PACD partnered with the Alliance for the Chesapeake Bay to offer lawn conversion training to conservation district staff. A webinar training was held via Zoom on June 24. In-person training was held on July 15, 2026, at the Cumberland County Conservation District in Carlisle, PA.

Ryan Davis, Associate Forests Program Director at the Alliance for the Chesapeake Bay, was the instructor for both trainings. He discussed the importance of lawn conversion practices, provided tips for installing them, and shared some lessons learned along the way.

The Lawn Conversion Program for Conservation Districts is partially financed by a grant from the Community Conservation Partnerships Program, Environmental Stewardship fund, under the administration of the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, Bureau of Recreation and Conservation.

PACD is offering conservation districts mini-grants of up to $1,000 to support educational and outreach activities that promote the Lawn Conversion and Riparian Buffer Grant Program. Funding is available on a rolling basis until funds are expended, with applications accepted through June 30, 2027.

Projects should focus on reaching eligible landowners on both private and public lands and encouraging participation in lawn conversion and riparian forest buffer projects. Eligible activities include maintenance walk-abouts, field days, one-on-one site visits, educational workshops, and landowner meetings that highlight the benefits, installation, and maintenance of buffers or lawn conversion.

Currently, $50,000 is available, and districts may apply for as many projects as they would like (up to $1,000 each). Click here for the guidelines and here for the application and more information (scroll down to the Education and Outreach section).

The Lawn Conversion & Riparian Buffer Mini-Grant Program for Conservation Districts is financed in part by a grant from the Community Conservation Partnerships Program, Environmental Stewardship fund, under the administration of the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, Bureau of Recreation and Conservation.

PACD partnered with the Alliance for the Chesapeake Bay to offer a virtual lawn conversion training on June 24, 2026. Ryan Davis, Associate Forests Program Director for the Alliance, was the instructor for the event.

Thirty-five conservation district staff and partners attended the training to learn more about lawn conversion, including site preparation, planting, and maintenance, as well as funding programs.

A recording of the training will be available soon for those who were unable to join us. Email swehinger@pacd.org for a link.

An in-person Lawn Conversion training is scheduled for July 15, 2026, at the Cumberland County Conservation District. Click here to register for free. 

 

PACD has $55,000 available in the current Lawn Conversion Grant.

This grant is first-come, first-served. The grant round will stay open until funds are expended or June 30, 2028, whichever comes first. Funding is to be used on shovel-ready projects converting presently maintained lawn to actively managed upland forest or perennial native meadow.

All applications and supporting documents should be emailed to swehinger@pacd.org. There is no online application. Applications will be approved on a rolling basis.

Thanks to conservation district staff, these programs have been incredibly successful in completing smaller-scale lawn conversion buffer projects across Pennsylvania.

Click here for more information or email Shannon Wehinger swehinger@pacd.org.

Financial and other support for this project is provided by the Pennsylvania Association of Conservation Districts, Inc. through a grant from the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, Bureau of Recreation and Conservation.

 

Delaware County Conservation District helped convert one acre of maintained lawn in Rose Tree Park into a native meadow with a mini-grant provided by PACD’s Lawn Conversion Program for Conservation Districts. The project used $2,653 in grant funding.

The Lawn Conversion Program for Conservation Districts is partially financed by a grant from the Community Conservation Partnerships Program, Environmental Stewardship fund, under the administration of the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, Bureau of Recreation and Conservation.

PACD was awarded a $200,000 Community Conservation Partnerships Program (C2P2) grant from the PA Department of Conservation and Natural Resources to continue to offer both programs to conservation districts. This round of grants will have three categories of funding you may apply for:

• Installation of lawn conversion and/or riparian buffer projects with a maximum of $25,000
• Post-planting establishment for DCNR or non-DCNR funded projects with a maximum of $5,000
• Education & Outreach events with a maximum of $1,000

The grant also includes training for conservation district staff. Once again, the Alliance for the Chesapeake Bay has partnered with us to offer lawn conversion and riparian buffer training. Please stay tuned for future training events!

Please visit our website here to find program information such as guidelines, applications, planting & maintenance plan templates, mid-term & final report templates, resources, etc. 

All applications and supporting documents should be emailed to hmiller@pacd.org. There is no online application. Applications will be approved on a rolling basis until funds are expended.

Thanks to conservation district staff, these programs have been incredibly successful in completing smaller-scale lawn conversion and riparian buffer projects across Pennsylvania. During the last round, conservation district projects covered almost 18 acres of lawn conversion and almost 12 acres of riparian forest buffer. Since 2018, conservation districts have installed nearly 150 acres of riparian forest buffers across PA!

Please get in touch with Holly Miller at hmiller@pacd.org with questions.

Columbia County Conservation District helped convert 0.5 acres of maintained lawn in Catawissa, PA, into a native meadow with a mini-grant provided by PACD’s Lawn Conversion Program for Conservation Districts. The project used $2,355 in grant funding.

The Lawn Conversion Program for Conservation Districts is partially financed by a grant from the Community Conservation Partnerships Program, Environmental Stewardship fund, under the administration of the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, Bureau of Recreation and Conservation.

Columbia County Conservation District helped convert 1.5 acres of maintained lawn in Nescopeck, PA, into native meadow and upland forest with a mini-grant provided by PACD through the PACD Lawn Conversion Program for Conservation Districts. The project cost $6,444.05 in grant funding.

The Lawn Conversion Program for Conservation Districts is partially financed by a grant from the Community Conservation Partnerships Program, Environmental Stewardship fund, under the administration of the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, Bureau of Recreation and Conservation.

Armstrong Conservation District helped convert 2.8 acres of maintained lawn into a native meadow with a Lawn Conversion mini-grant provided by PACD through a C2P2 grant from the PA Department of Natural Resources. The project cost $17,920 in grant funding.

The Lawn Conversion Program for Conservation Districts is partially financed by a grant from the Community Conservation Partnerships Program, Environmental Stewardship fund, under the administration of the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, Bureau of Recreation and Conservation.

PACD was awarded a $100,000 Community Conservation Partnerships Program Grant from the PA Department of Conservation and Natural Resources (DCNR) to offer Lawn Conversion training and mini-grants to Pennsylvania’s conservation districts. The lawn conversion program will help the Commonwealth achieve a goal of planting 5,000 acres of upland forest and 5,000 acres of meadow by 2025.

The Lawn Conversion for Conservation Districts training recording and a copy of Ryan Davis’s presentation are available on the PA Clean Water Academy. Click here to access the course page. (You will need to be logged in.)

The application and other lawn conversion sub-grant program materials are available here. 

It is recommended that you complete the training before applying for the sub-grant.

Questions may be directed to Holly Miller, PACD Program Manager, at hmiller@pacd.org or (717) 794-6105.