Nearly $11 million in grant funds will support restoration projects across Chesapeake Bay region

From the restoration of wetlands and forests to the reduction of urban, suburban and agricultural runoff, 39 environmental projects across the Chesapeake Bay watershed have received close to $11 million in funding through the Chesapeake Bay Stewardship Fund, which is administered by the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF) and funded primarily by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

Twenty-eight projects will be funded through the Small Watershed Grants Program, which supports on-the-ground restoration, habitat conservation and community engagement. Eleven more will be funded by the Innovative Nutrient and Sediment Reduction Grants Program, which finances projects aimed at reducing nutrient and sediment pollution in rivers, streams and the Bay. The 39 projects will collectively leverage an additional $12 million in matching funds, for a total of $23 million to improve the health of the watershed.

Projects will help restore habitat and protect local waterways across the Bay watershed, which spans across parts of Delaware, Maryland, New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia, West Virginia and the District of Columbia. In Maryland, for instance, Chesapeake Wildlife Heritage will work to restore 15 acres of non-tidal wetlands at Canterbury Farm on the Eastern Shore. In Pennsylvania, the Alliance for the Chesapeake Bay will use outreach and agricultural “best management practices” to improve drinking water supplies in the Octoraro Creek watershed. And in Virginia and West Virginia, the Potomac Conservancy will use conservation easements to protect 600 acres of forests and fields from development.

Officials and guests announced the awards this morning at the Pennsylvania State University’s Russell E. Larson Agricultural Research Center in Pennsylvania Furnace, Pennsylvania.

Learn more about the awards.