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The Delaware Watershed Conservation Fund marks seven years and $170 million in conservation projects

Students from varying grades and schools in the Red Clay Consolidated School District showcase restoration work done throughout the school district Dec. 9 at Alexis I. DuPont High School in Wilmington, Del.
Sarah Petrowich
/
Delaware Public Media
Students from varying grades and schools in the Red Clay Consolidated School District showcase restoration work done throughout the school district Dec. 9 at Alexis I. DuPont High School in Wilmington, Del.

The Delaware Watershed Conservation Fund (DWCF) celebrates seven years of grant funding, supporting 239 projects across the Delaware River Basin.

In 2016, Congress passed the Delaware River Basin Conservation Act, allowing the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) and National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF) to launch the Delaware Watershed Conservation Fund grant program in 2018.

The program focuses on funding projects that relate to fish and wildlife habitat restoration, flood impact reduction, water quality improvements and safe public recreational access enhancement.

In 2024, the DWCF funded a record 45 projects totaling $17.3 million in funding and nearly $20.7 million in matching funds.

USFWS director Martha Williams points to A.I. DuPont High School as one example of the funding at work. It’s home to a pollinator garden funded by the grant program.

“And then not far away from here, there are also pollinator gardens at more than 20 places of worship across Wilmington, Delaware, all funded by this program and all created by community members with plants from local vendors," she explained.

Funded projects will collectively conserve and enhance over 26 miles of riparian habitat, nearly 77 miles of stream habitat, 1,176 acres of wetland habitat, 121 acres of floodplain, 32,522 acres of forest habitat and open 6,141 acres for public access.

The grant has also specifically helped preserve Delaware's bay beaches, which NFWF Chief Conservation Officer Holly Bamford says in turn helps preserve the threatened red knot bird.

“This program contributes to restoring and protecting the beaches that those red knots use, and this is an international kind of bird that cuts across the entire world to make it and they stop here in Delaware — It's just impressive.”

Red knots rely on eating horseshoe crab eggs during their spring stopover before heading to the Arctic Circle’s tundra to breed.

The groups also honored retiring Sen. Tom Carper with a memorial red knot plaque to commemorate his decades of service in conservation efforts for the state and country.

Starting in 2021, funding from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law has helped support an additional 24 projects. Of the $26 million in BIL funds pledged to the program in 2021, more the $14 million has already been used to connect waterways, conserve habitats and get people closer to nature.

Before residing in Dover, Delaware, Sarah Petrowich moved around the country with her family, spending eight years in Fairbanks, Alaska, 10 years in Carbondale, Illinois and four years in Indianapolis, Indiana. She graduated from the University of Missouri in 2023 with a dual degree in Journalism and Political Science.