EPA has earmarked $13 million for Chesapeake Bay restoration

MARYLAND — The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has earmarked $13 million of its recently announced $206 million in Chesapeake Bay restoration funding to flow through the Chesapeake Bay Trust, igniting hope for bolstered efforts in the ongoing battle to revive the struggling ecosystem.

President Jana Davis emphasized the critical role of grassroots initiatives in the restoration process. “All of this great work that gets done to restore our watershed gets done by people… people who own land who want good projects to go on that land, leaders in communities,” Davis said. “We’re all people, and so without the people part of it, the watershed’s just not gonna get restored.”

Allison Colden of the Chesapeake Bay Foundation echoed Davis’s sentiments, highlighting the significance of the funds allocated by the EPA. “With the funds we’re receiving, we’ll be assisting farmers to adopt more environmentally friendly practices aimed at improving water quality,” Colden explained. “This includes things like installing trees along stream-sides, fencing livestock out of streams, as well as converting traditional crop into rotational grazing. All of these are highly effective, best management or restoration activities.”

The commitment to preserving and restoring the Chesapeake Bay spans decades, but Davis sees a promising trajectory with the recent surge in support. “This recent batch of funding is part of a steady trend of increasing support, from federal and state partners, but also from the general public,” she noted. “I think that people are realizing that this trend is because people realize that these natural resources are really good for our economy, they’re good for the state, they’re good for our health.”

Among the beneficiaries of the new allocation of funding are the Chesapeake Bay Trust and the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, along with over eighty other organizations. As efforts intensify and funding flows in, advocates are hopeful for a brighter future for the Chesapeake Bay and the communities it sustains.