BBC Ground Force presenter Kirsty King is throwing down the gauntlet to thousands of people across Britain to volunteer to help improve their local environment - and there are £50 grants up for grabs to help them get started.

Kirsty is encouraging people of all ages and backgrounds to roll up their sleeves and take part in this year’s environmental campaign, Environment Agency Action Earth 2005. The campaign, supported for the second year running by the Environment Agency and run by the UK’s largest volunteering charity, CSV (Community Service Volunteers) was launched last December by Kirsty, Environment Agency chairman Sir John Harman and rural affairs Minister Alun Michael.

Mum-of-two Kirsty said: "I feel it's very important to make the public more aware of their environment and how they can easily make small changes to improve it. Children are so important to include in this as discovering what is living around them rather than just computers is an important part of growing up."

"I know as more green spaces disappear it becomes more difficult but I love seeing children discovering what lives in rock pools and garden ponds as well as the importance of keeping birds fed in the winter."

Environment Agency Action Earth is a national environmental campaign that supports people across England and Wales to become volunteers and improve the environment they live and work in. It runs from 1 January to World Environment Day on 5 June 2005.

Over the six months, community groups registering an environmental project will receive a £50 grant from the Environment Agency to help buy tools for their project. There is also an opportunity to win one of five award categories and receive a further £300 cash prize to be invested in their project. Finalists will be announced on World Environment Day, Sunday 5 June 2005.

Sir John Harman said: "Environment Agency Action Earth is a great way to get involved in your community and make changes to your environment. We are supporting CSV by providing grants for projects which can make significant changes to their surroundings."

This is the second year that the Environment Agency has supported the Action Earth campaign with grants and prizes. Last year saw over 900 projects registered and over 15,000 volunteers taking part. During Action Earth 2004, more than 10,000 trees were planted, 428 tonnes of paper recycled, 4,000 sacks of litter collected and more than 30,000 metres of pathway cleared.

This year has been designated the Year of the Volunteer in the UK and the Action Earth 2005 campaign will underline the positive impact made by volunteers to the environment. Each month of the Year of the Volunteer has a theme and May 2005 is ‘Environment’ month.

To register a project or get more information, call CSV Environment on Tel: 0121 328 7455 or go to the website www.csv.org.uk/actionearth