Maryland Congressional Delegation Announces $398,000 to Support Environmental, Historical Conservation of the Chesapeake Bay

WASHINGTON, DC - Today, U.S. Congressman Steny H. Hoyer (MD-05), U.S. Senators Chris Van Hollen and Ben Cardin (both D-MD), and U.S. Congressmen Dutch Ruppersberger (MD-02), John Sarbanes (MD-03), Kweisi Mfume (MD-07), Jamie Raskin (MD-08), David Trone (MD-06), and Glenn Ivey (MD-04) announced $398,000 in federal funding to support five Maryland-based projects focused on environmental, cultural, and historical conservation efforts within the Chesapeake Bay watershed.

"The Chesapeake Bay is a national treasure and plays a central role in Maryland's rich history. These federal investments will help protect the Bay and provide Maryland residents and visitors alike with new opportunities to explore the watershed's natural beauty while honoring the cultural heritage that has shaped our region," said the lawmakers .

The federal grants have been awarded as follows:

• $150,000 to Anacostia Watershed Society to expand its volunteer program, which is working to restore 20 acres of native forest and wetland habitat across the Anacostia Watershed, as well as train and deploy community members to become citizen scientists.
• $25,000 to Baltimore Heritage to develop a public boat tour of Baltimore's Inner Harbor that connects diverse stories and history to ecology, launch a companion interactive virtual map, and hold public service stream clean-ups with guided history walks.
• $124,000 to Blacks of the Chesapeake Foundation to create and implement a plan to build an education center at the new Elktonia Heritage Park.
• $49,000 to the Maryland Humanities Council to develop and implement a workshop series, provide online resources, and coordinate a conference aimed at amplifying the work of Maryland-based organizations, communities, and humanities experts.
• $50,000 to Nature Forward to collect stories from local underrepresented communities within eight tributary streams in the Washington D.C. region and correlate them with relevant stream health data to highlight the interconnectedness of human activities with the environment and inspire action for conservation.

These federal awards are provided through the National Park Service's Chesapeake Bay Gateways Grants Assistance Program. The lawmakers fought to reauthorize the program at $3 million annually for five years through the America's Conservation Enhancement Act, signed into law in 2020, and are currently working to reauthorize the program again for fiscal years 2026-2030.