GRANTS IN ACTION
Twice a year, Saint Paul Bird Alliance (SPBA) awards grants that support our mission of engaging our community in enjoying, understanding, and protecting birds and the habitats all living beings need to thrive.
Providing grants to community organizations that are implementing projects is a powerful way to increase SPBA’s impact. We are grateful to donors who enable us to make these grants. Here is a summary of our latest round of grant recipients.
If you donate to Saint Paul Bird Alliance, thank you! Your dollars made these grants possible.
Grants 2024/2025
| University of Belize | The project will build capacity and support student research initiatives by (1) conducting Data and Protocol Review Training; (2) producing a manuscript analyzing bird community composition using the bird banding dataset; (3) supporting a student interested in pursuing a thesis project with the bird banding dataset; and (4) provide introductory bird banding training for partners and interested students. |
| Urban Bird Collective | The goals are to increase BIPOC and LGBTQIA+ people’s birding participation and engage with the environmental community. Activities include: (1) recruiting new and diverse volunteers for the MN Winter Bird count, infusing the counts with new people and new energy; (2) identifying, mapping, and monitoring Chimney Swift nests and roosts in the Twin Cities metro area and host Swift Night Out events to engage urban communities and reach new birders; (3) support conservation work at Pig’s Eye Regional Park; (4) offer opportunities to UBC leaders to enhance and gain new skills and deepen relationships with each other. |
| Frogtown Green | Support annual programming including: (1) pollinator-friendly prairie garden planting for bird habitat; (2) tree planting; (2) tree planting; (3) creating and maintaining bird-watching stations at two community garden sites; (4) offering at least two urban bird walks; (5) repair and repaint the Chimney Swift tower; and (5) include bird-related exhibits and activities during the Frogtown Green sustainability festival. |
| Maplewood Nature Center | Complete Phase II, a project funded last year, including additional plantings in Viewing Area 1, north of the visitor center building, to increase the density of native plants, fill the area with floral sources quicker, and reduce colonization of weedy plants and maintenance. |
| St. Paul Creative Enterprise Zone | The Initiative is a grassroots effort to grow and plant 100 new street trees in the Zone each year to expand the urban tree canopy, improve air and water quality, increase wildlife habitat, and reduce the high heat index in our growing mixed-use district in Saint Paul. |
| My Bird Club | Project #1—Youth Birdwatching: Offering 18 indoor and outdoor adventures from January to December 2025. Project #2—Provide after-school programming focused on birds, birdwatching, and bird conservation. MyBirdClub will present four indoor and outdoor programs to introduce kids to birdwatching and show them how to get involved. They will each receive a laminated field guide to keep and inspire them. |
| Hamline Midway Coalition | The Bee Line project involves Frogtown and Hamline Midway neighborhood residents to enhance native plantings along Pierce Butler Route in Saint Paul. The proposed project will set up an online ID module and game cameras to make it easier for citizen naturalists to record wildlife observations from the Bee Line. Activities include (1) building the iNaturalist ID module to allow community members to contribute wildlife observations, (2) purchasing and setting up three trail cameras, and (3) designing communications to generate awareness of urban wildlife. |
| Sustainable Stillwater MN Bird City Group | The William Street Bird Park is envisioned as a 5,000-square-foot lot donated to Sustainable Stillwater MN’s (501c3) Bird City Stillwater group for educational purposes and ecosystem restoration. The site’s uses will include academic programs and small group-engaging activities for all ages, rain gardening, citizen science projects, such as bird counts and school/youth projects, the setup of various feeding stations for different species, and the setup of birdcall listening devices and cameras from Cornell University with data collecting/citizen science projects. |
| Eleanor Graham Community Gardens | The Eleanor Graham Community Garden occupies a triangular parcel of land nearly three acres in size that Ayd Mill Road, Hamline Avenue, and Ashland Avenue in Saint Paul bind. Activities include: (1) support interested gardeners in germinating pollinator- and song bird-friendly prairie seed mixes in their homes for spring transplanting into the prairie site; (2) purchase and plant in spaces adjacent to the prairie site a bur oak and other insect- and song-bird friendly trees to help compensate for the loss of an enormous legacy bur oak tree in the community garden in June 2023; (3) contract with Great River Greening to provide staff to advise gardeners on prairie management during the garden’s May and September 2025 monthly Saturday community work days. |
| St. Croix Montessori School | The Bluebirds, Books, & Binoculars project aims to create educational opportunities for students related to ornithology and for the school to participate in an already successful conservation project, The Bluebird Nest Box Trail. |
| Osprey Wilds Environmental Learning Center | The SPBA grant will contribute to a project to improve 16.1 acres by seeding short and mixed grass prairies, forbs, and native early successional habitat for sharp-tailed grouse, golden-winged warblers, and many other birds. |
| Urban Bird Collective | UBC leaders would support 15 BIPOC folks at Warbler Weekend. We would support 5-6 walks at the various birding hotspots in Redwing. |
| Saint Anthony Park Community Council | This project involves the initial preparation phase for adding a native plant orchard and pollinator gardens. It focuses on removing invasive species, conducting soil fertility testing, organizing volunteers, and planning the layout of the orchard area. |
Grants 2023/2024
MYBirdClub:
MYBirdClub specializes in professionally guided field trips that connect youth (and their families) to birds and birding. Our youth-centered bird club gives kids a safe space to build peer friendships and explore and nurture their interest in birds and nature. This grant will assist in offering six or more fall/winter 2023 birding outings in the east metro area at no cost for any youth (or their accompanying adults).
Frogtown Green:
We want to make Frogtown the greenest and most sustainable neighborhood in St Paul. We grow crops, plant trees, promote parks, share information, and celebrate Frogtown, our neighbors, and nature. This grant will assist with several critical projects for youth education programs, tree planting, pollinator gardens, and building materials for a Chimney Swift tower.
The Creative Enterprise Zone:
The Creative Enterprise Zone is a city-recognized district and a nonprofit organization with a dedicated mission to “attract and support creative people and businesses to #MakeItHere” (South Saint Anthony Park and part of the Midway neighborhood.) This grant will support our 100 Trees Initiative. It is a volunteer-led grassroots effort to grow and plant 100 new street trees each year to expand the urban tree canopy, improve air and water quality, increase habitat for wildlife, and reduce the heat index in a primarily industrial district in Saint Paul.
Urban Bird Collective
Projects and events will increase BIPOC and LGBTQIA+ people’s participation in birding. These include recruiting new and diverse volunteers for the Winter Bird count, monitoring Chimney Swift nests and roosts in the Twin Cities metro, hosting Swift Night Out community events, conserving Pig’s Eye Park, and developing UBC leaders.
Maplewood Nature Center
Support Phase 2 of a Maplewood Nature Center project as they conduct additional native plantings to benefit birds and pollinators.
St. Paul Creative Zone Enterprise
Fund the 100 Trees Initiative, a grassroots effort to plant and care for 100 street trees in a semi-industrial area beyond what the city can provide. The purpose is to expand the urban tree canopy, improve air and water quality, increase wildlife habitat, and reduce the heat island effect.
Metro Blooms:
Metro Blooms is a nonprofit that partners with communities, property owners, organizations, and local governments to create resilient landscapes and foster clean watersheds, embracing the values of equity and inclusion to solve environmental challenges. Your grant will support the Battle Creek native plant garden project. The gardens will demonstrate how to use native plants in an intentionally designed landscape. It will include informational signage about the plants and direct visitors to more online resources to share education about the incorporation of native plants in their own homes and community landscapes.
Red-Headed Woodpecker Recovery Project:
Our project is reversing the decline and promoting the recovery of Red-headed Woodpeckers through habitat conversion and preservation, research, and education. The grant will assist in paying seasonal research technicians for the necessary fieldwork.
Cedar Creek Ecosystem Reserve:
Cedar Creek Ecosystem Reserve is 9 square miles of nature, including grasslands, wetlands, coniferous and hardwood forests, and some of the state’s most extensive remaining tracts of oak savanna. We aim to build a science literacy and learning pathway through engaging hands-on experiences at a world-renowned field station. This grant money will support up to 10 field trips from St. Paul Public Schools in the spring of 2023 and the 2023-2024 school year.
Carpenter St. Croix Valley Nature Center:
(CNC) is a private, nonprofit environmental education facility encompassing 725 acres of prairie, forest, and riparian wildlife habitat in the scenic St. Croix Valley. The grant dollars will support a study to inform land managers on the positive, neutral, or negative impacts of re-introducing bison as it relates to grassland nesting birds.
Como Community Council:
The Como Community Council is an independent, nonprofit organization accountable to the community. We are dedicated to creating a vibrant, safe, welcoming neighborhood for renters, homeowners, businesses, and other organizations. Your grant dollars will support the Como Tree Trek. It includes two guided events every year in Como Park as well as 42 tree identification tags on 39 species of trees and a map of these tags on our website to allow community members to take a self-guided Tree Trek.
University of Belize Environmental Research Center:
UB ERI’s mission is “to continuously build national scientific capacity for the efficient management, sustainable use and conservation of Belize’s natural resources.” Your grant dollars support our project that aims to increase the awareness of bird conservation among a larger group of students and allow them to become involved in birding activities.
Osprey Wilds:
Osprey Wilds is a residential environmental learning center in Pine County whose mission is to instill a connection and commitment to the environment in people of all communities through experiential learning. More than 3,000 K-12 students visit annually for immersive, multi-day learning experiences. Your grant money will assist in updating existing corvid enclosures to improve the experience for the animal ambassadors housed there, the animal training staff that work with the birds, and the learning experience for the onsite participants.
