The Maryland Department of Natural Resources has announced the Grants Gateway application is open for local governments and organizations for 2025.
Donor Name: Maryland Department of Natural Resources
State: Maryland
Type of Grant: Grant
Deadline:
- Outcomes 1-4: 12/14/2023
- Outcome 5: 09/18/2023
Size of the Grant: $1.5M
Grant Duration: 24 months
Details:
Maryland’s Chesapeake and Coastal Grants Gateway (Grants Gateway) was created to streamline the grant application process for government and non-governmental organizations as well as academic institutions. Grants Gateway provides a one-stop location for partners seeking technical and financial support for projects that foster healthy ecosystems, communities, and economies that are resilient in the face of change.
To assist Maryland’s communities, the department will provide a single point of entry through the Grants Gateway for organizations seeking technical and financial assistance to restore local waterways, increase their resilience to climate impacts, strengthen local economies and develop the next generation of environmental stewards.
Grants are made possible with funding through the Chesapeake and Atlantic Coastal Bays Trust Fund, the Coastal Resiliency Program, the Waterway Improvement Fund, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the Environmental Protection Agency’s Chesapeake Bay Program. Through the improved connections across grant programs, the department seeks to support more comprehensive and integrated projects that achieve (at least one of) the following outcomes:
- Outcome 1 – Accelerate recovery and restoration of natural resources by implementing non-point source pollution reduction projects.
- Government-affiliated and non-governmental organizations with implementation-ready restoration projects can submit proposals under this outcome. Projects must address water quality to the mainstem of the Chesapeake Bay or Atlantic Coastal Bays by reducing non-point source pollution, namely nitrogen, phosphorus and sediment.
- Projects should be cost-effective, located in targeted areas, and implementation-ready.
- The state is interested in supporting projects that, in addition to cost-effective nutrient and sediment reduction, provide desirable co-benefits, such as:
- Environmental justice, equity, diversity and inclusion benefits;
- climate resilience;
- carbon sequestration;
- creation of wildlife habitat;
- local employment opportunities;
- improvement or provision of recreational opportunities;
- and restoration of aquatic resources, such as seagrass beds or oyster reefs.
- Outcome 2 – Understand, enhance capacity and plan to reduce flood risks both coastal and precipitation-based building community resilience to climate change.
- Local governments seeking to improve their understanding of flood impacts and vulnerabilities and who want to address those impacts at a community scale are encouraged to submit a proposal. Flood impacts to be addressed may be at the community, county, or municipal level and may be the result of high tide flooding, changing sea levels, and/or an increased incidence and severity of precipitation events.
- Proposed projects can seek to plan for either or both short (1-10 years) and long (+10 years) term flood impacts.
- Outcome 3 – Design and construct habitat restoration projects to address erosion and flooding in communities and on public lands.
- Outcome 4 – Improve student ability to take action benefiting Chesapeake and coastal ecosystems through outdoor learning and stewardship.
- Rapid changes in the scale and scope of environmental and social issues facing Maryland necessitate that schools and educational programs adapt as they operate in a constantly changing landscape. In order to continue to bring environmental awareness and behavior change through environmental literacy, efforts must seriously examine both natural and man-made systems and how they do or do not function together, as well as how they inform and exacerbate environmental issues at the community level and beyond. As a result, twenty-first century learning and programming is evolving to more holistically address and incorporate environmental and social sciences into learning in order to create clearer connections between the natural world, human behavior, and resulting public and environmental health outcomes.
- Outcome 5 – Foster sustainable development and use of Maryland waterways with projects that benefit the general boating public.
- Maryland’s Waterway Improvement Fund was established in 1966 (Annotated Code of Maryland Section 8-707 of the State Boat Act) for the purpose of funding projects which improve and promote the recreational and commercial capabilities, conditions and safety of Maryland’s waterways for the benefit of the general boating public. Revenues for this fund are primarily obtained from the one time 5% excise tax that is paid to the State of Maryland when a boat is purchased and titled in the state.
- Typically, jurisdictions apply for Waterway Improvement Fund grants in order to:
- construct, renovate, or maintain public boating access facilities; dredge navigable channels and harbors and;
- Purchase fire/rescue vessels in partnership with local fire companies.
Funding Information
- Outcome 1
- The Chesapeake and Atlantic Coastal Bays Trust Fund Minimum grant request is $500,000 Proposed projects should demonstrate ability to construct within 12 months of award.
- Outcome 2
- Proposals may request up to $125,000 of funding for projects that will be a maximum of one year in duration.
- Outcome 3
- Design/permit projects are typically completed within 24 months and cost up to $100,000. Permit fees are not eligible.
- Construction projects are typically completed within 12 months. While there is no funding cap for construction, most projects are anticipated to cost between $200,000and $1.5M depending on project scale.
Eligibility Criteria
- Outcome 1
- Government-affiliated and non-governmental organizations with implementation-ready restoration projects can submit proposals under this outcome.
- Outcome 3
- Local governments and non-profit organizations can submit proposals under this outcome. Please reach out to the outcome contact for more information on non-profit eligibility.
- Outcome 4
- Eligible applicants include local non-governmental organizations or non-profits, local and state agencies, and schools and school systems including higher learning institutions. Partners in and serving historically excluded, underrepresented, and under-resourced communities throughout the state are especially encouraged to apply.
Selection Criteria
- Outcome 1
- Readiness and ability to proceed
- Cost efficiency, which is defined as the state cost per pound of nutrients and sediment reduced. Leveraged funds help to reduce the overall cost of the project to the state, thus increasing cost-efficiency. The 2024 solicitation annual averaged of funded projects was $761 per pound of Nitrogen, $5,997 per pound of Phosphorus, and $4,460 per ton of suspended solids.
- Outcome 2
- Demonstrated program change. A program change is a change in local programs, policies or decisions that reduce vulnerability to flood impacts.
- Readiness and ability to proceed
- Identification of the flood risk to be addressed and explanation of how it relates to the trends described in the Guidance for Using Maryland’s 2018 Sea Level Rise Projections, Northeast chapter of the Fourth National Climate Assessment, and/or Projected Intensity-Duration-Frequency (IDF) Curve Data Tool for the Chesapeake Bay Watershed and Virginia
- Demonstrated connection between proposed outcomes and adaptation to identified current and/or future flood risk
- Outcome 3
- Enhance habitat through coastal restoration or nature-based practices. Projects may support design, engineering and implementation of restoration practices.
- Address climate change impacts. Projects will reduce community flood risk and/or erosion impacts.
- Provide community-wide benefits. Projects will benefit a majority of community members and protect community infrastructure and/or assets.
- Incorporate climate change data. Projects will address short term (1-10 years) and long term (+10 years) impacts based on the life expectancy of the proposed project.
- Outcome 4
- A clear programmatic focus on healthy water and so healthier communities
- Readiness and ability to proceed for the 2023 – 2024 school year
- Connections between the proposed work and Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS), Maryland Environmental Literacy Standards, Maryland Service-Learning Graduation Requirements, and/or the Student Outcome of the Environmental Literacy Goal of the 2014 Chesapeake Bay Watershed Agreement (Meaningful Watershed Educational Experiences).
- Demonstrated ability to undertake and sustain the proposed work, including ensuring that programmatic supports and partnerships are in place as needed
- Preference will be given to projects that will support historically marginalized, excluded and under-resourced communities, youth and students in the state.
For more information, visit MDNR.
