Federal grant funding conservation efforts in Dorchester County
DORCHESTER COUNTY, Md. – The US Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation recently announced $8.9 million dollars in funding for conservation efforts in the Chesapeake Bay Watershed.
The grants through the Chesapeake WILD Program will be funding over 30 projects, several of which are located on the Eastern Shore.
In its third round of funding since it was created in 2020, the Chesapeake Watershed Investments in Landscape Defense (WILD) Program is trying to prepare our backyard for the realities of climate change.
Faren Wolter, Coordinator of the Chesapeake WILD Program said, “The primary goal of the grant really is to think about how do we have healthier connected lands and waters across the Chesapeake Bay watershed? There are a lot of ways we can get there.”
She said that among a number of goals, they’re looking to fund projects that will enhance the watershed’s climate readiness and resilience: “Climate is coming. It’s changing. There are lots of things that are happening to habitats in the landscape. In some places we have invasive species. In some places it’s soil erosion. In some places we’re having flooding mitigation issues.”
Dorchester County is one of those places that experts think will have to deal with flooding issues into the future.
“You have to look at the projections for sea level rise. And what we’ve noticed is–we expect a third to a half of the county to potentially be regularly flooded or underwater in a hundred years,” said David Satterfield, Director of Land Conservation at Eastern Shore Land Conservancy (ESLC).
ESLC is worried about what that flooding means for native species in the area. The group was awarded a $500,000 grant for conservation efforts located between the Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge and the Nanticoke River. “If we were to lose that refuge or the majority of the refuge, where might those species move and where can we sort of be preparing the landscape to receive?”
Satterfield said it’s important to have these lands protected and prepared for when wildlife in Dorchester county is displaced by rising sea levels. “Investing public dollars into conservation, into an area which will be highly resilient and be there forever is extremely important as well,” he said.
This is the second grant the Eastern Shore Land Conservancy has received from the Chesapeake WILD program. Satterfield said that with the first grant in 2022 they were able to protect nearly 1200 acres of land.
Wolter said she’s hoping to see more accessibility projects proposals for future rounds of grant funding.
The Chesapeake WILD Program was initiated by America’s Conservation Enhancement Act, legislation passed by Congress in 2020.
