The Charlotte Harbor National Estuary Program is a partnership that protects the estuaries from Venice to Estero Bay. This partnership gives citizens, elected officials, resource managers, and commercial and recreational resource users in the 4,700-square-mile study area a voice to address diverse resource management concerns, including fish and wildlife habitat loss, water quality degradation and water flow. Since 1996 the Program has offered grants to help its partners fulfill the Program's Comprehensive Conservation and Management Plan (CCMP) for the greater Charlotte Harbor watershed.

This page provides information on the grants awarded by Charlotte Harbor National Estuary Program.

Grant Overview

Grant Funding Selection Process

Grant Funding History

Information on the grant awards, including any reports written, can be found by following these links.

Research and Restoration Projects: List, Descriptions and Reports

Public Outreach Grant Projects: List, Descriptions and Reports

Micro-grants

Grant Overview: Since 1996 CHNEP has awarded grants to support projects that occurred throughout the greater Charlotte Harbor watershed. These projects are designed to provide immediate benefits to the watershed’s natural resources, to enhance our technical knowledge, and to improve community awareness. The NEP has supported technical, restoration and educational projects submitted by Florida residents, organizations, businesses, government agencies, schools, colleges and universities. The projects vary greatly in scope and scale, ranging from biological surveys, wetland restoration projects, and volunteer water quality monitoring to curriculum development and environmental education activities.

Grant Funding Selection Process: Each year applications/proposals are reviewed and selected on a competitive basis by the CHNEP Management Conference. A subcommittee of the CAC reviews education and outreach applications, most often submitted as public outreach grants. A subcommittee of the TAC reviews research, monitoring and restoration proposals, most often submitted as research and restoration partners grants. These committees then recommend proposals for funding to the Management Conference. The Policy Committee makes the final decisions as to which proposals/applications are supported. Beginning with the public outreach grants submitted in 2005 for funding consideration, the CAC Grants Committee now prioritizes applications for funding to the CAC. Once reviewed the Program director can then approve projects, which is anticipated to be November of each year. The Policy Committee continues to make final funding decisions on research and restoration partners grants.

Many of the projects selected were funded in cooperation with other sources. Consequently, the total value of most projects is often much greater than the support provided by the NEP. These sponsors are vital to the implementation of these projects. These coalitions of organizations want their funds to make a real difference for our region.

Grant Funding History: From 1996 to 1998 the CHNEP annually solicited proposals for Early Action Demonstration projects (EADP). These projects served as scaled-down versions of action items in the NEP management plan. They have long-term applicability and transferability, and continue to serve as models for addressing resource management issues.

Since 1999 the CHNEP has been annually soliciting requests for proposals for Research and Restoration Partners (R&R) projects and applications for Public Outreach projects (POG). From 1999 to 2003 Public Outreach projects were called mini-grant projects.

Research and Restoration Partners projects have long-term applicability and serve as models for addressing habitat improvement and resource management challenges. Since a continuing objective of the NEP is to inform and educate as many segments of the public as possible, education remains an important component of all projects; therefore many restoration projects include an educational element. The NEP also requires that restoration projects address at least one NEP goal, one NEP priority problem, be transferable to other locations, demonstrate value to the community, be innovative in design, and incorporate a permanent management strategy.

Public Outreach projects support innovative project ideas that are educational in nature, increase our technical understanding of natural resources and issues specific to the study area, and/or advance resource management solutions. While the purpose of Public Outreach projects has varied from year to year, the Program encourages projects that are purely educational and projects with educational components, as well as projects that are transferable to other organizations. The NEP also requires that Public Outreach projects address at least one NEP goal and one priority problem and must occur in the Charlotte Harbor watershed.

Requests for applications/proposals were distributed the year before the projects were initiated. EADP projects are research, restoration, monitoring projects and public outreach. Projects withdrawn by the applicants are not described on this website.

* An anonymous donor supported one other proposal.