ALBANY – State Department of Environmental Conservation Commissioner Basil Seggos announced on Wednesday that $1.14 million in competitive grant funding is now available to help communities in the Hudson River Estuary watershed increase resiliency to flooding, protect water quality, fish, and wildlife habitat, and improve recreational access and education for all, including people with disabilities and New Yorkers living in communities historically and disproportionately overburdened by environmental pollution.
Three types of grant opportunities are available through three Requests for Applications: Local Stewardship Planning; River Access; and River Education.
Approximately $300,000 is available for projects to improve resiliency to flooding and sea-level rise and improve accessibility for people with disabilities at sites for boating, fishing, swimming, and/or wildlife-dependent recreation along the shores of the Hudson River Estuary, including the tidal portion of its tributaries.
Approximately $240,000 is available to support projects to enhance education about the estuary along the tidal waters of the Hudson and to make opportunities to learn about the Hudson River Estuary more accessible.
Approximately $600,000 is available for four categories of local projects and programs to support planning for:
- Creating climate vulnerability assessments, adaptation plans, and strategies for waterfront communities in the Hudson River estuary watershed to adapt to climate risks like flooding, sea-level rise, heat, and drought, including using natural and nature-based solutions and considering social equity;
- Engineering plans/designs to make water infrastructure more resilient to flooding and/or sea-level rise;
- Planning for conservation of natural resources by creating a natural resources inventory, open space inventory/index, open space plan, conservation overlay zone, open space funding feasibility study, or connectivity plan; and
- Water quality monitoring, watershed characterization, and water quality improvement planning and design.
Grants are administered by DEC’s Hudson River Estuary Program and funded by the State’s Environmental Protection Fund.
The deadline for all applications is June 1 at 3 p.m. These RFAs are only available online through the State Grants Gateway. The Grants Gateway is a web-based grant management system that streamlines how grants are administered by the State.
