CHESAPEAKE BAY, MD - Maryland lawmakers have announced nearly $3 million in federal funds to go towards habitat and wetland restoration projects throughout Maryland’s Chesapeake Bay watershed.
U.S. Senators Chris Van Hollen and Ben Cardin and Congressmen Steny H. Hoyer, Dutch Ruppersberger, John Sarbanes, Kweisi Mfume, Jamie Raskin, David Trone, and Glenn Ivey announced Friday that $2,798,28 had been secured through the Chesapeake WILD program for eight restoration projects.
The WILD program, administered by the National Fish and WIldlife Foundation and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, was enacted in 2020 and engages regional entities and residents to preserve the Chesapeake Bay.
“Protecting and preserving the Chesapeake Bay is vital to both our environment and to the many Marylanders whose livelihoods depend on it,” lawmakers said in a joint statement Friday. “The Chesapeake WILD program is central to our efforts to restore wildlife habitat and improve the overall health of the Bay – and these federal funds will go to critical projects across the state to help achieve these important goals.”
The eight selected programs that will benefit from the funds are as follows:
-$500,000 for the Eastern Shore Land Conservancy to address salt marsh loss and preserve wildlife habitat corridors between the Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge and the Nanticoke River
-$500,000 for the Maryland Department of Agriculture for habitat restoration on working lands in Maryland
-$419,250 for the Interstate Commission on the Potomac River Basin to restore access of the American Eel to its historic habitat in the western Potomac River watershed
-$322,564.11 for the Scenic Rivers Land Trust to restore forest canopy in the South River Greenway in Anne Arundel County to improve habitat for imperiled native wildlife species
-$300,000 for the Alliance for the Chesapeake Bay to improve forest habitats around the Chesapeake Bay
-$271,575.56 for the Anacostia Watershed Society to restore endangered wildlife and plant species in the Anacostia River watershed
-$245,983.03 for the Hawk Mountain Sanctuary Association to enhance nesting opportunities for imperiled farmland raptors such as the Barn Owl, American Kestrel, and Northern Harrier in the Chesapeake Bay Watershed
-$238,908.31 for the Maryland Department of Natural Resources to restore forest buffers and native Eastern Brook Trout habitat in Western Maryland
