Chesapeake Bay Stewardship Fund

Working in partnership with government agencies and private corporations, the Chesapeake Bay Stewardship Fund awards $8 million to $12 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 2019, the Chesapeake Bay Stewardship Fund awarded more than 1,200 grants totaling nearly $158 million. These investments leveraged more than $238 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 22 million pounds
• Reduced annual phosphorus loading by an estimated 4.5 million pounds
• Reduced annual sediment loading by an estimated 892 million pounds
• Restored more than 2,150 miles of streams
• Treated stormwater runoff from 11,500 acres of impervious surfaces
• Reached an estimated 2.49 million residents through outreach efforts
• Restored more than 7,317 acres of wetlands and 2,076 miles of forested riparian buffers
• Installed more than 1,878 miles of livestock exclusion stream fencing
• Reconnected more than 279 miles of rivers and streams for fish passage
• Established 318 acres of oyster reefs

The Chesapeake Bay Stewardship Fund is a partnership with the Federal-State Chesapeake Bay Program.