Today, Congresswoman Shelley Moore Capito, R. W.Va., announced that Pendleton, Hardy, Hampshire and Morgan counties are the recipients of federal grants by the Environmental Protection Agency’s Chesapeake Bay Small Watershed Grants Program to improve the condition of their local watersheds. 

“This funding will provide necessary means to West Virginia counties to implement important changes in an effort to protect and preserve their watersheds.  Keeping our streams clean and clear is a top priority, and I am grateful that Pendelton, Hardy, Hampshire and Morgan counties have been awarded these generous grants,” stated Capito.

The grants are funded by the EPA’s Chesapeake Bay Program and a variety of other federal and private partners and administered by the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation.

WEST VIRGINIA PROJECTS:

The Mountain Institute received $75,000 from the EPA and USFS to provide citizen-based watershed stewardship and education activities that improve local watersheds within the Potomac headwaters and excite participants into daily action. (In Pendleton)

The Pinchot Institute will use $120,000 from the USFS for eastern brook trout habitat credits. The project will purchase credits for protection and enhancement of coldwater stream eastern brook trout habitat in the Cacapon/Lost River watershed in Hardy, Hampshire and Morgan Counties.