In September 2024, NPS Chesapeake Gateways awarded 14 grants totaling more than $1.2 million.
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Chesapeake Bay
Article 1: Tributes and Tributaries of the Bay: Connecting Baltimore's Culture and Nature on the Water
$25,000 grant to Baltimore Heritage, Inc. - Maryland - This project will develop a public boat tour of Baltimore’s Inner Harbour that connects diverse stories and history to ecology, in addition to launching a companion interactive virtual map and holding public service stream clean-ups with guided history walks. Read more
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Chesapeake Bay
Article 2: Master Plan for an Education Center at Elkton Heritage Park, Annapolis, Maryland
$124,000 grant to Blacks of the Chesapeake Foundation, Inc. - Maryland - This project will create and implement a master plan for a facility to serve as the education center at the new Elktonia Heritage Park, a significant gateway to the Chesapeake Bay for underrepresented communities, to ultimately assist in outdoor classroom development and experiential learning in history while exploring and promoting prominent watershed stories. Read more
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Chesapeake Bay
Article 3: Conservation Internship and Fellowships to Promote Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion
$49,014.73 grant to Northern Virginia Conservation Trust - Virginia - Conservation internship and fellowships to promote diversity, equity, and inclusion will provide students of color in Northern Virginia with opportunities to gain real-world experience in the environmental conservation field through equitable early career experiences, such as paid internship opportunities which will provide training in community engagement and technical components of land conservation. Read more
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Chesapeake Bay
Article 4: The Regional Humanities Network: Advancing DEIA Capacity Building and Technical Assistance throughout Maryland
$48,691.91 grant to Maryland Humanities Council, Inc. - Maryland - This project will promote connections among Maryland-based organizations, communities, and humanities topics by providing technical assistance and capacity building in the form of developing and implementing a workshop series, providing online resources, and coordinating a conference, all aimed to amplify the work of and hold space for partners with diverse stories, audiences, and programs to support DEIA. Read more
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Chesapeake Bay
Article 5: The Stories of Streams: Using Personal Stories & Stream Health Data to Promote a Broader, More Inclusive Chesapeake Stewardship Movement
$49,786.85 grant to Nature Forward, Inc. - Maryland - This project will 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, engaging new and diverse audiences of residents, organizations, and policymakers to inspire action for conservation. Read more
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Chesapeake Bay
Article 6: Reflections through Art: Inclusive Access on Water Trails in the Susquehanna Basin through An Artist-in-Residence Program
$56,992.10 grant to Pennsylvania Environmental Council - Pennsylvania - This project will connect diverse and underrepresented communities to the Susquehanna Basin through recreation opportunities on the local water trails that focus on creative, experiential, interactive, and exploratory engagement via the Artist in Residence approach, making visible the sometimes-hidden challenges, history, and cultural context of water. Read more
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Chesapeake Bay
Article 7: Strengthening Environmental Stewardship and Engagement of the Chickahominy Indian Tribe - Eastern Division through a Volunteer-based Water Quality Monitoring Program
$49,375.32 grant to Chickahominy Indian Tribe - Eastern Division/Alliance for the Chesapeake Bay - Virginia - This project will increase the Chickahominy Indian Tribe - Eastern Division’s capacity to collect water quality data and tell untold stories of tributaries of the Chickahominy River, building a ladder of engagement and deepening the connection between monitoring data and the Tribe’s history and culture through storytelling. Read more
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Chesapeake Bay
Article 8: Phoebus - Fort Monroe Coalition Initiative
$150,000 grant to Chesapeake Conservancy, Inc. - Virginia - This project will create the Phoebus–Fort Monroe Coalition to celebrate and elevate Fort Monroe’s unique heritage, community pride, and cultural and economic vitality, focusing on diverse colonial history, military presence, arts, and community resilience. Read more
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Chesapeake Bay
Article 9: Return to the River: Support of the Rappahannock Exchange Program
$148,906 grant to the Rappahannock Tribe/Chesapeake Conservancy, Inc. - Virginia - This project will provide hands-on experiences in inclusive land management for citizens of the Rappahannock Tribe; introduce tribal youth to outdoor experiences and components of land conservation and management; and facilitate a forum for exchanging information on ecological principles, techniques, and values incorporating Indigenous Knowledge and the tenets of the environmental sciences. Read more
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Chesapeake Bay
Article 10: Truth Be Told: An Elizabeth River Trail Immersive Audio Project
$150,000 grant to Elizabeth River Trail Foundation - Virginia - This project will develop a self-guided audio tour along the Elizabeth River Trail, curated from site-specific stories, to connect neighbors to the local contemporary history of the land they inhabit and enhance visitor experience through the telling of experienced inequities of systemic racism. Read more
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Chesapeake Bay
Article 11: Enhancing public access for PG County and Washington DC residents to recreational, educational, and cultural benefits of Chesapeake Gateways in the Anacostia Watershed
$149,944.54 grant to Anacostia Watershed Society, Inc. - Maryland - This project will provide meaningful watershed experiences to the residents of Prince George’s County and Washington, D.C., engaging volunteers 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. Read more
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Chesapeake Bay
Article 12: The Susquehanna River Educational Park
$115,030 grant to Harrisburg Area Riverboat Society, Inc. - Pennsylvania - This project will design, create, develop, build, and operate a Susquehanna Educational Park to provide free and easy educational access to an underserved community and the general public. Read more
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Chesapeake Bay
Article 13: Hopewell: Recovering, Reconnecting & Reclaiming our Waterways
$59,150 grant to Hopewell Downtown Partnership - Virginia - This project will gather stories from the Hopewell community focused on their local water connections to enhance environment education and stewardship, along with reconnection with their water trails and ecology via the installation of a self-service kayak station and further community engagement by participating in community events, such as the Paddle Your Park Festival. Read more
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Chesapeake Bay
Article 14: Watershed Connections: Bridging the gap to backcountry experiences in the Chesapeake Bay Watershed
$44192.83 grant to Experience Learning - West Virginia - This project will facilitate enrichment programs in the Chesapeake Bay watershed that provide meaningful, outdoor educational experiences to underserved youth, with a focus on stewardship, resilience, accessibility and inclusion. Read more