EPA Invests in Wetland Projects Throughout the Mid-Atlantic
PHILADELPHIA – U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is announcing $2.55 million in wetland grant funding to nine states and universities across the Mid-Atlantic region. These investments support EPA’s goals of protecting and improving water quality, preserving existing wetland habitat and increasing wetland acreage, and ensuring states are able to monitor and assess the health of their aquatic resources.
“These grants reflect EPA’s commitment to cooperative federalism: support the states, trust their expertise, and give them the tools to do the job well,” said EPA Mid-Atlantic Regional Administrator Amy Van Blarcom-Lackey. “From wetland mapping and restoration to monitoring and outreach, this funding will help our partners protect the wetlands that safeguard water quality, wildlife habitat, and the long-term health of our communities.”
These projects will help build capacity for states to develop or refine their own wetland protection and management programs. These programs support community resilience through wetland monitoring and mapping information, science-based assessment tools, and the development of long-standing wetland conservation and protection strategies.
The list of grantees include:
- $240,739 to the Maryland Department of the Environment to support the augmentation of existing tools that will help promote increased wetland acreage.
- $367,272 to the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection to improve the efficiency and cooperation of its wetlands monitoring program through agency partner coordination, expansion of mapping tools, and refinement of monitoring methods.
- $248,637 to the District of Columbia Department of Energy and Environment to improve compliance with the District’s Wetland and Stream Regulations, build Wetland Program Outreach and Education Capacity, and update National Wetland Inventory (NWI) mapping for the District of Columbia.
- $370,610 to the Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control to update technical resources, applied studies, and refined outreach programs to better understand, reduce, and eliminate degradation and pollution of Delaware’s waters.
- $349,675 to the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality to update Virginia’s Wetland Program Plan and advance modeling tools, restoration tracking platforms, and spatial datasets to improve regulatory decision-making, restoration targeting, and long-term wetland resilience. VADEQ will improve regulatory decision-making, improve wetland restoration decisions, and help ensure long-term wetland resilience in the face of extreme weather events.
- $225,296 to the West Virginia University to develop and test drone-based methods to further the environmental benefits of addressing water quantity challenges; reducing, minimizing, or avoiding wetland losses or impacts, expanding research and education, and developing assessment tools for wetland restoration and protection.
- $153,044 to the College of William and Mary to support wetland monitoring and assessment, advance wetland reconnection and restoration, enhance coastal resilience and adaptive capacity, promote nature-based resilience, and improve habitat connectivity for marsh-dependent species.
- $118,318 to the William & Mary Batten School & Virginia Institute of Marine Science's Center for Coastal Resources Management (VIMS) to provide critical data to support the remote monitoring of marsh vegetation, enhancing tidal marsh management and informing restoration activities. VIMS will build a framework for improving its capacity to remotely monitor marsh communities and build a library of drone imagery with identification of plant communities.
- $478,409 to the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources to conduct wetland assessments on state lands, resample long-term monitoring sites in headwater wetlands, create a series of online wetland plant community training modules for research professionals and use by K-12 teachers, and host the 2029 Mid-Atlantic Wetlands Working Group (MAWWG) meeting.
Background
EPA's Wetland Program Development Grants help state, tribal, and local government agencies to build programs for protecting, managing and restoring wetlands. Recipients build their capacity to increase the quantity and quality of U.S. wetlands.
Learn more about Wetland Program Development Grants.
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