Chesapeake Bay Small Watershed Grants (for Conservation and Restoration)
This program, administered by the National Fish & Wildlife Foundation (NFWF), provides grants to organizations and local governments working on a local level to protect and improve watersheds in the Chesapeake Bay watershed. ÒWatershed ConservationÓ and ÒWatershed RestorationÓ are among the three eligible project types.
Watershed Restoration
Grants for watershed restoration projects must improve water quality and/or directly restore vital habitats and key living resources within the Chesapeake Bay watershed. Restoration proposals that address one or more of the following priorities will be ranked highest for funding, all other things being equal:
- Restoring wetlands or forests (e.g., riparian buffers, floodplain forests) that will contribute significant improvements in habitat or water quality.
- Restoring fish passage in streams where unimpeded flow will establish significant gains in aquatic habitat for anadramous/diadramous fish.
- Reducing significant sources of nutrient and sediment loads to the Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries, especially through developing integrated management strategies to address agricultural sources of nutrients and sediment.
- Restoring shoreline habitat through projects that replace existing hardened (e.g., bulkheads and riprap revetments) or eroding shorelines with tidal marsh, natural bank stabilization materials, and buffer plantings.
Watershed Conservation
Grants for watershed conservation projects must protect water quality and vital habitats within the Chesapeake Bay watershed through habitat conservation, prevention of new pollutant sources, and/or increasing individual conservation actions. Conservation proposals that address one or more of the following priorities will be ranked highest for funding, all other things being equal:
- Implementing a locally supported land conservation strategy to permanently protect land from development, especially forests, wetlands and lands supporting Best Management Practices such as stream buffers.
- Implementing low impact development practices and other innovative stormwater management practices to offset the potential water quality impacts of new development.
- Implementing social marketing campaigns focused on motivating specific conservation action(s) by a targeted audience within a particular watershed.
- Demonstrating the economic incentives associated with conservation and pollution prevention practices to increase their rate of adoption.
NFWF is a Chesapeake NEMO partner organization. Chesapeake NEMO staff is available to provide technical assistance and educational outreach programs for certain Small Watershed Grant projects. Contact NEMO staff for more information. Visit www.nfwf.org for detailed grant application information and deadlines.