"These grants represent our commitment to continuing the progress we have made to ensure this wonderful treasure will be enjoyed for generations to come," the governor said.

New York's Hudson River Estuary Grants Program, which is funded under the State's Environmental Protection Fund (EPF), contributes to the protection and revitalization of the river and its estuaries by providing opportunities for community agencies to work cooperatively with State and local governments on Hudson River-related projects.

The grants represent the fifth annual awarding of estuary grants to municipalities and not-for-profit corporations located within the geographic boundaries of the Hudson River Estuary, which includes Bronx, New York, Westchester, Rockland, Putnam, Orange, Dutchess, Ulster, Columbia, Greene, Albany and Rensselaer counties.

Estuaries are important coastal habitats that are used as spawning grounds and nurseries for at least two-thirds of the nations commercial fish and shellfish, while also providing people with popular recreational opportunities, such as swimming, boating, and bird watching. The Hudson River Estuary is a nursery for key migratory fish species of the Atlantic coast, including shad, sturgeon, striped bass and river herring.

Beczak Environmental Education Center, Yonkers, in partnership with Esopus Meadows Environmental Center and Ulster BOCES received $72,800. It will be used for internet video conferencing technology that will be installed at riverfront centers in Yonkers and Esopus so that students can share live field trips at two very different sites: brackish vs. fresh, urban vs. rural. The equipment also allows distance learning field trips to be provided to wired classrooms offsite.

The Hudson River Museum, Yonkers, was granted $40,577 to create two sets of traveling learning kits for loan to schools.

Westchester County Department of Laboratories & Research received $10,000 for an educational program. A middle school science class will study pollution history and issues, sample the estuary, and learn lab analysis techniques through a partnership between the lab and Westchester County Parks.

Westchester Land Trust will use $10,000 for a land preservation coordinator to expand the current land preservation program, primarily easements, into three towns (Cortlandt, Yorktown and New Castle).

In Yonkers $23,525 will be used on a project to create a Saw Mill watershed intermunicipal agreement that implements a watershed action plan to be developed through an existing Hudson River Estuary Program grant.

A $75,000 project in the Village of Buchanan will add fishing access to existing park using two cantilevered handicapped-access fishing decks, path, signage and parking area.

A $50,000 grant will assist the Annsville Lower Trail Fishing Access project, a priority of the Governor's Task Force on Estuary Access, in Peekskill.