement and neighborhood sustainability project on their campus.

Jefferson Park Neighborhood, just north of the UA Medical Center, will receive $2,450 to create a green corridor on Vine Avenue. (Project partner: WMG)

Mitchell Park, just off Mountain Avenue in central Tucson, will receive $5,956 for an improvement project to create wildlife habitat using green infrastructure practices. (Project partner: WMG)

Northwest Neighborhood will receive $4,175 to implement green infrastructure practices at 1st Avenue and Seneca to green and beautify the neighborhood.

All of these projects will create wonderful assets for their neighborhoods and the surrounding community in addition to creating pockets of urban wildlife habitat and addressing the less visible issues of stormwater management and wash degradation.

Funding for these grants comes from contributions to the Open Space/Riparian check box on the Tucson Water bill and donations from C2E program participants. You can support C2E—and future project grants like these—by giving through the Riparian checkbox on your Tucson Water utility bill or by enrolling in C2E. For more information on how you can get involved, click here.

 

First C2E-funded Restoration Project Complete

The first restoration project funded through Tucson Conserve to Enhance (C2E) at Atturbury Wash was a huge success.

Volunteers fanned out on the site to dig rainwater-harvesting basins and create raised paths.

Almost 50 volunteers came out for a work day on October 27, 2012 to install water-harvesting basins and plant native trees and shrubs at the trailhead for the Atturbury-Lyman Bird and Animal Sanctuary in Lincoln Park, completing the bulk of the project in just under 4 hours!

C2E Now Enrolling New Participants!

Are you passionate about conserving water? Do you want to take your conservation to the next level and make your water savings really count?

Conserve to Enhance is now enrolling new participants, and we'd like to invite you to join the growing movement to enhance Tucson's rivers and washes.

Here's how it works:

1. Conserve water at your home or business.
2. We track your savings, and you donate the money saved on your water bill.
3. Your donations are used to enhance urban rivers and washes.

Ready to take the plunge? Go directly to the enrollment survey here. If you would like more information about the program, download our informational flyer here or contact the Program Coordinator, Karilyn Roach at 520-396-3266 or c2e@watershedmg.org.

There’s one more way you can support C2E today. Donate directly through your Tucson Water bill by simply filling in your donation amount in the 'Open Space/Riparian Contribution' box. These funds are added to contributions from program participants to fund river and wash enhancement projects in the community.

Not a Tucson Water customer? You can make a tax-deductible donation to C2E using the Watershed Management Group's secure contribution page.

 

Resources for Water Conservation

Outdoor water conservation is easy and rewarding!

Let Watershed Management Group’s Tucson Green Living Co-op program help you save bucketloads of water by transforming your landscape to conserve water and energy, grow food, and promote wildlife. For detailed information on how the Co-op works, how you can join, and what services are offered, visit the Tucson Co-op web page or contact Karilyn Roach at 520-396-3266 or co-op@watershedmg.org.

The WMG Co-op does more than just rainwater harvesting too. They can help you with energy savings and soil building strategies, food production, chicken coops and composting toilets. Visit the Co-op Services page for a complete list.

The Tucson Water website also has a wealth of information on water saving strategies for your landscape, making it a great place to start to learn the basics. Visit their conservation web page to learn more, and be sure to check out this link to an amazing searchable native plant guide.

 

Background Information

The Tucson Conserve to Enhance Program is a collaborative program managed and developed by the Sonoran Institute, the University of Arizona’s Water Resources Research Center and Watershed Management Group. This program is piloting the Water Resources Research Center's concept. Their research outlines the difficulty in securing water for riparian restoration projects and reviews some current efforts to link individual water users to environmental enhancement.

To Participate

Enrollment is now open for Conserve to Enhance! If you are interested in participating in C2E, please fill out the short survey form here. It should take you less than 10 minutes to complete. New participants will receive an email notification that they have been enrolled within 2 weeks of completing the survey.

More Information

For more information on this program, please email the program coordinator, Karilyn Roach, at c2e@watershedmg.org or call 520-396-3266.

Community Advisory Board Members

Christopher Avery, Emily Brott, Leslie Ethen, Mac Hudson, Kendall Kroesen, Grant McCormick, Amy McCoy, Daniel Ransom, Candice Rupprecht, Lisa Shipek, Karen Wilson, Claire Zucker



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