Chesapeake Bay Stewardship Fund

Working in partnership with government agencies and private corporations, the Chesapeake Bay Stewardship Fund awards $8 million to $18 million per year through two competitive grant programs - the Innovative Nutrient and Sediment Reduction Grant Program and the Small Watershed Grants Program. These programs benefit the communities, farms, habitats and wildlife of the Chesapeake Bay region. The Chesapeake Bay Stewardship Fund also makes targeted investments that support networking and information-sharing among restoration partners on emerging technologies, successful restoration approaches, and new partnership opportunities.

From 1999 to 2020, the Chesapeake Bay Stewardship Fund awarded more than 1,200 grants totaling nearly $176 million. These investments leveraged more than $260 million in local matching resources to support a wide range of conservation projects throughout the Bay basin. In total, these grants have:

• Reduced annual nitrogen pollution loading by an estimated 26 million pounds
• Reduced annual phosphorus loading by an estimated 4.5 million pounds
• Reduced annual sediment loading by an estimated 946 million pounds
• Restored more than 3,006 miles of streams
• Treated stormwater runoff from 10,386 acres of impervious surfaces
• Reached an estimated 2.75 million residents through outreach efforts
• Restored more than 15,626 acres of wetlands and 2,273 miles of forested riparian buffers
• Installed more than 2,074 miles of livestock exclusion stream fencing
• Reconnected more than 424 miles of rivers and streams for fish passage
• Established 337 acres of oyster reefs

The Chesapeake Bay Stewardship Fund is a partnership with the federal-state Chesapeake Bay Program.