Seven projects received $116,300 in grants from the Pigeon River Fund of The Community Foundation of Western North Carolina.

Grant recipients include:

• The Haywood County Schools Foundation, where a curriculum-based program provides classroom and field activities for students in the fifth, eighth and ninth grades.

• The Land of the Sky Regional Council, which developed a land conservation action plan for Haywood County.

• The Southwestern N.C. Resource Conservation and Development Council, which uses technical field support in the use of GIS mapping information for water quality projects in the Pigeon River Watershed.

• The Western North Carolina Alliance, which supports the WNC Stream monitoring Information Exchange led by the Environmental Quality Institute. Volunteers are educated about their role in protecting water resources and providing high quality stream data to partner organizations to improve water quality in Buncombe, Madison and Haywood counties.

The fund was created in 1996 to improve surface water quality, enhance fish and wildlife management habitats, expand public use and access to waterways and increase awareness to protect resources. Since 1996 the Pigeon River Fund has invested $3.8 million to support grant projects addressing water quality in Haywood, Buncombe and Madison counties.

828.254.4960 or www.cfwnc.org.