Grants

NFWF will award approximately $29 million in grants to create, expand, and restore natural systems in areas that will both increase protection for communities from coastal storms, sea- and lake-level changes, inundation, and coastal erosion while also improving valuable habitats for fish and wildlife species. NFWF will invest in projects in three focus areas:

• Project Preliminary Design and Site Assessment
• Project Final Design and Permitting
• ​​Project Restoration and Monitoring

Wells Fargo and NFWF have partnered to create the Resilient Communities program. Through improvements to natural features and enhanced community capacity, the program will help communities prepare for future impacts associated with sea level rise, sustain appropriate water quantity and quality and enhance forest conservation. By taking advantage of natural features like wetlands, resilient shorelines, urban tree canopies, natural forests and healthy upstream watersheds, communities can accrue quality of life benefits today, enhance fish and wildlife resources and help prepare for foreseeable resilience challenges. 

The Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program (CREP) is a part of the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) the country's largest private-land conservation program. Administered by the Farm Service Agency (FSA), CREP targets specific State or nationally significant conservation concerns, and federal funds are supplemented with non-federal funds to address those concerns. In exchange for removing environmentally sensitive land from production and establishing permanent resource conserving plant species, farmers and ranchers are paid an annual rental rate along with other federal and non-federal incentives as applicable per each CREP agreement. Participation is voluntary, and the contract period is typically 10-15 years.

The Eastern PA Coalition of Abandoned Mine Reclamation (EPCAMR) and the Anthracite Region Independent Power Producer’s Association (ARIPPA) are offering competitive awards to watershed organizations working on Abandoned Mine Lands (AML) and/or Abandoned Mine Drainage (AMD) remediation projects in the Anthracite and Bituminous Regions of PA. The awards distributed in 2020 will total $5,000 statewide. The ARIPPA AML/AMD Reclamation Awards are designed to help environmental organizations and Conservation Districts secure extra match and leverage additional funds. Grant proposals should be for “on-the-ground” AML/AMD construction projects with a completion date between one year earlier than the deadline and one year later. The amount granted is dependent upon demonstrated need. Applying organizations must support the mission of ARIPPA, including the removal and conversion of coal refuse into alternative energy and the beneficial use of CFB ash for AML/AMD reclamation purposes.