WCAS distributed over $18,000 in grants to several local and one international organization to carry out education and conservation programs. They were made possible by a generous bequest from Polly Holden. Recipients for 2010 include

• Life Net for engaging the local community in Ecuador in bird conservation and environmental education, including a Christmas Bird Count;
• Friends of the Rogers Refuge to open access to birding in the extensive Lower Marsh area, which is currently largely off limits, except to those able to bushwhack through dense shrubbery
• D&R Greenway Land Trust to restore native plant communities which provide critical nesting and feeding opportunities for birds and other wildlife on D&R Greenway nature preserves.
• Friends of Hopewell Valley Open Space to restore 1-acre of degraded field edges adjacent to active organic farmland on the Thompson Preserve
• Trees for Trenton (Provide the students and teachers in Trenton, New Jersey access to high quality environmental education opportunities in local parks;
• Bergen County Audubon, to continue their educational outreach efforts with local schools and a nature center.

Applications for next year's awards are due Nov. 1. The guidelines are on the website here.