Grant money designated for Delaware River basin
The Daily Star, Oneonta, N.Y.
August 26, 2022
The National Fish and Wildlife Foundation on Thursday announced 45 grant awards totaling nearly $15.8 million to improve wildlife habitat, enhance resilience to changing climatic conditions, and engage communities throughout the Delaware River watershed in conservation activities, according to a media release. This year's grant slate is the first to include funds from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, which was enacted in November 2021 and includes an historic $26 million investment in the watershed over five years.
Some of the money is designated for the upper Delaware River, in Delaware County; $464,000 will go to Friends of the Upper Delaware River to build technical and community capacity in the Upper Delaware to accelerate restoration and improvement projects that will benefit eastern brook trout recovery and community resiliency, the release said.
"From its headwaters in New York to Delaware Bay, the Delaware River flows nearly 330 miles through the heart of the densely populated mid-Atlantic region," said Jeff Trandahl, executive director and CEO of NFWF. "Along its entire path, the Delaware River provides drinking water to more than 15 million people and habitats for a host of wildlife species, from red knots and other shorebirds to iconic and economically valuable fish such as alewives, American shad and eastern brook trout. This year's significant investment will allow our grantees and their partners to implement projects that benefit people and wildlife and make real conservation gains."
According to the release, the awards will improve more than 10,000 acres "through enhanced voluntary management and the voluntary treatment of polluted runoff using agricultural conservation practices on about 2,200 acres, restore 439 acres of wetlands, plant over 50,000 trees, and open more than 65 miles for fish passage." The projects will help advance the goals of the Delaware River Watershed Initiative, NFWF's Delaware Watershed Business Plan, and the Delaware River Basin Conservation Act.
The Delaware River watershed covers 13,539 square miles of land and water, running from the Catskills in New York through Pennsylvania and New Jersey, ultimately emptying into the Delaware Bay.