Chesapeake Bay Stewardship Fund
The National Fish and Wildlife Foundation's Chesapeake Bay Stewardship Fund is dedicated to protecting the bay by working to advance local on-the-ground watershed restoration, helping local communities clean up and restore their polluted rivers and streams, and restoring and protecting key Chesapeake Bay species.
Partners
Recognized as a “national treasure” for its historical, cultural, economic and ecological significance, the Chesapeake is the largest estuary in North America and one of the most productive in the world. Its watershed stretches across more than 64,000 square miles in the Mid-Atlantic United States covering areas of six states and the entirety of the District of Columbia.
Working in partnership with government agencies and private corporations, the Chesapeake Bay Stewardship Fund awards $40 million to $60 million per year through four competitive grant programs—the Innovative Nutrient and Sediment Reduction Grants Program, the Small Watershed Grants Program, the Chesapeake Watershed Investments for Landscape Defense (WILD) Grants Program, and the Pennsylvania Most Effective Basins 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 2022, the Chesapeake Bay Stewardship Fund awarded more than 1,350 grants totaling more than $248 million. These investments leveraged more than $351 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 28 million pounds
- Reduced annual phosphorus loading by an estimated 5.4 million pounds
- Reduced annual sediment loading by an estimated 1.3 billion pounds
- Restored more than 3,700 miles of streams
- Treated stormwater runoff from 14,764 acres of impervious surfaces
- Reached an estimated 7.5 million residents through outreach efforts
- Restored more than 15,987 acres of wetlands and 2,443 miles of forested riparian buffers
- Installed more than 2,175 miles of livestock exclusion stream fencing
- Reconnected more than 581 miles of rivers and streams for fish passage
- Established 396 acres of oyster reefs
- Protected 171,291 acres of forests
NFWF’s role in the Chesapeake began in 1999 when it was competitively selected to administer the EPA’s newly authorized (at the time) Small Watershed Grants program. Since then, NFWF has secured additional competitively awarded EPA funding, and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Funding to expand its work advancing watershed restoration efforts.
| Chesapeake Bay Business Plan | Download the PDF | |
| Program Fact Sheet | Download the PDF | |
| 2024 INSR Grant Slate | Download the PDF | |
| INSR 2023 Grant Slate | Download the PDF | |
| 2023 SWG Grant Slate | Download the PDF | |
| Chesapeake Bay 2022 Program Report | Download the PDF | |
| Chesapeake Bay 2020 Program Report | Download the PDF |
Program Director, Chesapeake Programs
Program Manager
Program Manager
Regional Program Coordinator
Related Species
River herring
Alewife and blueback herring—collectively known as river herring—are diadromous fishes that spend most of their lives at sea but return to river and streams to spawn. Once abundant throughout the Atlantic seaboard, river herring populations have declined due to overfishing and habitat loss associated with the construction of dams. Recent conservation efforts have seen millions of river herring return to streams throughout New England, a promising sign not just for river herring, but also myriad other species that rely on them as an important food source.
Eastern hardwood forest birds
Eastern deciduous forests provide important habitat for forest birds, which can reside in them year-round, or rely on them as breeding grounds or stop-over sited during migration. Deciduous forests have been subject to fragmentation, putting the wide variety of bird species they support at risk.
Bald eagle
The majestic bald eagle was chosen as the emblem of the United States in 1782. The species represents a tremendous conservation success story, with population numbers increasing sharply following a ban on the chemical DDT in 1972, which was poisoning bald eagles when they ate contaminated fish.
American shad
The American shad is an anadromous fish that can be found in rivers and coastal waters along the entire Atlantic coast. Once supporting a large commercial fishery, shad have declined in abundance following decades of overfishing and the construction of dams along migration routes, which reduces access to spawning habitat.
Blue crab
With their distinctive bright blue claws, blue crabs are one of the most iconic species of the Chesapeake Bay, where an estimated 594 million were found in 2019. These bottom-dwelling omnivores have a very wide geographic distribution that supports an important blue crab fishery in the Gulf Coast.
Eastern oyster
Eastern oysters have played a particularly prominent role in the culture, history, and economy of the Chesapeake Bay and other areas throughout the Gulf and Atlantic Coasts. Reefs serve as important habitat for a variety of aquatic species. However, overharvesting, disease and declines in estuarine and bottom habitats have ravaged native oyster populations. Eastern oysters now represent less than 2 percent of their peak historical populations.
Bay-breasted warbler
Bay-breasted warblers nest in spruce and fir forests across Canada, and can be found in Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont and the Adirondack Park of New York. While they occupy similar habitats as Cape May and blackpoll warblers, bay-breasted warblers in particular forage at the inner mid-level, and nest in the lower third-level, of trees.
Wood thrush
A well-known inhabitant of eastern deciduous forests, the wood thrush is known for its flute-like song during the mating season. Wood thrush are excellent indicators of moist, mature forests with structurally complex mid and understories. Habitat loss and degraded habitat quality on both breeding and wintering grounds have resulted in population declines since at least 1970.
Golden-winged warbler
The golden-winged warbler is a striking, neotropical songbird with bright yellow plumage on the crown and wings. Their breeding range formerly extended across the Midwest to the east, but is now restricted to two isolated subpopulations: one in the higher-elevation areas of the Appalachians and the other around the Great Lakes into Manitoba. Loss of early succesional has resulted in population declines especially for the eastern population.
Brook trout
Brook trout are the only trout native to the eastern United States and inhabit coldwater rivers and lakes. Sensitive to even small declines in water quality and increases in sedimentation, brook trout can serve as excellent indicators of the health of a stream or river ecosystem.
Cerulean warbler
The cerulean warbler is a small, migrant songbird named for the male's sky-blue plumage. It is dependent on contiguous tracts of mature, deciduous forest habitat throughout its breeding range in the eastern United States, and is particularly sensitive to the negative effects of forest fragmentation which has contributed to widespread population declines.
American oystercatcher
The American oystercatcher is a stocky shorebird who is characterized as a short-distance migrant whose movements are confined to the United States and adjacent Caribbean islands. The oystercatcher wades in shallow water and uses its powerful bill to pry open and feed on mollusks, so protecting and restoring near-shore feeding grounds are critical for this species.
American black duck
The American black duck is large dabbling duck that resembles the closely related mallard, but is darker in appearance and much less common. Black ducks nest in wetlands throughout the Eastern Seaboard, including freshwater and salt marshes where restoration and protection are vitally important to maintaining black duck populations.
