The window for the 2024 Adirondack Garden Club’s grants applications is now open.

Ellen Lea Paine Memorial Nature Fund was established in 2005 to give financial assistance to individuals and not-for-profit organizations, including schools, involved in programs whose purpose is to study, protect and enjoy the natural environment within the Adirondack Park. These requests are considered and distributed by the ELP Committee.

The maximum amount per Ellen Lea Paine Memorial Nature Fund grant is $1,500.

1928 AGC Founders Fund was established in the 1980s to give grants to not-for-profit organizations, including schools, involved in programs whose purpose is to create an impact in a specific area within the Adirondack environment. These requests are reviewed by the Executive Committee for approval and distribution.

Before and after photos show the Adirondack Land Trust’s mowing at Glenview Preserve to maintain the meadow habitat for native bird species. (Provided photo — Adirondack Land Trust)

Francesca Paine Irwin Conservation Fund was created in 2013 and is used for project-based funding requests that are focused on conservation. These requests are reviewed by the Conservation Committee and forwarded to the Executive Committee for approval and distribution.

All three grants utilize the same grant application form. For an application, visit adirondackgardenclub.com, or write to Liz Jaques, P.O. Box 58, Keene, NY 12942-0058, or email contact@adirondackgardenclub.com. The deadline for grant applications is May 1 with grants to be awarded no later than June 1.

Last year, the Adirondack Garden Club grants funded projects such as:

¯ The Adirondack Land Trust’s efforts to maintain the Glenview Preserve as a habitat for the declining bird and insect population of the meadow. The biodiversity of this habitat has been boosted by the plantings of native wildflowers. Maintaining the meadow is vital to the life of this habitat.

¯ The Cornell Cooperative Extension of Franklin County for the purchase of native pollinator plants for Camp Akalaka. Campers will learn about gardening, native plants and native pollinators in the Adirondacks, and then establish a native pollinator garden.

¯ The Wells Memorial Library to create and fund a landscape plan to improve the design and use of outdoor spaces. This allowed the library to establish natural fauna landscaping that can withstand flooding and prevent invasive plants from flourishing. The plan includes wildscaping, pollinator-friendly plants and strengthening the riparian buffer.

Other ADK groups that received AGC grants in 2023 were Creative Kitchen Garden, Eagle Island Inc., the Church of St. Luke the Beloved Physician, Northern Lights School, the Wild Center’s Youth Climate Summit, the Ausable River Association, the Adirondack Trail Improvement Society, the Adirondack History Museum, the Adirondack Mountain Club and the North Country School.

The Adirondack Garden Club was founded in 1928. The club’s mission is to stimulate the knowledge and love of gardening, to aid in the protection of native plants and birds, to encourage civic planting and the conservation of our natural resources. Its purpose is the conservation of the plants, shrubs and trees native to the Adirondack region, and the making of both wild and cultivated gardens characteristic of the environment in which they are placed, the furthering of the cultivation of gardens throughout the Adirondack area and the promotion of civic conservation and beautification. The Adirondack Garden Club is a 501 c(3) nonprofit organization. More information is available on the club’s website.