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Federal and Interstate FEMA Conference: The annual Community Assistance Program (CAP) Conference for FEMA's Region . VIII was held on Sept. 3-4 in Breckenridge. The annual conference is designed to be a platform for interaction between the states in Region VIII (CO, WY, MT, UT, ND, SD) and FEMA. Among the subjects discussed were map modernizations, insurance aspects of the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP), a briefing from FEMA headquarters, and the Community Rating System. FEMA emphasized that they are in a dynamic period when changes are frequent, but it was agreed that the programs in all of Region VIII, including Colorado, were running very well. Weather Modification Grant Application: On Aug. 22 we delivered a grant proposal to Reclamation to attempt to get grant funds to further the science of weather modification. Reclamation has $1.3 million earmarked for western states projects (mostly states on the North American Interstate Weather Council) and $800,000 available to other states on a competitive basis. We asked for $100,000 to complete a study of wintertime gronnd based silver iodide cloud seeding operations in Colorado. Early indications from Reclamation are that it will be fnnded because Colorado has never accessed these funds and our study also takes a new look at gronnd based seeding. The three main deliverables from this study are: (1) real-time forecasts of winds and natural (non-seeded) precipitation to aid in seeding operations decision-making; (2) post analysis of simulated seeding effects on monthly and seasonal accumulated precipitation; (3) evaluation of transport and dispersion of seeding material; and (4) statistical evaluations of model performance in predicting natural vs. seeding orographic precipitation. This will benefit the science in general by providing a physical evaluation of seeding operations, which should help determine if seeding operations are cost-effective. If our proposal is fnnded we expect an award in late September or early October. A final project report is . due one year from the grant award. Joe Busto will be managing this project for us. Colorado Environmental Education Projects Get EP A Funds: In July the EP A awarded nearly $80,000 in grants to help fund six environmental education projects. The EPA's Office of Environmental Education (EE) sponsors the EE Grant Program. Since 1992, EP A has received between $2 and $3 million in grant funding per year and has awarded approximately 2,500 grants. For more information on the EP A Region 8 grant program, visit htto://www.eoa.aov/enviroed/grants.htrnl. The recipients are: . Colorado Alliance for Environmental Education (CAEE) -- $25,000 "Colorado EE Professional Development mitiative" -- This project will capitalize on the dramatic growth, ensuring that these new people coming into the EE community are grounded with a frrm understanding of fundamentals and guiding principles ofEE. . Front Range Earth Force -- $24,750 "GREEN Youth Action mitiative: GREEN mstitute for Teachers with Spanish-Speaking Students" -- This partnership will incorporate low-income and culturally diverse audiences -- specifically a growing Spanish- speaking community -- into both new and existing education and restoration projects. . Colorado Wildlife Heritage Foundation -- $14,000 "Colorado's Study Buddy Stewardship Program" -- This project will help youth learn about local ecology and implement local stewardship projects that improve wildlife habitats and natural resources. . Colorado Energy Science Center -- $5,000 "Connecting Energy Education in the Classroom to Real-World Problem Solving" -- CESC is expanding its kindergarten through grade 12 energy education initiative to reach and support a cadre of at least 100 teachers and 1,500 students in the investigation of energy use and efficiency. Gore Range Natural Science School-- $5,000 "Science Outreach and Applied Research Community Issues Education" -- This project will provide and e. 3