The Meldrum Bar Park Habitat, Education and Job Training Project, run by Wilderness International and the Lower Columbia Estuary Partnership, has been recommended by Metro’s grant review committee to receive another round of funding. Together, these organizations coordinate students, at-risk youth, and community members to perform restoration work at the site.

The entrance and spur trail are part of a Main City Park renovation project completed about a month ago, designed to link the Springwater Corridor to Gresham's downtown.

Metro announces the recipients of $2.1 million in funds awarded through the Regional Travel Options grant program. These fourteen grants will support projects that increase opportunities for residents to use transit, carpool, ride their bicycles or walk.

Habitat restoration, stream and floodplain improvements, and conservation education opportunities are taking shape across the region with support from Metro’s Nature in Neighborhoods restoration and enhancement grants. Metro is especially interested in projects like Adelante Conservación that foster innovative partnerships and serve low-income communities and communities of color.

A call to artists is going out for GLEAN, an art and education program that promotes new ways of thinking about conserving resources, art and the environment. The deadline for applications is Thursday, Jan. 31, 2013.

Wondering how to install signs in your community directing walkers and cyclists to local businesses? Interested in creating activities that encourage people to get out of their cars and walk, ride or take transit? If so, your city, public agency or nonprofit organization may be eligible for a Regional Travel Options grant.

Three recent projects – Klein Point, Mount Scott and Crystal Springs – exemplify Metro's innovative Nature in Neighborhoods capital grants program. All three improve people's experience of nature while contributing to significant restoration of fish passage and habitat along highly urbanized creeks.

Sixteen projects to benefit residents, protect nature in Northwest Portland

The Metro Council late last week approved a $79,000 care package for nonprofits that serve local residents and restore sensitive habitat in Northwest and a slice of North Portland. Funds will result in direct aid to some of the most fragile people and places in the area.

Long-term, maximum benefits to local residents envisioned for use of funds

The Metro Council late last week approved a resolution to spend the remaining $1.6 million in the North Portland enhancement fund by 2018 on a local trail and select neighborhood improvement projects proposed by the community. The council’s unanimous vote supported the recommendation of a committee comprised of North Portland residents that administers the fund.

The Metro Council will consider a recommendation to distribute the entire $1.6 million fund balance of the North Portland enhancement grant program to select areas.