With this grant, anacostia watershed society will provide educational and access opportunities to the often underserved communities of DC and prince georges county

The Anacostia Watershed Society received a $149,944.54 Project Grant award from the National Park Service's Chesapeake Bay Gateways Network program (CFDA 15.930) on July 24, 2024. The funding will enable the organization to provide educational and access opportunities to underserved communities in Washington, DC and Prince George's County, Maryland. Key deliverables include:

1. Planting and maintaining 5 acres of trees in wetland areas to replenish forested areas.
2. Restoring 5 acres of tidal wetland habitat along the Anacostia River through volunteer events.
3. Providing 660 community residents with educational boat tours to improve recreation access to the Anacostia River.
4. Conducting 4 dedicated Spanish-language programs that include boat tours and citizen science outings for the local Latinx communities.
5. Recruiting 3,000 volunteers to participate in field-work events and engaging 200 community residents in citizen science initiatives.

This award supports the Anacostia Watershed Society's mission to connect people to the river and foster long-term stewardship, while also advancing critical restoration goals for the Anacostia and Chesapeake Bay watersheds.

We will specifically focus on meeting increasing demand for our free, public boat tours volunteer restoration opportunities (including tree and wild rice plantings, mussel tagging and surveys and invasives removal), and our ability to connect with new members of the community at the many public events hosted in the watershed throughout the year. These programs help US achieve our core mission to connect people to the river and foster a sense of life-long stewardship, while also helping US achieve the restoration goals critical to achieving a clean and revitalized anacostia and chesapeake watershed. Goals and objectives with this funding, AWS will increase public access and education to the natural, historical, recreational and cultural resources of the anacostia river watershed. These experiences will in turn grow our community of engaged individuals who will join AWS in reaching our restoration and conservation goals for the anacostia. Our objectives are to: 1. Provide meaningful watershed experiences to thousands of residents from DC and PG countys diverse communities 2. Engage thousands of volunteers to restore 20 acres of native forest and wetland habitat, promoting our projects as models for large scale restoration efforts across the chesapeake BAY watershed. 3. Train and deploy hundreds of community members to become citizen scientists for the anacostia and chesapeake BAY watershed 4. Continue to promote community efforts to control pollution, including earth day clean-UPS and other volunteer events. Grant deliverables plant and maintain 5 acres of trees in wetland areas to replenish forested areas depleted by the emerald ASH borer leverage volunteer events to restore 5 acres of tidal wetland habitat along the anacostia river provide boat tours to advance equitable recreation access to the anacostia river to 660 community residents. Boat tours include educational content that covers the social and environmental history of the anacostia river. Conduct four dedicated spanish-language programs to pgcs latinx communities that will include boat tours and citizen science outings recruit 3,000 volunteers to participate in AWS field-work events engage 200 community residents in citizen science outings leverage our citizen science findings to provide updates on the health and restoration priorities for the anacostia watershed at our planned inaugural watershed conference