The Russell Family Foundation Grants $520,000 for a Healthier Puget Sound

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The Russell Family Foundation Grants $520,000 for a Healthier Puget Sound

August 18, 2020 (Gig Harbor, Wash.) – The Russell Family Foundation (TRFF) today announced nine grants totaling $520,000 to local community organizations focused on protection and restoration of Puget Sound waters. 

These new grants range from $10,000 to $85,000 and support initiatives aimed at reducing stormwater damage on shorelines, finding new solutions to prevent pollution, developing urban green spaces with community input and more.

“From the smallest creek to raging rivers to the Salish Sea and beyond, our region’s waterways have long supplied our people with a most basic need – water,” said Fabiola Greenawalt, Program Officer at TRFF.  “Protecting our waterways is vital for the vibrancy of the region’s current communities and future generations, and these organizations are leading the change and creating collective impact that will last for years to come.”

Since 2000, TRFF has invested over $34 million to support the health, protection and restoration of Puget Sound, all with an emphasis on collaborative efforts between organizations that pursue systemic and measurable change.

Details for each of the nine Puget Sound grants are as follows: 

 

• Stewardship Partners – $85,000, General Operating Support
  Funds general operating support for Stewardship Partners’ activities in green infrastructure projects; stewarding good environmental practices along the Snoqualmie River; and its Salmon-Safe certification collaboration with Indigenous communities around Puget Sound.

• Washington Environmental Council – $85,000, Puget Sound Protection and Restoration
  Supports Washington Environmental Council’s continued work to build public support and engagement in the recovery of the region, and affecting change at the local and state level, resulting in cleaner water and healthier habitat. 

 

• Puget Soundkeeper Alliance – $65,000, Puget Sound Leadership, Clean Water Regulation & Enforcement
  Supports Puget Soundkeeper Alliance’s continued clean water monitoring and enforcement work; engagement in policy and civic activism; and pollution prevention in Puget Sound.

 

• RE Sources for Sustainable Communities – $65,000, Protecting and Restoring the Central Salish Sea: A Dynamic Multi-Faceted Approach
  Supports RE Sources as it spearheads state and local efforts to achieve its chief goal of protecting and restoring the central Salish Sea, recovering Chinook salmon and Southern Resident orca populations, and safeguarding critical ecological functions.

 

• Northwest Straits Marine Conservation Foundation – $60,000, Community-Guided Investment in Coastal Communities
  Sustains Northwest Straits Marine Conservation Foundation’s monitoring of marine and nearshore habitats, protection of shorelines with installed rain gardens that reduce stormwater impact and engagement of property owners to encourage habitat stewardship. Funding will also aid in creating a Marine Fellowship program for upcoming conservation leaders.  

 

• American Rivers – $50,000, Promoting Multi-Benefit Floodplain and Natural Infrastructure in Puget Sound
  Funds work at multiple scales to advance floodplain restoration and improve water quality for communities throughout the Puget Sound. These efforts will coincide with management of water resources in the Green-Duwamish and Puyallup-White-Carbon (PWC) watersheds and a complete redesign of American Rivers’ floodplain restoration program.

 

• PureBlue – $50,000, Technology Adoption for Puget Sound Recovery
  Helps expand PureBlue’s Technology Adoption for Puget Sound Recovery program, a coalition-building initiative that connects local stormwater and wastewater practitioners with national water solution leaders. The program will conduct technology needs assessments, identify best waterway management practices and conduct outreach to industry and local government water managers around Puget Sound.  

 

• Trust for Public Lands – $50,000, Tacoma Green Schoolyards
  Supports Tacoma Green Schoolyards, Tacoma Public Lands’ partnership with Tacoma Public Schools and Metro Parks Tacoma to build capacity in Tacoma’s Eastside neighborhoods to direct open space and green infrastructure investments in the community. 
• Western Environmental Law Center – $10,000, Using the Law and the Courts to Protect Puget Sound
  Supports Western Environmental Law Center’s efforts to steer Washington’s water regulatory programs along a trajectory toward ensuring a healthy Puget Sound that protects fish and wildlife and supports human communities.

 

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About The Russell Family Foundation

Founded by George and Jane Russell, The Russell Family Foundation (TRFF) provides a way for their extended family to make a quiet, positive impact in the community. TRFF does so by funding local, regional and global change through community investment in causes including resources for grassroots leaders, environmental sustainability and global peace. The organization applies their values of integrity, mutual trust, constructive communication, life-long learning and courage to all their work. With a place-based focus in the Puget Sound region, TRFF places particular emphasis on Pierce County, WA. For more information visit www.trff.org 

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