Thirty-two environmental projects from across the Chesapeake Bay watershed were today awarded over $2.8 million in grants from the Chesapeake Bay Program and National Fish and Wildlife Foundation to help clean up local streams, creeks and rivers that flow to the Chesapeake Bay.
The funding was awarded through the Chesapeake Bay Small Watershed Grants Program, which provides grants to nonprofit organizations and local governments working to improve the condition of their local watershed.
The 2009 Small Watershed Grant recipients will develop conservation plans, preserve valuable natural lands and implement on-the-ground restoration practices throughout the Chesapeake Bay’s six-state watershed. This year’s projects will restore 620 acres of wetlands, plant 32 rain gardens and 172 acres of streamside forest buffers, and fence off 23 miles of streams to prevent livestock from entering the water. A sampling of grant recipients includes:
-The Piedmont Environmental Council will use its $75,000 grant to increase financial incentives for farmers to install livestock-exclusion fencing and forest buffers along Virginia’s Upper Hazel River, a tributary of the Rappahannock River.
-GreenTreks Network received a $75,000 grant to implement the “Reign in the Rain” social marketing campaign in the Cedar Run and Paxton Creek watersheds near Harrisburg, Pa. The campaign will use videos to promote practices that reduce polluted runoff to local waterways and the Susquehanna River.
-Ducks Unlimited received $20,333 to restore 473 acres of wetlands, including 84 acres of globally rare Atlantic white cedar, in the headwaters of the Nanticoke and Pocomoke river watersheds in Delaware.
“Collectively, these 32 projects will have a significant positive impact on the health of the Chesapeake Bay and waterways throughout the region, which highlights the invaluable role that nonprofit organizations and local governments play as partners in the restoration effort” said Chesapeake Bay Program Director Jeffrey Lape.
The 2009 Small Watershed Grants were awarded at Heritage Baptist Church in Annapolis, Md., where several runoff-reducing practices such as rain gardens and bioswales have been installed to reduce pollution flowing to Spa Creek, a tributary of the Chesapeake Bay. The Spa Creek Conservancy will use their $109,240 grant to install similar pollution-reducing practices at St. Martin’s Evangelical Church and School in Annapolis.
“These locally driven conservation projects not only will result in on-the-ground improvements to habitat and water quality, but they also are the model of local environmental stewardship that is a crucial ingredient to any strategy to restore the Chesapeake Bay,” said Mike Slattery, director of the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation’s Eastern Partnership Office.
Since 2000, the Small Watershed Grants program has provided $23.6 million to support 587 projects. These grants have been used to leverage an additional $68.4 million from other funding sources, resulting in more than $92 million being invested in Chesapeake Bay watershed restoration efforts.
“Federal funding for projects like these will help protect and restore critical aquatic ecosystems in the Chesapeake Bay,” said Senator B