On August 28, 2012, the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation and the U.S. EPA’s Chesapeake Bay Program announced recipients of $9.2 million in grants for 41 habitat-restoration, pollution-reduction, or citizen-involvement projects in the Chesapeake Bay watershed. The Foundation administers the Chesapeake Bay Stewardship Fund that provides grants under two programs: the Small Watershed Grants Program and the Chesapeake Bay Innovative Nutrient and Sediment Reduction Grants Program. For this funding cycle, $2.4 million was awarded to 20 projects under the Small Watershed Grants program, and $6.8 million was awarded to 21 projects under the Innovated Grants program. Grant matches are expected to add another $13.5 million to the projects (over both programs). Three Virginia projects noted in the news release on this year’s grants are the following: 1) Arlington County—$80,000 to will expand its “StormwaterWise Landscapes Program,” which provides incentives for private landowners to install innovative stormwater-management projects; 2) The John Marshall Soil and Water Conservation District—$49,575 to plant streamside forest buffers on eight farms in Fauquier County; and 3) The Potomac Conservancy—$200,000 to test a model to engage absentee landowners in Northern Virginia and the Shenandoah Valley in adopting conservation practices. In addition, according to the Richmond Times-Dispatch, the Chesapeake Bay Foundation was awarded $198,740 to train Virginia farmers in practices to reduce water pollution from livestock grazing and other activities. According to the news release of this year’s grants, the Small Watersheds Program has provided over $31 million to 683 projects since 1999, and the Innovative Grants Program has provided $33.6 million to 75 projects since 2006. More information on Chesapeake Bay Stewardship Fund is available at http://www.nfwf.org/AM/Template.cfm?Section=Chesapeake_Bay_Stewardship_Fund&Template=/TaggedPage/TaggedPageDisplay.cfm&TPLID=46&ContentID=20262, and information generally on the Foundation’s grant programs is available at http://www.nfwf.org/AM/Template.cfm?Section=GrantPrograms.
For an item on grants awarded last year (October 2011), please see the Water Central News Grouper’s 10/6/11 post, Update on National Fish and Wildlife Foundation 2011 Grants for Chespeake Bay Projects.
Sources: More than $9 Million in Grants Awarded to Restore Habitats, Improve Urban Environments and Increase Citizen Engagement around the Chesapeake Region , National Fish and Wildlife Foundation News Release, 8/28/12; and Chesapeake Bay Foundation gets grant to assist Va. farmers, Richmond Times-Dispatch, 8/29/12.
Additional information:
Here are some news accounts about grants in various areas within the Bay watershed: Arlington Among Chesapeake Bay Grant Recipients, Arlnow.com, 8/29/12; Lexington awarded Chesapeake Bay grant, Staunton (Va.) News-Leader, 9/8/12; Chesapeake Bay cleanup gets $9 million in grants, Baltimore (Md.) Sun, 8/28/12; City to receive $100G to assess storm sewer systems, Scranton (Pa.) Times-Tribune, 8/29/12; and Bay grants include almost $500K for local projects, Easton (Md.) Star Democrat, 9/3/12.
