PROVIDENCE - The Youth Litter Corps is taking on a new look! Starting this year, it will be the Youth Litter and Conservation Corps (YLCC), ready to take on conservation projects as well as cleanups.

Jan Reitsma, Director of the Department of Environmental Management, today announced that up to $165,000 is available in grants to municipalities and non-profit agencies through DEM's OSCAR program (Ocean State Cleanup and Recycling). Each award winner will receive up to $5,637 to employ high school students as well as people with disabilities in the renamed Corps. YLCC Clean Teams will continue to perform cleanups on roadsides and in other public places within their communities, but up to half their time will be spent on other conservation and environmental projects.

Director Reitsma says, "The Youth Litter and Conservation Corps has been one of DEM's most successful programs since it began in 1985. Thousands of young people and people with disabilities have worked to clean up their communities. This year we're revamping the Corps. The communities and agencies we've funded have told us they want the opportunity for the Clean Teams to do more than pick up trash, although that's very important. From now on, we're encouraging them to take on a wider variety of activities. But the focus will continue to be on young people working to improve their communities and to learn about the environment."

Here are some of the activities that the revamped Clean Teams can do in their communities:

• Plant a wildflower meadow
• Stencil storm drains with "Don't Dump" messages to reduce the quantity of trash and other pollutants that enter Narragansett Bay
• Install nest boxes to attract native birds and/or bats
• Design and place interpretive signs along a nature trail
• Sponsor a neighborhood cleanup
• Organize a neighborhood watchdog committee to report illegal dumping and littering
• Join or form an Adopt-A Spot or Adopt-A-Marsh program
• Provide information to municipal residents on topics such as recycling, composting, and household hazardous waste
• Take care of trees (watering, weed control, mulching, pruning)
• Install vegetation or barriers to control erosion
• Conduct a litter survey
• Work on bike trails
• Maintain trails in state and local parks
• Build conservation sites
• Improve timber stands
• Work in greenhouses
• Work with local farmers
• Plant trees

Grant applications from municipalities and 501(c)3 nonprofit organizations must be received by January 28. For more information, call DEM's Eileen Marino at 222-3434 ext. 4435, send an e-mail to her at emarino@dem.state.ri.us, or write to her at DEM's OSCAR Program at 235 Promenade Street, Providence, RI 02908.