FWAS Grants
Each year, the Fort Worth Audubon Society plans to award grants to organizations that support our mission. FWAS will announce the availability of funds and will consider grant applications from November 15 through February 15 for each year that the Board votes to offer grants.
Grant committee priorities
The FWAS Grants committee prioritizes grant requests that benefit wildlife. Our priorities include birds and avian habitats. Additional priorities include having a childrens educational component and support projects within the Fort Worth Audubon Socoety region including Denton, Johnson, Parker and Tarrant counties.
Grant qualifications
Does your civic organization (or school) birding or bird habitat conservation related project need money for materials and supplies? Or are you an Educator going for training about birding or bird habitat conservation?
Grant Submission schedule
The FWAS Board members will vote to announce the availability of grant funds at the Summer Board Meeting. Then, from November 15 through February 15, FWAS will accept Community Civic Grant Requests. If your group meets the above qualifications and could use up to $1,000 of grant money, download the Grant Request Form below and submit to:
Fort Worth Audubon Society
Attention Grant Chairman
2459 Forest Park Blvd. Suite 206
Fort Worth, TX 76110
Application deadline for each year is February 15. The grant awards announcement date is March 15.
Grant Awards from the Past Year
Below are examples of grants that the Fort Worth Audubon Society has awarded to support the work of community organizations that share a mission similar to ours.
UNT Dept. of Biological Science
Survival of Wintering Kestrels
2022-2023: University of North Texas (UNT) Department of Biological Science – Survival of wintering American Kestrels and annual movement ecology of kestrels in our area. Purpose: to provide insight into conserving and managing habitat. $1,000 was awarded (of $1,500 estimate) specifically for gasoline needed to drive around the survey area, and some of the funds will also be used to care for lure mice. The research area is in Denton County.
UNT Dept. of Biological Science
Study of the diets of NOCA
2022-2023: Reinvestigating the diets of the Northern Cardinals using fecal DNA metabarcoding. Rapid decline of these birds indicates an update is needed to this foundational data for future conservation decisions. The research is being conducted at the John Bunker Sands Wetland Center. FWAS awarded $1,000 towards gasoline expenditures and dry ice for the fecal samples.
North Central Chapter of the Native Plant Society of Texas
2022-2023: White Settlement Monarch Waystation enhancement. $1,000 was awarded by FWAS (of planned $9,000 budget) for collaboration with the Water District and the city to install a cistern, drip irrigation and educational signage. The FWAS money will specifically be used towards an educational sign ($2,500 estimate).
River Legacy Environmental Nature Center – Signage
2022-2023: River Legacy Nature Center in Arlington was awarded $1,000 for replacement of signage at their bird blind, specifically to purchase eight species specific interpretive signs and one larger “What is a bird blind” sign.
Previous Year Grants
Lake Benbrook Grant
Cross Timbers Master Naturalist, Donna Honkomp sent FWAS a very nice “thank you” E-mail for the grant we provided them which made it possible to add Bluebird boxes to Lake Benbrook. She attached a few pictures she took that were taken at the US Army Corp of Engineers, Lake Benbrook, TX. One of the boxes is shown “in use”..
Lewisville Lake Environmental Learning Area Grant
One of last years grant award recipients, Ivy Doak, PhD provided the following report. Dr Doak is a member of the Friends of LLELA. She wrote in a follow-up report to FWAS on how LLELA has used FWAS grant money. What follows is her report.
Follow-up report
“I am pleased to report to you and the Fort Worth Audubon Society that the funds you so generously provided to the Friends of Lewisville Lake Environmental Learning Area were used as proposed to furnish the banding station with equipment needed to continue bird banding operations.“
Results
The one thousand dollars granted to Friends of LLELA were used to purchase four new mist nets used to capture birds safely and two pairs of specialized pliers used to open and close the bird bands that uniquely identify each of the birds we process. With this equipment, we were able to conduct our regular Spring Migration Banding Project. We safely captured and banded over 170 new birds and processed nearly 60 recaptures (birds we banded in the past that returned to our area and nets).
We look forward to using the pliers and mist nets for fall migration as well. LLELA is also preparing two stations on the LLELA property that will be used for Monitoring Avian Productivity and Survivorship (MAPS), a long-running program overseen by the Institute for Bird Populations.
Providing an education
All these projects are run on the power of volunteers, many of whom are university students we help train for future careers in the environmental sciences. Twelve students from University of North Texas were trained in bird banding techniques during Spring Migration and our MAPS start-up, and volunteers from area Master Naturalist chapters continue to help run the stations“
