KNPS announces 2025 Lois Wythe Grant

If you have a keen interest in native plants and maybe even a project in mind, this year's Lois Wythe Grant from the Kinnikinnick Native Plant Society may be just the ticket to help get it off (or in) the ground. 

The Lois Wythe Grant of $500 is awarded annually to a group, class, or individual to carry out a project in Bonner County designed to promote awareness and appreciation of native plants in our richly diverse inland temperate rainforest ecosystem. 

The 2024 grant went to Sandpoint Organic Ag Center to establish a native plant area at their facility on North Boyer in Sandpoint. In 2023, the grant recipient was Kaniksu Land Trust to assist in re-wilding the playground at Kootenai Elementary School. The plant identification signs for that project were funded by KNPS and will be put in place in Spring 2025. Both of these projects will be completed this year and field trips to each are being planned for summer 2025. 

The grant was established in honor of Lois Wythe. Her love of the Northwest, its natural ecology and its people, spurred her involvement in numerous local organizations, including the Panhandle Environmental League and the Sandpoint Farmer's Market. At her prodding, the Master Gardeners added organic gardening methods to their program, and she launched KNPS and The North Idaho Native Plant Arboretum in Lakeview Park. 

Over the years other projects, fully or partially funded by the Lois Wythe grant, include some by school children, the Sandpoint Library, a graduate student's native plant inventory, and production of a children's coloring activity book featuring native plants and insects. 

Application forms for are now available at nativeplantsociety.org/lois-wythe-grant or by e-mailing grant@nativeplantsociety.org. Completed forms are due for consideration by Feb. 28. KNPS requests a follow-up report outlining project results by the end of 2025, and, upon completion, the recipient is invited to make a presentation at a KNPS monthly program.