NEW: 2017 Healthy Watersheds Consortium Grant Request for Proposals (RFP) now available

EPA, USDA/NRCS, and U.S. Endowment for Forestry and Communities Announce Availability of $2 million for 2017. Deadline February 1, 2017.

See  U.S. Endowment for Forestry and Communities, Healthy Watersheds Consortium websiteExit 

WASHINGTON -- The U.S. Endowment for Forestry and Communities, Inc. (Endowment) today released the 2017 Request for Proposals for the Healthy Watersheds Consortium Grant Program. Additional grant funds are available in 2017-2018 through a new partnership with the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS)--up to $2 million is available for the 2017 grant cycle.  NRCS joins the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Endowment as Healthy Watershed Consortium Grant Program funders. The program’s focus is to accelerate the strategic protection of healthy freshwater ecosystems and their watersheds across the country. The deadline for proposals is February 1, 2017 at 8:00 p.m. Eastern.

“We are delighted to welcome NRCS as a partner in the Healthy Watersheds Consortium,” said Peter Stangel, the Endowment’s Senior Vice President. “NRCS brings tremendous watershed protection expertise and experience to the Consortium.  And, their funding will allow us to support even more projects over the next two years.”

The Healthy Watersheds Consortium Grant Program was conceived by the EPA Office of Wetlands, Oceans, and Watersheds to identify and protect healthy, aquatic ecosystems and their watersheds. Healthy watersheds are those in which the hydrological, biological, and land-based functions of the ecosystem are largely intact. The Program’s goal is to conserve healthy aquatic ecosystems and the supporting natural and managed landscape and watershed processes, such as hydrology, that support them.  Rather than waiting until a watershed is negatively impacted and attempting to restore it to health, the Healthy Watersheds Consortium Grant Program seeks to protect and sustain healthy watersheds so that they will continue to provide ecological services such as clean water, habitat for fish and wildlife, recreation, and protection from natural hazards.

In 2016, the first year of the Healthy Watersheds Consortium, 169 proposals were received and nine projects were funded, committing $1.4 million. These modest awards are expected to leverage tens of millions in additional funding that is projected to ultimately result in more than 200,000 acres of watersheds permanently protected.

“The Healthy Watersheds Consortium was also created to enhance collaboration among the many groups that will benefit from protected watersheds, such as drinking water and storm water, wildlife and fisheries, land conservation, and forestry and working lands,” Stangel said.  “We envision strong public/private partnerships that will protect watersheds and their benefits for generations to come.”

A Request for Proposals and other information is available on the U.S. Endowment for Forestry and Communities, Healthy Watersheds Consortium websiteExit 
# # #
For more information contact:
Peter Stangel, 404-915-2763; peter@usendowment.orgExit
The U.S. Endowment for Forestry and Communities (the Endowment) is a not-for-profit public charity working collaboratively with partners in the public and private sectors to advance systemic, transformative, and sustainable change for the health and vitality of the nation’s working forests and forest-reliant communities – U.S. Endowment for Forestry and Communities, Inc.Exit 

Earlier Posts about the Healthy Watersheds Grant Consortium

[Posted June 2016]

EPA and U.S. Endowment for Forestry and Communities Award $1.4 Million to Protect and Sustain Healthy Watersheds

Grants will accelerate watershed protection in California, Colorado, Florida, Maine, Oregon, Washington, and West Virginia

WASHINGTON— The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the U.S. Endowment for Forestry and Communities (Endowment) are providing for the first time $1.4 million in grants for nine projects to improve land management of hundreds of thousands of acres of watersheds in seven states.

Grants were awarded to organizations in California, Colorado, Florida, Maine, Oregon, Washington, and West Virginia to provide short-term funding to leverage larger financing for targeted watershed protection; to provide funds that help build the capacity of local organizations for sustainable, long-term watershed protection; or to support new techniques or approaches that advance the state of practice for watershed protection and that can be replicated across the country. 

“The Healthy Watershed Consortium Grant Program is a unique public-private partnership that brings together businesses, local governments, universities, and not-for-profit organizations to work collaboratively on watershed protection--which is key to long-lasting environmental protection,” said Joel Beauvais, deputy assistant administrator for EPA’s Office of Water. “Today’s grants will protect waterways from pollution while maintaining healthy habitats and ensuring clean and safe drinking water that will safeguard local economies that depend on watersheds.”

“These grants will accelerate protection and improved management of watersheds across the United States,” said Carlton Owen, the Endowment’s President and CEO. 

EPA launched the Healthy Watershed Consortium Grant Program in 2015 to accelerate and expand the protection of healthy, freshwater ecosystems and their watersheds. EPA co-funds the program with the Endowment, which manages the partnership.

The nine funded grants are: 
 

Healthy Watersheds California--$225,000 to Pacific Forest Trust to develop the policies, technical assessments, and financing instruments needed to leverage private and public capital for restoration and conservation of an estimated 7 million acres of watersheds which serve California’s primary reservoirs. 

Protecting Forests to Protect Watersheds, California--$200,000 to The Trust for Public Land and the Save the Redwoods League. These organizations are working collaboratively to seek California Clean Water State Revolving Fund loans for large-scale protection of forested watersheds. 

Protecting Blue Creek & the Klamath River for Salmon, Wildlife and People, California--$100,000 to Western Rivers Conservancy to implement long-term watershed protection plans, sell carbon offsets, and create new jobs in rural northern California. Partners, including the Yurok Tribe, will protect 47,000 acres within four watersheds in northern California's temperate rainforest.  

Colorado Conservation Exchange: Accelerating Investment in Watershed Health--$150,000 to accelerate investment in watershed health to reduce wildfire threats in the Big Thompson and Cache La Poudre watersheds and beyond through a Watershed Investment Fund linking investors with land stewards.  

Myakka Island Conservation Corridor, Florida--$156,000 to Conservation Foundation of the Gulf Coast to conserve more than 10,000 acres over the next six years within the Myakka River watershed, in rapidly-growing Sarasota and Manatee Counties. These properties will link and buffer already protected lands and help keep waterways drinkable, fishable and swimmable. 

Permanently Protecting the Largest Rivers in Eastern Maine--$150,000 to Downeast Salmon Federation, which has a goal to conserve 80 percent of the habitat corridors along the remaining three unprotected rivers in Washington County, Maine, by 2025. Funds will support a full-time director for three years at the Federation’s Downeast Rivers Land Trust. 

Framework for Acquiring and Sustainably Managing Agricultural Land, Oregon--$200,000 to Freshwater Trust to build a replicable framework to acquire and sustainably manage agricultural land in the John Day Basin, Oregon. The model will address the increasing conversion of farmland nationally. As farmers retire over the next 20 years, nearly half of all U.S. farmland—400 million acres—will change hands. Sustainable management of these farmlands will enhance watershed protection.  

Accelerating Watershed Protection in the Central Puget Sound Region, Washington--$200,000 to Puget Sound Regional Council, a metropolitan planning organization that includes 86 jurisdictions. Their project will develop a regional open space plan focused on protecting high priority, threatened ecosystems; prepare a watershed protection report that informs the upcoming update of the Region’s growth plan, VISION 2040, to integrate growth management with ecosystem protection; and promote use of a new online ecosystem service valuation tool for regional watershed benefits, decision making, and local actions. 

Healing Waters Regional Landscape Initiative Cacapon River Watershed, West Virginia--$100,000 to Cacapon and Lost Rivers Land Trust to develop the Healing Waters Regional Landscape Initiative, build capacity for large-scale protection efforts throughout the watershed, and create a strategic local and regional collaboration model.        

More general information on the Healthy Watersheds Consortium Grant Program can be found below and also at the U.S. Endowment for Forestry and Communities websiteExit. 

[posted October 2015]

EPA Announces $3.75 Million Grant to Support Local Projects to Protect Healthy Watersheds

EPA is awarding a grant of $3.75 million over six years to the U.S. Endowment for Forestry and Communities, Inc.Exit (Endowment) to support partner organizations and their local actions to improve and accelerate their efforts to protect healthy freshwater ecosystems and watersheds across the country. The Endowment will award funding to projects that develop and/or support state, interstate and tribal healthy watersheds programs. It’s expected that the Endowment will release a Request for Proposals (RFP) in late 2015.

In addition to providing funding for projects, the Endowment will use this program to enhance collaboration among the many groups who benefit from protecting healthy watersheds such as drinking water utilities, hunters and fisherman, foresters and farmers, and others. The Endowment is also matching a portion of EPA’s financial commitment to the partnership and expects to leverage additional funding from other public and private sources.

The Endowment, headquartered in Greenville, SC, is a not-for-profit corporation established in 2006 at the request of the governments of the U.S. and Canada in accordance with the terms of the Softwood Lumber Agreement between the two countries. It has been endowed with $200 million under the terms of that Agreement. The Endowment was chosen because of its strong relationships with the environmental and land conservation communities and proven track record working with stormwater and drinking water groups to elevate the importance of watershed protection. 

Healthy watersheds protection is defined broadly as actions that conserve, enhance, or improve aquatic ecosystems and support natural landscape and watershed processes such as hydrology in largely healthy watersheds. Protecting healthy watersheds maintains the resilience of aquatic ecosystems to climate change. Intact natural systems are more resilient because base flows are preserved during periods of drought, impacts of floods are mitigated through storage of surface and ground water in floodplains and wetlands, riparian corridors allow for species migration and carbon is sequestered in the natural land cover. This larger scale systems approach is becoming increasingly important to counter the challenges of climate change and the need to retain the resilience of aquatic ecosystems. 

Read more at the U.S. Endowment for Forestry and Communities websiteExit. Please note that the most up-to-date information about the program will be found on the Endowment’s website in the future.

 FAQ’s

1. What is a healthy watershed?

For the purposes of this grant program, a Healthy Watershed is one in which natural land cover supports dynamic hydrologic and geomorphic processes within their natural range of variation (i.e., sediment storage and deposition); habitat of sufficient size and connectivity to support native aquatic and riparian species; and water quality that supports healthy biological communities. (US EPA, 2012. Identifying and Protecting Healthy Watersheds: Concepts, Assessments, and Management Approaches. U.S. EPA, EPA-841-B-11-002).

2. What does EPA mean by “consortium”?

For the purposes of this program, a consortium is one entity who is linked with or in a collaborative partnership with other groups or organizations having similar healthy watersheds protection goals.

3. What projects can be funded under the subawards?

It is anticipated that the subaward projects will be either healthy watershed program development projects or local demonstration/training projects. For healthy watershed program development projects, the subaward funds should be provided for projects that develop and/or support state, interstate, and tribal healthy watersheds programs. Examples of projects include development of state, interstate, or tribal healthy watersheds strategies or plans that employ a systems-based, integrated approach to protection; environmental flows assessments; and public outreach and education on the importance of protecting healthy watersheds. For local demonstration/training projects, examples include protection of forested drinking water sources in headwaters, restoration of hydrologic connectivity, development of local conservation zoning and easement program plans.

4. Can conservation easements be funded through the subaward grants?

Funds received through this competition cannot be used for the purchase of land or conservation easements. However, partner funding that is independent of this federal funding and not part of the cost share / match (required and voluntary cost share / match) may be used for implementation projects, such as for example, the purchase of land or conservation easements.

5. Our university would like to participate as a subawardee for consortium grants because of our expertise on watershed related effects on stream ecosystem health. How can we find additional information on the subaward processs?

It will take the grantee some time to set up the sub-grant program. We estimate that this will be sometime in the late 2015 timeframe. The grantee will establish a process for the sub-grants that will be included on a web site with sub-grant application instructions. EPA will have a link to this sub-grant website on our Healthy Watersheds Program website.

6. How many subawards does EPA anticipate being made under this grant? Is there a minimum or maximum number required? Anticipated federal funding for this award is approximately $3.75 million. Does this amount include funding that the grantee will issue as subawards?

There is no minimum or maximum number of sub-awards under this grant. The total funding of the grant with the required match is $5 million ($3.75M of federal funding, plus 25% match). The number of subawards under this grant depends upon any additional leveraged funds, increasing the total funding beyond $5 million, and the range of funding in proposed subawards. Funding for each sub-award may range from $50,000 to $150,000 per project. It is anticipated that a portion of the federal funding will go towards the subawards.

7. Approximately how many subaward projects does EPA anticipate over the course of the grant period? Additionally, does EPA prefer that there be a high volume of small-scale short-term (1-2 year) subawards or a smaller volume of large-scale long-term (4-5 year) subawards?

EPA does not have a minimum or maximum number of subawards or the length of the individual subaward. Funding for each subaward is expected to be in the range of $50,000 to $150,000. The subawards funded under the cooperative agreement must be completed prior to the end of the cooperative agreement project period. The subawards need to be completed in sufficient time for the recipient to, for example, aggregate results and ensure that subawardees have been reimbursed for all incurred costs.

8. Please provide clarity for the types of healthy watersheds that subawardees may apply to work on. For example, quality of watershed, size, location etc.

Healthy watersheds protection is defined broadly as actions that preserve, enhance or improve aquatic ecosystems and supporting natural landscape and watershed processes such as hydrology in largely healthy watersheds. The grant is intended to support local protection and/or enhancement projects in healthy or primarily healthy watersheds that can be sustained into the future. A healthy watershed is one in which natural land cover supports dynamic hydrologic and geomorphic processes within their natural range of variation (i.e., sediment storage and deposition); habitat of sufficient size and connectivity to support native aquatic and riparian species; and water quality that supports healthy biological communities. Local projects must represent strategic priorities from an interstate, state, tribal, basin-scale, or regional-scale plan or strategy intended to protect healthy watersheds, or from some other prioritization scheme based on a healthy watersheds assessment.

To the extent a metropolitan river basin or watershed (e.g., Chesapeake Bay Watershed) has such a plan or strategy and is large enough to have healthy or primarily healthy watersheds that provide ecological infrastructure to support and sustain local protection and/or enhancement projects, then projects in healthy watersheds that are priorities for protection in the large basin or watershed would qualify for sub-grants.