Common Ground advisory committee recommends grants across forest health, agriculture and recreation; funding covers a fraction of requests

The Community Foundation and the Common Ground advisory committee presented commissioners on Tuesday with recommendations from a competitive grant cycle that prioritized forest health and working‑lands projects but could not fully meet demand.

Anna Hendrix, director of purpose at the Community Foundation, explained the review process: applicants passed an initial screening, underwent site visits to fill information gaps, and were evaluated against a posted rubric. “One of the things we had decided to do is, you know, we always kinda have this place of, like, is there somebody that's really not gonna be competitive to move forward and maybe making eliminations. And then for everybody that was moving forward in the process, what are the gaps of information? So that's really…