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.