Chesapeake Bay Watershed Restoration Efforts Receive $44.2 Million in Watershed Restoration Grants

WASHINGTON, D.C. (February 5, 2026) - The National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF) and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency today announced more than $44 million in grant awards to support water quality improvement, habitat restoration and community stewardship efforts in the Chesapeake Bay watershed. The 72 grants will leverage nearly $31 million in non-federal matching contributions to generate a total conservation impact of $75 million.

The grants were awarded through the Chesapeake Bay Innovative Nutrient and Sediment Reduction (INSR) Grants and Small Watershed Grants (SWG) programs. The INSR and SWG programs are key funding programs of the federal-state Chesapeake Bay Program (CBP) partnership, which are aimed at advancing measurable progress toward the commitments of CBP partners under the revised 2025 Chesapeake Bay Watershed Agreement. Both programs provide support for conservation projects that advance regional watershed restoration efforts, help local communities clean up and restore their polluted rivers and streams, and work to restore and protect key Chesapeake Bay species and their habitats.

The INSR and SWG program are administered by NFWF, in partnership with CBP and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, under NFWF's Chesapeake Bay Stewardship Fund (CBSF), an ongoing partnership of more than 25 years between NFWF and other federal and private funders. The programs provide competitive 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.

"The grants announced today build upon NFWF's decades-long history of supporting the conservation of wildlife and habitats within the Chesapeake Bay watershed," said Jeff Trandahl, executive director and CEO of NFWF. "These grants leverage the momentum, expertise and impact cultivated among public- and private-sector partners since the launch of the Chesapeake Bay Stewardship Fund in 1999 in partnership with the EPA. The projects and partners supported today with these grants will engage communities in voluntary conservation efforts across the Bay watershed and accelerate progress toward healthier waterways, wildlife population and natural habitats."

Collectively, the awards announced today will:

• Restore 75 miles of riparian forest buffers and implement 45 miles of livestock exclusion
• Restore 290 acres of wetland and marsh habitat
• Implement a total of 120,000 acres of agricultural best management practices to improve water quality, soil health and farm profitability, including 83,000 acres of agricultural nutrient management, 12,000 acres of cover crops, 12,000 acres of manure injection, and 5,500 acres of improved tillage management
• Treat stormwater runoff from more than 350 acres of developed lands
• Support more than 700 watershed restoration and conservation jobs
• Engage more than 3,300 volunteers in watershed restoration efforts
• Reduce annual nitrogen pollution by 1 million pounds, annual phosphorus pollution by 67,000 pounds, and annual sediment pollution by more than 78 million pounds

Examples of this year's grant recipients include:

• Catoctin Land Trust ($595,269) will advance strategic habitat restoration and conservation priorities of the Heart of Maryland Collaborative by planting 30 acres of riparian buffers and 10 acres of upland trees and conserving 500 acres of habitat along Antietam Creek in Washington County, Maryland.
• Chemung County ($148,719) will implement nature-based stormwater infrastructure in Elmira, New York, by retrofitting existing urban streetscapes with permeable pavers and street trees and constructing underground basins for stormwater storage and infiltration.
• District Department of Energy and Environment ($150,000) will retrofit three large regional stormwater ponds in Washington, D.C., to improve the quality of stormwater being discharged to the Anacostia River, advancing the long-term restoration of 255 acres of combined drainage area, enhance pond performance and reduce stress on downstream urban wildlife populations.
• Ducks Unlimited ($1,163,839) will accelerate progress toward collective wetland restoration goals for the Chesapeake Bay watershed by developing and implementing novel restoration practices to restore and enhance 200 acres of wetlands and 70 acres of associated buffer habitat in key locations across the Delmarva Peninsula.
• The Elizabeth River Project ($744,675) will expand community-led stormwater solutions and habitat restoration efforts across the Elizabeth River watershed in Virginia through field-based learning and citizen science programs to advance local watershed stewardship actions that will engage 14,000 students, 1,000 volunteers and 20,000 residents.
• The Nature Conservancy ($898,814) will implement innovative cover-crop sensor technologies to map nitrogen credits resulting from the use of multi-species cover crops, with a goal of improving nitrogen fertilizer management on 20,000 acres in watersheds with high agricultural nitrogen loading across southcentral Pennsylvania, central Maryland and the Delmarva Peninsula.
• Sustainable Chesapeake ($1,999,064) will increase the capacity of farmer-led organizations to help dairy and row crop farmers access conservation resources across Virginia's Chesapeake Bay watershed, supporting 10 dairy farmers in adopting whole-farm conservation plans, expanding manure injection on 1,000 acres and providing incentives for 2,500 acres of cover crops.
• Trout Unlimited ($812,132) will reconnect and restore aquatic habitat and improve water quality in brook trout strongholds in the North Branch of the Potomac River watershed in West Virginia and Maryland by installing more than 2 miles of agricultural exclusion fencing and riparian plantings, restoring 32 acres of riparian forest habitat and implementing 250 acres of agricultural conservation practices.
• Watershed Alliance of York ($847,682) will advance York County, Pennsylvania's successful Watershed Forestry Program to accelerate riparian forest buffer implementation and local freshwater mussel conservation efforts, implementing 100 acres of riparian forest buffers.

A complete list of the 2025 Chesapeake Bay Innovative Nutrient and Sediment Reduction Grants recipients is available here. A complete list of the 2025 Chesapeake Bay Small Watershed Grants recipients is available here.

Since 1999, NFWF has awarded nearly 2,000 grants through the Stewardship Fund to more than 650 organizations, totaling more than $400 million in funding and leveraged by more than $400 million in additional grantee matching funds, for a combined conservation impact of more than $800 million.

For more information about the Chesapeake Bay Stewardship Fund, visit https://www.nfwf.org/chesapeake.

About the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation
Chartered by Congress in 1984, NFWF has grown to become the nation's largest conservation foundation. NFWF works with the public and private sectors to sustain, restore and enhance the nation's fish, wildlife, plants and habitats for current and future generations. Since its founding, NFWF has supported more than 7,000 grantee organizations and funded over 23,300 projects that have generated a total conservation impact of $11.3 billion. Learn more at nfwf.org.

About the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Grants
Every year, EPA awards more than $4 billion in funding for grants and other assistance agreements. From small non-profit organizations to large state governments, EPA works to help many visionary organizations achieve their environmental goals. With countless success stories over the years, EPA grants remain a chief tool to protect human health and the environment.

About the Chesapeake Bay Program
The Chesapeake Bay Program is a regional partnership consisting of federal, state and local governments, academic institutions and non-governmental organizations. Primarily funded by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the Chesapeake Bay Program has set the guidance and policy for restoring the Chesapeake Bay since 1983. Learn more at www.chesapeakebay.net.

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Contact:

Matt Winter, 202-857-0166, [email protected]