| |
Grants Aim to Improve Chesapeake Bay Watershed
|
NRCS along with other Federal agencies, organizations like the National Fish
and Wildlife Foundation and Chesapeake Bay Foundation, and local governments
throughout the bay watershed have launched 93 Bay and river restoration projects
thanks to nearly $3 million in grants provided by the National Fish and Wildlife
Foundation and the Chesapeake Bay Program. The grants, provided through the
Chesapeake Bay Small Watershed Grants Program, aim to accelerate the restoration
of the Chesapeake Bay and its rivers by providing funds to help local
communities restore their part of the Bay watershed.
Projects funded through the program include creating rain gardens that reduce
polluted runoff to planting streamside forest buffers that prevent erosion to
restoring underwater grasses that provide critical habitat for the Bay's fish
and animals. Programs will take place across the Bay's 64,000 square-mile
watershed in Delaware, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Virginia, West Virginia and the
District of Columbia.
In addition to building the capacity of local organizations, this year's grants
will manage or protect approximately 4,000 acres of critical fish and wildlife
habitat including wetlands, oyster reefs and underwater grasses. Grant
recipients will plant more than 35 miles of forest buffers and improve an
additional 60 miles of streams that drain into the Bay. More than 8,000
community volunteers will actively participate in the projects, while some
85,000 citizens will be educated through the dissemination of outreach
materials.
For a complete listing and map of the 2004 Small Watershed Grants recipients in
your area or state, please visit the National Fish
and Wildlife Foundation homepage or the
Chesapeake Bay Program.
| | |