Grant Funding Now Available from New Healthy Watersheds Consortium

The Healthy Watersheds Consortium Grant Program has just published a Request for Proposals (RFP) to support local projects that protect and sustain healthy watersheds (including drinking water sources).  Through this program, EPA will provide approximately $3.75 million over six years to the U.S. Endowment for Forestry and Communities for projects that develop and/or support state, interstate, and tribal healthy watersheds programs and enhance collaboration among the many groups who benefit from protecting healthy watersheds such as drinking water utilities, hunters and fisherman, foresters and farmers, and more.  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 goal of the Healthy Watersheds Consortium Grant Program is to accelerate strategic protection of healthy, freshwater ecosystems and their watersheds.  This goal will be achieved by:

• Funding key projects identified in existing watershed protection or conservation plans;
• Building the sustainable organizational infrastructure, social support, and long-term funding commitments necessary to implement large-scale protection of healthy watersheds; and
• Supporting innovative or catalytic projects that may accelerate or broadly advance the field of practice for watershed protection efforts.

Proposals are due by March 14, 2016.  For more information and to view and download the RFP and other helpful documents, visit the website HERE.  For questions, please contact Peter Stangel at peter@usendowment.org.