PHILADELPHIA (Sept. 4, 2024) – Today, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced $23.8 million in Small Watershed grants to support Chesapeake Bay Watershed restoration efforts. $11.6 million 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 $12.8 million in matching contributions to generate a total conservation impact of $36.6 million.

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

Grant Amount:. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $997,500

Matching Funds:. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $447,000

Total Project Amount:. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$1,444,500

Restore brook trout habitat and install conservation practices on private and public lands in the headwaters of the Potomac River in Virginia and West Virginia. Project will restore

9 miles of riparian forest habitat, install 7.5 miles of livestock exclusion fencing, and reconnect existing brook trout populations to 12 miles of headwater habitat.

 

Camp Winslow Living Shoreline Restoration (MD)

Grantee: GreenTrust Alliance

Grant Amount:. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $117,500

Matching Funds:. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$28,200

Total Project Amount:. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $145,700

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

Matching Funds:. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$16,500

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

Grant Amount:. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$72,300

Matching Funds:. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $0

Total Project Amount:. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$72,300

Create an implementation-ready plan that will help manage the Congressional Cemetery runoff and create a more resilient community space. Project will continue the 2023 effort in implementing green infrastructure in the cemetery, educating community members about the benefits of green infrastructure, and allowing participants to apply their new knowledge to addressing stormwater challenges currently facing the community.

 

Restoring Shoreline Habitats at Janosik Park in Laurel, Delaware

Grantee: Nanticoke Watershed Alliance

Grant Amount:. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $451,300

Matching Funds:. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $116,000

Total Project Amount:. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $567,300

Implement designs to stabilize a severely eroding shoreline and improve the habitat along the Broad Creek at Janosik Park in Laurel, Delaware. Project will restore nearly 600 feet or shoreline and reduce annual sediment pollution by more than 60 tons.

 

Reconnecting and Restoring Brook Trout Habitat in the Pine Creek Watershed (PA)

Grantee: Trout Unlimited

Grant Amount:. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $936,800

Matching Funds:. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $574,800

Total Project Amount:. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$1,511,600

Expand stronghold brook trout habitats along Lick Run in Pennsylvania’s Pine Creek watershed by replacing three failing, undersized culverts that are current barriers to aquatic organism passage, reducing nonpoint source sediment pollution by improving dirt and gravel roads, and using strategic wood addition to enhance habitat on

0.75 miles of Deer Lick Hollow, a tributary to Lick Run. Project will open 7.5 miles of upstream habitat critical for brook trout.

 

Accelerating Living Shoreline Restoration in Virginia’s Northern Neck and Middle Peninsula

Grantee: Friends of the Rappahannock

Grant Amount:. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $755,500

Matching Funds:. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $536,800

Total Project Amount:. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$1,292,300

Restore 1 mile of shoreline on Virginia’s Northern Neck to address nutrient and sediment loss, coastal wetland restoration and enhancement, and community resilience. Project will support design and installation of 40 living shoreline projects in conjunction with the Virginia Conservation Assistance Program.

 

A complete list of the 2024 Chesapeake Bay Small Watershed Grants recipients is available here.

For more information about the Chesapeake Bay Stewardship Fund or to download the 2024 Chesapeake Bay Innovative Nutrient and Sediment Reduction and Small Watershed Grants Slates, visit www.nfwf.org/chesapeake.