$30,000 in grants to help environment

The Douglas County Community Foundation has awarded grants for a total of about $30,000 to six area efforts to preserve and better understand nature. The grants were provided by the Elizabeth Schultz Environmental Fund.

A grant to the Spencer Museum of Art at Kansas University will support two environment-themed exhibitions in the spring: “Climate Change at the Poles” and “Trees and Other Ramifications.”

The Prairie Moon Waldorf School received funds to establish an organic market garden to serve as an expanded school classroom in the Kaw River Valley.

The Friends of Hidden Valley will use grant funds for stream and habitat restoration at the Hidden Valley Camp, a 40-acre Girl Scout camp in western Lawrence.

The foundation awarded other grants to the Kansas Rural Center for an international exchange program aimed at educating people about growing food locally; the Kansas Land Trust for signs marking conservation easements; and to Lecompton Elementary School to establish a Monarch butterfly waystation.