WASHINGTON, D.C. — A sweeping $44 million conservation investment is set to ripple across the Chesapeake Bay watershed, federal officials announced Wednesday, funding 72 projects aimed at slashing pollution, restoring habitat, and mobilizing thousands of volunteers in one of the nation’s most ambitious environmental recoveries.
The grants, awarded by the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, will leverage nearly $31 million in non-federal matching funds, pushing the total conservation impact to $75 million.
The funding flows through the Chesapeake Bay Innovative Nutrient and Sediment Reduction Grants and the Small Watershed Grants programs — cornerstone initiatives of the Chesapeake Bay Program partnership. The programs are designed to advance measurable progress under the revised 2025 Chesapeake Bay Watershed Agreement, targeting nutrient pollution, sediment runoff and habitat loss across a multi-state watershed that stretches from New York to Virginia.
“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 the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation. “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.”
Administered under NFWF’s Chesapeake Bay Stewardship Fund — a public-private partnership launched in 1999 — the programs provide competitive grants, technical assistance and on-the-ground support for restoration projects ranging from agricultural best practices to urban stormwater management.
Collectively, this year’s awards are expected to restore 75 miles of riparian forest buffers, implement 45 miles of livestock exclusion fencing and rehabilitate 290 acres of wetlands and marsh habitat. Agricultural conservation measures will span 120,000 acres, including nutrient management plans on 83,000 acres, cover crops on 12,000 acres and manure injection across another 12,000 acres.
Stormwater improvements will treat runoff from more than 350 acres of developed land. The projects are projected to support more than 700 watershed restoration jobs and engage more than 3,300 volunteers.
Environmental impact estimates are equally ambitious: a reduction of 1 million pounds of nitrogen pollution annually, 67,000 pounds of phosphorus and more than 78 million pounds of sediment.
Among the grant recipients, Ducks Unlimited will receive $1,163,839 to restore and enhance 200 acres of wetlands and 70 acres of buffer habitat across the Delmarva Peninsula. The Nature Conservancy will deploy innovative sensor technologies to map nitrogen credits from multi-species cover crops across 20,000 acres in Pennsylvania, Maryland and the Delmarva region.
In Pennsylvania, Watershed Alliance of York will receive $847,682 to expand York County’s Watershed Forestry Program, implementing 100 acres of riparian forest buffers and supporting freshwater mussel conservation.
Other projects span from Elmira, New York, where Chemung County will retrofit urban streetscapes with permeable pavers and underground stormwater basins, to Washington, D.C., where three large regional stormwater ponds will be upgraded to reduce pollution flowing into the Anacostia River.
Since its inception in 1999, the Chesapeake Bay Stewardship Fund has awarded nearly 2,000 grants totaling more than $400 million. When combined with matching funds, the cumulative conservation investment exceeds $800 million.
A complete list of Innovative Nutrient and Sediment Reduction grant recipients is available at https://www.nfwf.org/sites/default/files/2026-02/NFWF-Chesapeake-INSR-20260204-GS.pdf. Small Watershed Grant recipients are listed at https://www.nfwf.org/sites/default/files/2026-02/NFWF-Chesapeake-SWG-20260204-GS.pdf.
More information about the Chesapeake Bay Stewardship Fund can be found at www.nfwf.org/chesapeake.
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