Chesapeake Bay Trust Offers Funding to Promote Living Shorelines Projects
The Chesapeake Bay Trust, in conjunction with National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Restoration Center and the Maryland Department of the Environment, is soliciting proposals to create and promote living shorelines in the Maryland, Virginia, and Washington, D.C., portions of the Chesapeake Bay.
The grant initiative is designed to reverse the trend of shoreline hardening by encouraging the creation of living shoreline restoration projects and by enhancing public awareness about the benefits of living shorelines.
"Living shorelines" - shoreline stabilization techniques that use natural habitat elements to protect shorelines from erosion while also providing critical habitat for bay wildlife - are appropriate tools at sites that are experiencing erosion, and that are, have been, or are near areas of wetland/marsh vegetation.
The initiative will support living shoreline projects on public property, on shared community property, and on private property that can serve as models for others to replicate.
The program will fund on-the-ground implementation of living shoreline restoration projects and design of living shoreline projects. Requests for training, awareness, and monitoring projects will also be considered in some circumstance.
Nonprofit organizations, such as local watershed organizations, conservation organizations, academic institutions, community associations, and local or state governments in Maryland, Virginia, and Washington, D.C., are eligible for funding. The strongest proposals will show committed partnerships among various organizations and agencies.
Requests for funding from this program will generally be less than $100,000, and less than $400 per linear foot of project. Projects should be completed in eighteen months. Up to $700,000 in total funding will be awarded.
