NFWF, partners award $58.5 million for conservation projects

November 28, 2023

A lighthouse surrounded by sand dunes and shore grasses.

The National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF) has announced grants totaling more than $27.1 million to support water and land restoration and conservation projects to improve wildlife habitats, climate resilience, and community partnerships across the country.

The grants will leverage an additional $31.3 million in matching funds from multiple sources for a total of $58.5 million in project support.

A $14.9 million grant to the State of Florida and Audubon Florida, with an additional $15 million in matching funds from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Natural Resource Damage Assessment program, will extend the implementation of shorebird and seabird conservation strategies for an additional nine years.

As part of NFWF’s Chesapeake WILD program, a slate of 25 grants totaling $7.4 million will leverage an additional $12 million in matching funds to support wildlife habitats, climate resiliency, and equitable access to nature in the Chesapeake Bay watershed.

Ten grants totaling $4.1 million, with an additional $3.7 million in matching funds from the U.S. Natural Resources Conservation Service, the U.S. Forest Service, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the Richard King Mellon Foundation, AstraZeneca, and Cleveland-Cliffs, will bolster programs to support native aquatic, mussel, and bird populations in the Appalachia regions of Maryland, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and West Virginia.

And two grants to the Ohio and Michigan departments of natural resources totaling $776,000, with an additional $630,000 in matching funds, will expand two NFWF programs in partnership with the U.S. Forest Service to accelerate implementation of woodland stewardship practices in the lower Great Lakes region.

(Photo credit: Getty Images/roc8jas)