Green schemes in York are vying for tens of thousands of pounds in Millennium Challenge funding.

The Environment Agency, which will submit schemes to the New Millennium Experience Company probably in August, has received details of more than a dozen projects hoping to receive cash next year and in 2000.

At Fulford School, £25,000 is being sought to plant a "habitat" garden, with different areas of the world represented by appropriate combinations of trees and shrubs.

Those behind the scheme say it will demonstrate how habitats can be so diverse, here and abroad.

A group is seeking £60,000 for an education trail along the rivers Foss and Ouse. The York Riverways Environmental Art Project would see schoolchildren contribute artwork as part of the design for the environmental trail.

A plan to restore and enhance Rawcliffe Meadows is also being put up for a Millennium grant. The Friends of Rawcliffe Meadows, a volunteer group dedicated to the management of the large wetland area, wants £15,000 to draw up and implement an action plan. The group says the meadows, and nearby Clifton Ings, are heavily used by local people but have suffered over the years because of poor conservation.

There is also a bid for Millennium cash from a group seeking to increase the number of species of plants and animals beside the River Foss. Those behind the River Foss Rehabilitation group are asking for £30,000 to £40,000 to increase the area's biodiversity. They say it would make the stretch, between Strensall and Earswick, more attractive and would increase environmental awareness among people.

At St Nicholas Fields nature reserve, an application for £60,000 to restore becks flowing through a former landfill has been made to benefit wildlife and create an "outdoor classroom" to promote environmental awareness.

Elsewhere in North Yorkshire, Harrogate Environment Centre is seeking £7,000 a year to fund a project worker who would run school workshops, provide mobile exhibitions and help set up projects such as recycling schemes and wildlife areas. Between £16,000 and £20,000 is being sought by the River Ure Parish Maps Project, which would give people a chance to identify what they value about their local landscape, as well as what concerns them.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.