Nature Northwest Secures Additional Grant
The UMC-based Nature Northwest Project has been awarded a $30,450 grant from the Northwest Minnesota Foundation. The Foundation was interested in funding a number of enhancements to the original project. David Arscott, research assistant professor of water resources, and John Loegering, assistant professor of wildlife ecology, worked together to develop and submit the grant proposal.
The purpose of the proposal was to request funding to support portions of the project that were not anticipated at the outset. As the project has developed, additional funding needs have arisen including:
(1) a need for more extensive site visits to collect descriptive information, to verify accuracy and completeness of the natural resources inventory (sourcebook), and to collect additional geographic information and allow for the creation of new digital maps using global positioning systems (GPS);
(2) employment of a professional photographer for publication-grade photographs; and
(3) creation of a user-friendly web-based data entry and search interface that will be linked to a geographic information system (GIS).
In addition to funding these three additional needs for the project, the grant will permit a collaboration between the two Frank W. Veden Fellows: Loegering and David DeMuth, assistant professor of physics and math. A portion of this grant enhancement will draw upon DeMuth's expertise in web-based database development.
“I am tickled that we were able to fund these enhancements,” says Loegering. “This will make the end products much more useable by the northwest Minnesota community.”
For more information about the Nature Northwest Projects, visit <www.nature-northwest.org>.
Posted 01/09/2003
Contact: Andrew Svec,
218-281-8435