Sep 5, 2024

Grants advance measurable partnership progress towards 2025 goals of the Chesapeake Bay Watershed Agreement Today, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced $23.8M in Small Watershed grants to support Chesapeake Bay Watershed restoration efforts. $11.6M of the funding awarded is funded by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL) and $9.3 via regular annual appropriations. This program is currently administered by the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF) through a grant from EPA’s Chesapeake Bay Program Office. The 56 grant awards will support water quality improvement, habitat restoration, and community stewardship efforts in the Chesapeake Bay watershed. In total, the grants will leverage $12.8M in matching contributions to generate a total conservation impact of $36.6M. The grants were awarded through the Small Watershed Grants (SWG) program, a key funding mechanism of the federal-state Chesapeake Bay Program (CBP) partnership designed to support projects within the Chesapeake Bay watershed that promote voluntary, community-based efforts to protect and restore the diverse and vital habitats of the Chesapeake Bay and its tributary rivers and streams. Major funding for these awards is provided by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, with additional support provided by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Natural Resources Conservation Service, U.S. Forest Service, and Altria Group. The SWG program is administered under NFWF’s Chesapeake Bay Stewardship Fund (CBSF), in partnership with CBP and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The CBSF is an ongoing 25-year partnership between NFWF and other federal and private funders that provides grant funding, technical assistance, networking and information sharing programming in support of local, on-the-ground conservation and restoration efforts to restore the Chesapeake Bay watershed. "Investments such as these are paramount to ensuring progress across the Bay and in all sectors,” said EPA Regional Administrator Adam Ortiz. “We are proud to work with our partners and fund these projects to make a difference in the restoration of the Bay watershed." "We are proud to fund these projects, which will support restoration of ecosystems throughout the Bay watershed,” said Martha Shimkin, Director of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Chesapeake Bay Program Office. “From blue crabs to brook trout, we are focusing on restoring and conserving our living resources that are both important to the local economy and our region’s natural heritage. The work to protect and restore our waterways is a true community effort and through these conservation projects, we can continue to build on our current momentum.” Examples of 2024 grant selectees: Advancing the Legacy of Brook Trout Conservation in the Potomac Headwaters (VA, WV) Grantee: Trout Unlimited Advance the design and permitting of approximately 4,400 linear feet of living shoreline on rapidly retreating forested shoreline located on the western shore of the Chesapeake Bay in St. Mary’s County, Maryland. Project will advance efforts to implement a living shoreline along the bay to protect riparian habitats and active aquaculture, and promote sand accretion to eliminate the need to import sand. Expanding Community Science to Advance Cross-Watershed Collaboration in Otsego County (NY) Grantee: Otsego County Conservation Association Grant Amount:. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $144,500 Total Project Amount:. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $161,000 Advance cross-watershed collaboration, assessments, and future restoration efforts in Otsego County, New York. Project will create a culvert assessment community science team, expand stream water quality monitoring teams, form a lake water quality monitoring team, support capacity building efforts for participating organizations, and collect valuable data and site-specific information that will support future habitat restoration projects in the county. Congressional Cemetery Community-Based Stormwater Revitalization (DC) Grantee: Anacostia Watershed Society