Small Watershed Grants Program

The Chesapeake Bay Small Watershed Grants Program provides grants of $20,000 to $200,000 to organizations working on community-based projects that improve the condition of their local watershed while building stewardship among citizens.

In the past seven years, the Small Watershed Grants Program has provided $16.9 million to support 507 projects throughout the Bay watershed. These grants have been used by recipients to leverage an additional $50.7 million from other funding sources, resulting in over $67 million in support of local community watershed restoration efforts since 1999.

The Small Watershed Grants Program is administered by the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation in cooperation with the U.S. EPA Chesapeake Bay Program. Additional funding partners include the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service and the Keith Campbell Foundation for the Environment.

Small Watershed Grants Program Goals and Objectives

Small Watershed Grants Program projects address at least one of the program's three goals and objectives:

• Watershed Restoration: Projects that improve water quality and/or directly restore vital habitats and living resources within the Chesapeake Bay watershed. Priority is given to projects that address restoration of wetlands, forests, fish passage and/or shoreline habitat, or projects that reduce significant sources of nutrient and sediment loads.
• Watershed Conservation: Projects that protect water quality and vital habitats through habitat conservation, prevention of new pollutant sources, and/or increasing individual conservation actions. Priority is given to projects that address land conservation strategies, innovative stormwater management practices, social marketing campaigns and demonstrating economic incentives of conservation.
• Watershed Planning: Projects that develop plans to improve protection and/or restoration of water quality and natural resources. Priority is given to projects that develop locally supported watershed management plans or land conservation strategies, or projects that develop/revise codes and ordinances to protect land and water sources or promote innovative stormwater management.