A significant influx of money is coming to the Chesapeake Bay, in the form of $13 million in federal grants. And matched contributions will bring the total to almost $32 million in clean water support.
The 47 grants come from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF) and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) through the Chesapeake Bay Stewardship Fund, and will go towards restoration and conservation efforts in all six Bay watershed states and Washington D.C. Funds will be used to engage farmers, homeowners, churches, buildings, and local governments to improve waterways.
Grant recipients were just announced at Our Lady of Mount Carmel Parish and School in Baltimore County (in the Middle River watershed), which got stormwater and green infrastructure upgrades thanks to a 2017 Stewardship Grant.
Among this year’s Chesapeake Bay Stewardship Grant recipients is ShoreRivers, the mid-Eastern Shore riverkeeper organization, who will design and implement a plan to reduce runoff at Prospect Bay Country Club Community, where yards and the heavily-fertilized golf course are sending nutrients and sediment into the water.
In Virginia, another recipient is Alliance for the Shenandoah Valley, who will put more than a hundred miles of livestock fencing up, and build 490 acres of plant buffers along the waterfront.
“The grants announced today will support on-the-ground conservation efforts that benefit people and wildlife throughout the Chesapeake Bay’s 64,000-square-mile watershed,” said Jeff Trandahl, executive director and CEO of NFWF.
To read the full list of grants across the watershed, click here.
-Meg Walburn Viviano
