Lake Champlain Basin Program Offers $4 million in Grants for Clean Water and Healthy Ecosystem Projects

Grand Isle, VT – The Lake Champlain Basin Program seeks proposals for projects that improve water quality and ecosystems in the Lake Champlain watershed. The Program anticipates awarding more than $4,000,000 to local organizations, municipalities, and educational institutions.

Current grants will be awarded in the following categories:

1. Clean Water Small Implementation Grants (up to $50,000 per award)
2. Clean Water Large Implementation Grants* ($50,001 to $200,000 per award)
3. Clean Water Planning Grants* (up to $75,000 per award)
4. Healthy Ecosystems: Habitat and Native Species Conservation Small Grants (up to $50,000 per award)
5. Healthy Ecosystems: Habitat and Native Species Conservation Large Grants ($50,001 to $175,000 per award)
6. Healthy Ecosystems: Aquatic Invasive Species Spread Prevention and Management Grants (up to $25,000 per award)
7. Healthy Ecosystems: Aquatic Organism Passage Restoration Grants (up to $250,000 per award)

Eligible organizations include colleges, universities, nonprofit organizations, and non-federal/non-state government agencies. For-profit companies may apply to categories 2 and 3 (marked with an asterisk * above). Projects located in the U.S. and Québec portions of the Lake Champlain Basin are eligible for consideration for categories 1-6. Category 7 is open to U.S. applicants and projects only.

Local organizations play a critical role in implementing projects on the ground to achieve water quality and habitat protection goals. LCBP has awarded more than $17 million to more than 1,500 projects in the Lake Champlain Basin since 1992. Recent projects supported by the local grants program include:

• An assessment of culverts and other road-stream crossings on private lands in the Basin to identify priorities for upgrades to improve aquatic organism passage.
• The construction of a gravel wetland to treat impervious surfaces that discharged untreated to Potash Brook in South Burlington, VT.
• High-resolution bathymetric mapping, an assessment of lake-bottom sediments, and development of a watershed management plan for Lake Parker in Eastman, QC.
• Boat launch steward staffing at five launches and development of aquatic invasive species outreach campaigns in collaboration with four lake associations in the New York portion of the Basin.
• Enhancement of 32 acres of riparian forest restoration sites, including invasive species control and native plantings, in the Otter Creek, Winooski, Poultney, and Mettawee watersheds.

Dr. Eric Howe, Director of the Lake Champlain Basin Program, said, “The projects supported by these grants are critical to clean water and healthy ecosystems in the Lake Champlain Basin. They rely on local knowledge and expertise to achieve the greatest impacts, and they provide benefits to lake users for years to come.”

The grants will support projects that advance the goals of the long-term Lake Champlain management plan Opportunities for Action. They are supported by funds awarded to NEIWPCC on behalf of the Lake Champlain Basin Program by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Great Lakes Fishery Commission.

More information, including deadlines, grant guidelines, and applications, are available on the Lake Champlain Basin Program’s website at lcbp.org/grants.

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The Lake Champlain Basin Program coordinates and funds efforts that benefit the Lake Champlain Basin’s water quality, fisheries, wetlands, wildlife, recreation, and cultural resources. The program works in partnership with federal agencies, state and provincial agencies from New York, Vermont, and Québec, local communities, businesses, and citizen groups. NEIWPCC—a regional commission that helps the states of the Northeast preserve and advance water quality—serves as the primary program administrator of LCBP at the request of the Lake Champlain Steering Committee and administers the program’s personnel, finances and contracts. NEIWPCC is a program partner of LCBP. For further information, contact the Lake Champlain Basin Program, 54 West Shore Road, Grand Isle, VT at (802) 372-3213 / (800) 468-5227 or visit www.lcbp.org.