GOOD NEWS YOU MAY HAVE MISSED

Otsego County To Benefit from Conservation Grants

SENECA ROCKS, WV—Trout Unlimited and the Otsego County Conservation Association were among the grantees on Wednesday, September 4 at the Seneca Rocks Discovery Center as the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and the federal-state Chesapeake Bay Program announced over $3.6 million in awards to support water quality improvements, habitat restoration, and community stewardship efforts in New York’s portion of the Chesapeake Bay watershed. The eight grants will generate more than $1.7 million in matching contributions for a total conservation impact of over $5.3 million.

Trout Unlimited will receive $999,400.00 to improve and reconnect 4.3 miles of brook trout habitat along Butternut Creek in the Upper Susquehanna River watershed. The project will remove the Morris Pond Dam, restore a quarter mile of the stream channel, adjacent floodplain and riparian corridor, and result in the transfer of six acres of private forest to the General Jacob Morris State Forest.

A grant in the amount of $144,500.00 to OCCA will advance cross-watershed collaboration, assessments and future restoration efforts here in Otsego County. This project will create a culvert assessment community science team, expand stream water quality monitoring teams, form a lake water quality monitoring team, support capacity-building efforts for participating organizations, and collect valuable data and site-specific information that will support future habitat restoration projects in the county.

The grants were awarded through the Small Watershed Grants 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 these 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, 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.

“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,” said Jeff Trandahl, executive director and CEO of NFWF. “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.”

“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 toward 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. These new awards will provide measurable contributions toward 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.

Other Small Watershed Grant recipients in New York include:

• Alliance for the Chesapeake Bay ($500,000.00)will leverage corporate investments and partnerships to install agricultural conservation practices on dairy farms in New York and Pennsylvania to reduce agricultural runoff to the Chesapeake Bay, restore riparian ecosystems, improve stream health, increase habitat for wildlife, reduce greenhouse gas emissions and ensure long-term resilience for the region’s dairy industry, The project will restore more than two miles of riparian forest habitat and reduce sediment runoff by more than 500 tons annually.

• Chesapeake Research Consortium ($150,000.00) plans to engage diverse students through individually tailored programs and mentorship to advance leadership in the environmental and conservation fields. This project will recruit and mentor college students who are underrepresented in environmental research and management professions to create a generation that will not only significantly contribute to meeting the long-term goals for Chesapeake Bay watershed restoration but also build upon and sustain those efforts for generations.

• City of Corning ($632,600.00)plans to design and implement green stormwater infrastructure at Denison Park. The project will install bioretention features and permeable pavement areas to treat five acres of urban land, implement green stormwater infrastructure and convert nearly nine acres of turf lawn into sustainable conservation landscaping. 

A complete list of the 2024 Chesapeake Bay Small Watershed Grants recipients is available here.

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.

For more information about the Chesapeake Bay Stewardship Fund or to download the 2024 Chesapeake Bay Small Watershed Grants Slates, visit //www.nfwf.org/chesapeake.