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EPA Gives $71,573 Grant For Wetland Protection Program at Millbrook Marsh Nature Center

Release Date: 10/7/1999
Contact Information: Roy Seneca (215) 814-5567

Roy Seneca (215) 814-5567

STATE COLLEGE, Pa. -- The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has awarded $71,573 to the Centre Region Council of Governments to help develop a wetlands protection program for the Millbrook March Nature Center in College Township, Pa. The grant is one of 16 wetland protection grants totaling $1,274,000 awarded to state and local governments in the mid-Atlantic region.

The grant will be used to offer outreach programs for children and adults at the nature center to increase public awareness of wetlands. Project results may be transferable to other projects and localities within the Spring Creek Watershed community, and subsequently, the entire Chesapeake Bay Watershed community.

Wetlands is the collective term for marshes, swamps, bogs and similar areas that develop between open water and dry land. These areas, found in every state in the nation, help improve water quality; reduce flood and storm damage; and provide important fish and wildlife habitat.

A critical goal in Vice President Gore’s Clean Water Action Plan is to slow down the loss of wetlands nationwide and by the year 2005, to restore at least 100,000 acres of wetlands each year. The wetlands grant program helps minimize losses by giving states and local governments financial support to develop and improve their wetlands protection programs.

Wetlands grants are awarded through a competitive process. Nationally, EPA appropriated $15 million in 1999. Applications for 2000 are due by November 1, 1999. For more information, please contact Alva Brunner, the regional grants coordinator at 215-814-2715.