SEJ's Fund for Environmental Journalism Awards $76,760 in Story Project Grants in First Round of Rapid Response Grants 2020

July 1, 2020 — The Society of Environmental Journalists' Fund for Environmental Journalism has awarded $76,760 for 22 new story projects selected through the first round of Rapid Response story project grants on a wide range of environmental issues and regions. Through these grants, SEJ will:

• Fund Journalists: 33 professional journalists, photographers, and editors will receive stipends of up to $2,000 each.
• Increase Representation: More than 60% of the funds were awarded to story projects focused on under-represented communities or diverse perspectives on environmental issues.
• Support Local Stories: More than 80% of the story projects focus on a local or regional issue, ranging from Haiti's coastal fisheries to environmental health in Alaska's Arctic north.

"As tens of thousands of journalists are laid off or furloughed, new funding for local environmental journalism on under-represented communities and undercovered issues is critical," says Meaghan Parker, SEJ's executive director. "Environmental challenges most severely affect our most vulnerable communities. But as the COVID-19 crisis exacerbates the media's ongoing financial crisis, those stories are even less likely to be told. Through our Rapid Response grants, we are seeking to help fill the gaps in coverage by directly supporting independent environmental journalism."

Eligible topics this round included climate change, conservation, or environmental health in North America; oceans and coasts globally; water security in the United States; and the Mississippi River basin.

For the last 10 years, SEJ's Fund for Environmental Journalism has helped foundation partners and individual donors support journalism projects that are editorially independent and independently juried. Support for the Rapid Response grants comes from The Hewlett Foundation, The Bullitt Foundation, Walton Family Foundation and other foundation and individual donors to the Fund for Environmental Journalism.

"SEJ is extremely grateful to our generous foundation funders and to the individual donors who make the Fund for Environmental Journalism possible," said Parker. "Thanks to their investment, environmental journalists are able to keep doing what they do best: find and tell the world's stories."

In response to the COVID-19 crisis, SEJ's Rapid Response grants are designed to support journalists' health and livelihoods by focusing on stipends rather than travel funds. A new simpler judging process maintains SEJ's independent jury process but with a faster turnaround from submission to award. "Many thanks to our volunteer judges for thoughtfully reviewing the high number of quality applications that we received," said Parker.

SEJ is accepting applications for Round 2 of Rapid Response grants on a rolling basis. Topics eligible for consideration include: Climate change or conservation in North America; oceans and coasts globally; water security in the United States; and the Mississippi River basin. Apply today.

 

The recipients of the Fund for Environmental Journalism Rapid Response grants (Round 1) are:

 

David Abel, for "ENTANGLED," a feature-length film about how climate change has accelerated a collision between one of the world’s most endangered species, North America’s most valuable fishery and a federal agency mandated to protect both. The film will chronicle the efforts to protect North Atlantic right whales from extinction, the impacts of those efforts on the lobster industry and how the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has struggled to balance the vying interests.

FEJ-funded project:

• "Entangled," released in 2020.

 

Erika Bolstad, for "The Bust Cycle," a look at work in North Dakota to cap 239 abandoned oil wells, many of which were abandoned during the pandemic. The state of North Dakota will be using $66 million in federal COVID-19 stimulus money to seal the abandoned oil wells. State officials see their response as a way of keeping as many as 1,000 experienced oilfield workers employed and available until the pandemic retreats and they can return to pre-pandemic production levels. It's also a way to address a persistent environmental problem. But the recent crash in oil prices may be the ultimate bust in North Dakota, which is unlikely to return to pre-pandemic production levels anytime soon, creating a revenue shortfall.

FEJ-funded project:

• "In Slumping Energy States, Plugging Abandoned Wells Could Provide an Economic Boost," Stateline blog, The Pew Charitable Trusts, September 23, 2020. Also appeared in local North Dakota newspapers Inforum, Jamestown Sun, The Dickinson Press, Grand Forks Herald, as well as Daily Yonder, Route Fifty, Daily Republic, I360 Energy, National Association of State Budget Officers, The Solutions Journalism Exchange and Mountain West News newsletter.

 

Rebecca Bowe, Chris Roberts (pictured) and Michael Stoll, for "Exposed: The Legacy of Radiation at Hunters Point," a review, through print and audio stories, of the history and future use of the Hunters Point Naval Shipyard in San Francisco, exploring changing attitudes toward public health as developers plan to build tens of thousands of homes atop an active Superfund site that has been the center of claims of environmental racism. (San Francisco Public Press, California)

FEJ-funded project:

• "Sandblasted at the Shipyard," January 2023, by Rebecca Bowe.

 

Hannah Brown, for "Dispatches From a Sinking State." This project is The Marjorie's contributor series featuring first-person accounts of the environmental changes Florida women are witnessing across the state. Previous contributions include themes focused on grieving natural spaces, the importance of environmental education for underserved youth and documentation of Florida’s most fragile landscapes. All of these essays engage with the nostalgia and trauma that come with ecological grief, or eco-grief, which is an underreported symptom of the climate crisis. This series fills a niche for stories that highlight first-person experiences of climate change. The project's primary goal is to amplify the voices of Florida women from the most vulnerable areas of the state.

FEJ-funded project:

• "The River Has Teeth," The Marjorie, March 1, 2021, by Stephenie Livingston.
• "A Family Portrait of the Ocklawaha," The Marjorie, April 30, 2021, by Jennifer Carr.
• "Fear and Hope in the Fields," The Marjorie, April 30, 2021, by Lupe Gonzalo (Spanish).
• "Living Grand Daddy's Miami Prophecy," The Marjorie, April 30, 2021, by Valencia Gunder.
• "The Rebirth of N'Kwanda Jah," The Marjorie, April 30, 2021, by N'Kwanda Jah.
• "Undercurrent: Dispatches From a Sinking State," The Marjorie, April 30, 2021, by Georgia Ackerman.

 

Valerie Brown, for "Why Oregon DEQ Recently Hit a Columbia Gorge Aluminum Recycler With Largest-Ever Air Toxins Fine in Oregon and What It Means for the Columbia River Basin Environment." The city of The Dalles sits in the cross-hairs of two polluting industries: a railroad tie plant and an aluminum recycling facility, which received a $1.3 million fine for multiple air pollution violations. However, much went unreported. How did the pollutants affect the plant's workers? What was the risk to the community or the area's famous cherry orchards? Before the recycling plant, an aluminum manufacturer operated on that site. Its fluorine emissions prevented millions of fruit flowers from setting fruit. Did the recycler's emissions impact the trees? Has the recycler made any changes in the year since the fine?

FEJ-funded project:

• "Aluminum's Legacy Continues To Hang Over the Gorge," Columbia Insight, February 4, 2021. En Español.
• "Dumps, Dross and Dust: Tracking Aluminum Waste in the Gorge," Columbia Insight, March 25, 2021.
• "Waste Land: Where the Aluminum Bodies Are Buried in the Columbia Gorge," Columbia Insight, June 10, 2021.

 

Steve Cowan, for "Single-Use Planet," a one-hour documentary film that explores the controversy around a growing industry to produce virgin plastic. (Habitat Media, Oregon)

FEJ funded-project:

• Film introduction with Peter Coyote
• Act I Part A Louisiana introduction
• Act I Part B Louisiana legislative segment
• Act II Pennsylvania introduction

 

James Dinneen (pictured, left) and Alexander Kennedy, for "Aging Dams and Contaminated Sites." This investigation will compare databases on dams and contaminated sites in the United States to determine where a dam failure would threaten to flood sites contaminated with toxic substances. In addition to the text of this story, we will produce an interactive data visualization showing these relationships.

FEJ-funded project:

• "Below Aging U.S. Dams, a Potential Toxic Calamity," Undark, June 1, 2021.

 

Sierra Garcia, for "The Fight for California's Kelp Forests." Purple sea urchins are native to California's kelp forests, but an uncontained population boom — likely driven in part by warming waters — has stripped hundreds of miles of northern California's once-luscious undersea forests bare in a matter of years. The ecosystem collapse has inspired an uneasy, grassroots alliance of determined volunteers, out-of-work commercial divers and a handful of scientists who are determined to work together to protect the surviving kelp from the urchins.

FEJ-funded project:

• "These Urchin Slayers Are Trying To Save California's Underwater 'Rainforest'," Grist, September 9, 2021. Published also on Mother Jones and Wired, as part of the Climate Desk collaboration.

 

Audrey Henderson, for "Promoting Green Spaces in Three Chicago Neighborhoods." The motto of Chicago is "urbs in horto" — city in a garden. However, residents in Chicago's South and West sides have less access to green space than residents on the affluent North Side. Three initiatives seek to change this: efforts to establish an urban arboretum in West Woodlawn; plans to create a High Line-like elevated green space in Englewood; and ongoing development of the Marshall (Major) Taylor Bike Trail in West Pullman on Chicago's Far South Side. This article will profile and highlight these three projects, including the barriers that stand in the way of their completion.

FEJ-funded project:

• "What Chicago's Major Taylor Trail Could Be," Belt Magazine, September 17, 2021 (part one of three).
• "Greening West Woodlawn," Belt Magazine, November 22, 2021 (part two of three).
• "The Englewood Line — Not Just the Anti-606," Belt Magazine, February 18, 2022 (part three of three).

 

Randall Hyman, for "Betrayal in the Fog of Viral War." Court rulings were largely in favor of environmental groups in 2019, but now a defiant White House and other entities operating in the fog of a viral war are completely reshaping the political lay of the land.

FEJ-funded project:

• "The Battle for Greater Chaco," Earth Island Journal, Autumn 2020.
• "New Fossil Fuel Projects Meet Indigenous Resistance in New Mexico," Truthout, September 16, 2020.

 

Nina Ignaczak, for "Planet Detroit Environmental Health Reporting Project," an in-depth, humanistic and science-based report on the connection between the disproportionate environmental health burdens in Detroit's Black communities and communities of color, and increased morbidity and mortality of COVID-19 and attendant illnesses and economic losses. How are Detroiters impacted by exposures to air pollution, poor indoor air quality, poor food access and indoor lead, and subsequently develop environmental health-related issues? We'll document how these impacts make Detroiters more vulnerable to a host of threats including diseases like COVID-19, as well as emerging environmental stressors and climate-change impacts such as heat vulnerability and flooding. We will link these disparities with larger trends of economic damage, poor educational outcomes and excessive health burdens experienced in the city, region and state.

FEJ-funded project:

• "COVID-19 Revealed Detroit's Public and Environmental Health Inequities. Here's How." Planet Detroit, May 6, 2021, by Brian Allnut.
• "MPSC Considers Requiring Utilities To Account for Public Health Costs of Future Electricity Generation, " Planet Detroit, May 7, 2021, by Nina Ignaczak.
• "Researchers Predict a Combined Heatwave and Blackout in Detroit Could Be Worse Than Katrina. Here's Why." Planet Detroit, June 3, 2021, by Brian Allnutt.
• "'Not Just an Inconvenience': Study Shows Flooding Is a Public Health Crisis in Detroit," Planet Detroit, June 10, 2021, by Brian Allnutt.

 

Jean Pharès Jérôme (pictured, left) and Patrick Saint-Pre, for "Neglected Waters: Haiti’s Marine Parks in the Midst of Poverty." Haiti's system of marine reserves was created in 2013 to mitigate local climate extremes, protect fisheries and absorb carbon dioxide. It was a grand gesture so soon after the earthquake that devastated the country in 2010, but today the 18 reserves languish, underfunded and unprotected. Haiti Climat, the country's only environmental news agency, reports on how an impoverished country struggles to preserve its coastlines.

FEJ-funded project:

• "L'Aire Protégée du Parc National des Trois-Baies, une Source de Biodiversité Négligée," Le Nouvelliste, October 30, 2020, by Pharès Jerome.
• "Quelle Protection pour L'aire Protégée Marine des 3 Baies?" Le Nouvelliste, November 3, 2020, by Pharès Jerome and Pierre Michel Jean (video).
• "7 Ans Après Leur Création, les Aires Marines Protégées du Sud Ne Sont Ni Surveillées Ni Protégées," Le Nouvelliste, Feb 12, 2021, by Patrick Saint-Pre.
• "Etat des Lieux des Aires Protégées Marine en Haiti," Magik 9, March 4, 2021, by Patrick Saint-Pre (radio).
• Neglected Waters: An Interactive Map, October 20, 2021, by Conrad Fox.

 

Spike Johnson, for "Storm Resilience in America's South." Across the United States researchers have identified a sharp rise in mental health issues related to climate change and severe storm events. Diagnosis of post-traumatic stress disorder in victims of storms like Hurricanes Harvey and Katrina, and depression, anxiety and grief in a wider population who are learning to accept a shifting environment, are becoming more common. Post-traumatic stress disorder and psychological reactions in survivors of storms are manifesting years later, often in initially unlinked ways, like relationship breakdown or insomnia in adults, and undiagnosable headaches and stomachaches in children. Psychologists believe long-term mental health effects of our changing climate are a hidden public health epidemic, expected to strain the U.S. healthcare system as the intensity and frequency of climate-led natural disasters increase in coming decades.

 

Antonia Juhasz, for "(Un)Covering Oil," a new radio program and podcast on KGNU Community Radio in Boulder, CO, which she will develop and host. "(Un)Covering Oil" is a deep dive into the oil sector and all its impacts on racial, environmental and climate justice, human rights, economics, politics, public health, war and peace. The program is grounded in local Colorado storytelling from which it jumps off into national and international events — highlighting the voices of women and girls.

FEJ-funded project:

• "(Un)Covering Oil," KGNU (seven parts, April 23, 2020 through January 22, 2021).

 

Kate Kaye, for "Capes, Puffins, Sea Stars and Bedrock: A New Plan for Oregon’s Rocky Coast." Oregon's rocky coastline is home to unique and fragile habitats. But over the years, threats to the state's protected coastline have intensified. Now, a process for reassessing Oregon's policy for protecting almost 150 miles of coastline is underway. How will altered policy affect the coast's confederated tribes who aim to preserve cultural identity through traditional practices such algae and invertebrate harvesting? Could the dream of reintroducing sea otters to the region become reality through policies that improve sustainability of aquatic vegetation and coastal habitat? By telling stories gleaned through diverse sources, Portland-based multimedia journalist Kate Kaye will spotlight important issues and expose dynamics and conflicts of the strategy through podcast audio, articles, photos and more.

FEJ-funded project:

• "Sea Urchin 'Ranches' Provide Uni While Protecting Kelp Forests," Marketplace Morning Report, October 19, 2020.
• "Saving Oregon's Rocky Coast: A Key Role for the Region's First People," Jefferson Public Radio and Oregon Public Broadcasting, February 22, 2021.
• "Saving Oregon's Rocky Coast: Can We Stem the Loss of Complex Kelp Ecosystems?" Jefferson Public Radio and Oregon Public Broadcasting, February 22, 2021.
• "Saving Oregon's Rocky Coast: Checking In on the Sea Stars," Jefferson Public Radio and Oregon Public Broadcasting, February 22, 2021.
• "Saving Oregon's Rocky Coast: How Reagan’s Oil Push Led to the Oregon Way of Coastal Habitat Protection," Jefferson Public Radio and Oregon Public Broadcasting, February 22, 2021.
• "Saving Oregon's Rocky Coast: To Help Black Oystercatchers, Groups Push for Education — And a Few New Rules," Jefferson Public Radio and Oregon Public Broadcasting, February 22, 2021.

 

Rocky Kistner, for "Gulf Fishing Communities in Peril." Louisiana and Mississippi coastal fisheries are increasingly impacted by record amounts of pollution from flooding rivers and rising temperatures related to climate change. Ten years after the greatest US oil spill in history, fisheries in some oil-damaged areas of the Gulf are still not back to normal. Fishermen now say Louisiana's $50 billion coastal restoration plan will make matters worse, threatening their future by upending the entire ecosystem. This project will tell the stories of fishing communities fighting for survival on the front lines of change — facing the end of their livelihoods.

FEJ-funded project:

• "Rescuing the Massive Swamp Our Country Depends On But Has Mostly Forgotten," HuffPost, Apr 30, 2022.

 

Amy Martin, for "Threshold Conversations," an interview show that features environmental thought leaders focusing on important issues impacting cultures, communities and ecosystems in the U.S. and beyond, including the intersection of these issues with the COVID-19 pandemic.

FEJ-funded project:

• Episode 1: Kendra Pierre-Louis
• Episode 2: Alfredo Corchado
• Episode 3: J. Drew Lanham
• Episode 4: Michelle Fournet
• Episode 5: Peggy Shepard
• Episode 6: Ami Vitale
• Episode 7: Bill McKibben
• Episode 8: Robert Bullard
• Episode 9: Hank Green
• Episode 10: Inuit Food Security, Inuit Sovereignty, with John Noksana, Carolina Behe, and Mumilaaq Qaqqaq

 

Lynne Peeples, for "Troubled Waters: An Urgent Look at Drinking Water Contamination Across the U.S." This project will take an urgent look across the U.S. at key contaminants threatening the drinking water supply — and what’s being done to improve drinking water safety (Ensia).

FEJ-funded project:

• "Thirsting for Solutions" (first in the series).
• "Legionella and Other Dangerous Pathogens Still Lurk in U.S. Drinking Water," October 14, 2020.
• "The Surprising Connection Between West Coast Fires and the Volatile Chemicals Tainting America's Drinking Water," November 11, 2020.
• "From Alaska to Florida, Harmful PFAS Compounds Pollute Water at Multiple Sites in Every State," December 16, 2020.
• "Life-Saving Drinking Water Disinfectants Have a 'Dark Side'," January 15, 2021.
• "Does This City's Progress on Removing Lead Water Lines Show the Potential for U.S.-Wide Replacement?" July 15, 2021 (co-published with The Guardian).
• "Radioactive Contamination Is Creeping Into Drinking Water Around the U.S.," December 21, 2021.
• "Troubled Waters," Ensia (series landing page).

 

Claire Marie Porter, for "Dirtier Water," examining the environmental consequences of recent federal rollbacks on wetland and stream protections that benefit farmers, miners and developers, but are opposed by the U.S. EPA’s own science advisors, and could be catastrophic for Philadelphia.

FEJ-funded project:

• "A Federal Rollback of Wetland and Stream Protections Could Affect Philadelphia," Grid Magazine, October 1, 2021.

 

Kurt Repanshek, for "A Grand Threat: How Politics and Developers Risk a National Park's Lifeblood." The environmental integrity of Grand Canyon National Park is at risk from a massive development proposed by an Italian company that would tap into groundwater flows that nourish the park's seeps, springs and hanging gardens below the South Rim. In a story emblematic of threats many national parks face, National Parks Traveler will look into the politics that have taken over one of Grand Canyon's gateway towns and threaten to bring thousands of lodging rooms and commercial development near the park's southern border. It's a project that could quickly overwhelm groundwater supplies. This is a story of politicians indifferent to the environment, of Arizona laws pertaining to incorporated communities circumvented, and of a project that could contribute to the dewatering of one of the world's iconic national parks that already is challenged by the Southwest's arid climate.

FEJ-funded project:

• "National Parks Traveler Episode 118: Threatened Grand Canyon" (podcast), May 16, 2021, by Kurt Repanshek.
• "Proposed Tusayan Development Threatens Grand Canyon National Park," National Parks Traveler, June 2021, by Patrick Cone.

 

Annie Ropeik, for "By Degrees." Environmentalists have been warning of an ecological and humanitarian crisis for years, and they've struggled to make people aware of the massive changes required to prevent catastrophic climate change. Then, in the space of several months, people all over the world made massive changes….in response to a virus. "By Degrees" is a new audience-driven climate change reporting project from NHPR that begins in this changed world and looks ahead to an uncertain future. Photo credit: Sam Searles / NHPR

FEJ-funded project:

• "By Degrees: Covering Climate Change"

 

Yereth Rosen, for "Warmer and Sicker: Climate Change and Zoonotic Diseases in Alaska," a series of stories about the northward spread of disease pathogens and the emergence of antibiotic resistance in the warming north.

FEJ-funded project:

• "Thaw-Triggered Landslides Are a Growing Hazard in the Warming North," Arctic Today, March 30, 2021.
• "The Coming Diseases: As the Climate Warms, Alaska Faces New Threats From Zoonotic Illnesses," Arctic Today, April 5, 2021.
• "Ticks — and Tick-Borne Risks — Are Creeping North to the Arctic As the Climate Warms," Arctic Today, April 14, 2021.
• "Researchers Are Finding More Signs of Dangerous Toxins From Algae in Alaska Wildlife," Arctic Today, April 21, 2021.
• "Climate Change Threatens To Spread Antibiotic Resistance in the Arctic," Arctic Today, April 29, 2021.
• "Water and Sanitation Deficiencies Worsened the COVID Pandemic in Rural Alaska, a Study Finds," Arctic Today, July 22, 2021.
• "How COVID Is Helping Spur Big Investment in Alaska Water and Sanitation Services," Arctic Today, August 24, 2021.
• "Thaw-Induced Landslide Triggers Partial Closure of Alaska's Denali National Park," Reuters, August 25, 2021.