The National Fish and Wildlife Foundation has announced grants totaling $11.5 million in support of forty-one projects to clean up and restore polluted waters, enhance fish and wildlife habitats, and increase access to nature across the Delaware River watershed.

Grants were awarded to projects in Delaware, New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania through two programs, the Delaware River Restoration Fund (DRRF), which is funded by the William Penn Foundation; and the Delaware Watershed Conservation Fund (DWCF), which is funded by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. In total, the funded projects will improve more than twelve hundred acres through enhanced management, treat polluted runoff using agricultural conservation practices on about 937 acres, restore 585 acres of wetlands, plant nearly 2,000 trees, and establish more than 1,500 acres of new public access lands.

DWCF recipients include the National Wildlife Federation (Delaware), which was awarded $237,000 for the Sacred Grounds Program: Installing Pollinator Gardens and Engaging Communities of Faith; New Castle Conservation District (Delaware), which will receive $179,500 in support of a dam removal project in White Clay Creek; and Catskill Mountainkeeper (New York), which was awarded $75,000 to protect eastern brook trout habitat through in the Beaverkill Valley. DRRF recipients include Berks Nature (Pennsylvania), which was awarded $255,000 to improve water quality by implementing agricultural best management practices in the Middle Schuylkill Cluster.

"From coastal marshes to mountains, the Delaware River watershed encompasses diverse landscapes and communities," said Wendi Weber, North Atlantic-Appalachian regional director for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. "The projects and partnerships supported by these grants will conserve and sustain these lands and waters, as well as the people and wildlife who depend on them, for generations to come."

For a complete list of 2021 Delaware River Restoration Fund projects and a full list of 2021 Delaware Watershed Conservation Fund projects, see the NFWF website.