The National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF), U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the federal-state Chesapeake Bay Program announced more than $7.3 million in grant awards to Virginia.
The funding will support water quality improvements, habitat restoration and community stewardship efforts in Virginia’s portion of the Chesapeake Bay watershed. The 16 grants announced yesterday at an event held in Seneca Falls, W.V. will generate more than $3.8 million in matching contributions for a total conservation impact of more than $11.2 million.
“Today’s awards further NFWF’s long standing goals for advancing voluntary habitat and watershed restoration and conservation efforts across all 64,000 square miles of the Chesapeake Bay watershed, from the shores of the Chesapeake Bay in Maryland and Virginia to its headwaters streams and forests across Delaware, New York, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia,” Jeff Trandahl, executive director and CEO of NFWF, said. “Through strategic investing, and by leveraging local on-the-ground conservation leadership and expertise, we’re demonstrating how efforts to help the Bay can provide real and meaningful value to local communities and stakeholders across the watershed.”
The grants were awarded through the Small Watershed Grants (SWG) program, a key funding mechanism of the federal-state Chesapeake Bay Program 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 the 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 the Chesapeake Bay Program and 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.”
Grant awards under the SWG program are an important mechanism to advance collective progress towards the commitments of Chesapeake Bay Program partners under the 2014 Chesapeake Bay Watershed Agreement through direct support for on-the-ground conservation and restoration efforts of nonprofit organizations, local governments and their community partners. The new awards will provide measurable contributions towards more than a dozen key partnership commitments for water quality improvement and healthy watersheds, community stewardship, forest buffers and urban tree canopy, oyster restoration and restoration of stream and wetland habitats for brook trout, black duck and migratory fish.
An example of some of the Small Watershed Grant recipients in Virginia include:
Alliance for the Chesapeake Bay ($681,000) will improve green infrastructure at the Amelia Street School in Richmond. The project will engage partners to work collaboratively to implement more than a half-acre of green stormwater infrastructure practices that reduce stormwater runoff, increase urban tree canopy and reduce urban heat island effects while also providing an outdoor learning environment for students of all abilities.
Chesapeake Bay Foundation ($494,700) plans to collaborate with Hampton University and community members to restore native oyster habitat in Virginia’s Hampton River. The project will create two acres of sanctuary oyster reef in the Hampton River, produce and plant one million spat-on-shell oysters and work with Blacks in Marine Science to advance interest among Black students to pursue careers in the marine sciences.
Holy Cross Abbey–Community of Cistercians of the Strict Observance ($133,700) will develop a plan to turn a 1,200-acre parcel along the Shenandoah River into a regenerative agricultural farm. The project will employ climate-smart practices, produce a legal instrument that ensures the future of regenerative land use and agricultural production with an emphasis on equity and justice, while planning an expansive and inclusive outreach program that invites visitors to experience this working landscape and learn more about watershed issues.
Trout Unlimited ($997,500) plans to 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. This project will restore nine miles of riparian forest habitat, install 7.5 miles of livestock exclusion fencing and reconnect existing brook trout habitat populations to 12 miles of headwater habitat.
Virginia Tech ($150,000) will assist the Nansemond Indian Nation in planning and enhancing natural and nature-based community resilience. The project will work with the Nansemond Indian National, a federally recognized Virginia Tribe, in adapting the Resilience Adaptation Feasibility Tool Scorecard and process for their community by developing a community plan that best meets their strengths, weaknesses and current capabilities for enhanced resilience.
Since 1999, NFWF has awarded more than 1,300 grants through the Chesapeake Bay Stewardship Fund, totaling more than $248 million in funding to local, on-the-ground restoration and technical assistance projects, leveraged by more than $351 million in local matching resources.
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Rebecca Barnabi
