WASHINGTON – U.S. Senators Ben Cardin and Chris Van Hollen and Congressmen Steny H. Hoyer, Dutch Ruppersberger, John Sarbanes, Kweisi Mfume, Jamie Raskin, David Trone, and Glenn Ivey (all D-Md.) today announced $2,798,281.01 in federal funding through the Chesapeake Watershed Investments in Landscape Defense (Chesapeake WILD) Program for eight habitat and wetland restoration projects throughout the Chesapeake Bay watershed in Maryland.

The Chesapeake WILD Program, administered by the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF) in partnership with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS), was created by bipartisan legislation authored by Senator Cardin and co-sponsored by Senator Van Hollen and Reps. Hoyer, Ruppersberger, Sarbanes, Raskin, and Trone. The legislation was enacted as part of the America’s Conservation Enhancement (ACE) Act in 2020, creating a new program at FWS to engage regional stakeholders in the preservation of 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. 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,” said the lawmakers.

The following Maryland projects received awards:

1. $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
2. $500,000 for the Maryland Department of Agriculture for habitat restoration on working lands in Maryland
3. $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
4. $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
5. $300,000 for the Alliance for the Chesapeake Bay to improve forest habitats around the Chesapeake Bay
6. $271,575.56 for the Anacostia Watershed Society to restore endangered wildlife and plant species in the Anacostia River watershed
7. $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
8. $238,908.31 for the Maryland Department of Natural Resources to restore forest buffers and native Eastern Brook Trout habitat in Western Maryland

This year, the Chesapeake WILD program is awarding 30 new conservation and restoration grants totaling $8.9 million in federal support and leveraging $13.7 million in matching funds from the grantees, with an estimated total conservation impact of $22.6 million. These projects will support efforts to sustain natural resources and local communities, build capacity to address shared restoration and conservation priorities, and implement projects to conserve, steward, and enhance fish and wildlife habitats throughout the Chesapeake Bay watershed.

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