Apply for the Green America Awards

Applications for the 2010 Nature Hills Nursery Green America Awards, designed to give national recognition and $5,000 in plants to community groups and organizations that are improving their local environments, are now being accepted. The annual awards, sponsored by Omaha-based Nature Hills Nursery, will be presented in April 2010 to groups and organizations that are literally “greening” their communities, parks, schools and public spaces by planting trees, shrubs and other plants.

The winners of the 2010 Nature Hills Nursery Green America Awards will be those nonprofit groups and organizations that truly are making a difference in their local neighborhoods. Winners will be chosen from those groups that submit a local community gardening or “greening” project that makes best use of the trees, bushes and shrubs. Potential 2010 Nature Hills Nursery Green America Award winning projects can be:

• Creating or refurbishing the landscape in a community park.

• A local soil erosion control plan that utilizes plants to stabilize steep hillside slopes or river banks.

• The reclamation of an abandoned lot with the creation of a fruit orchard that will provide much needed fruit to nearby low-income residents.

• Creating a wildlife habitat for birds or animals on donated land that is (or has been) abandoned or neglected.

Applications for the awards will be accepted nationwide until April 1, 2010. The winners of the 2010 Nature Hills Nursery Green America Awards will be announced April 19, 2010.