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Capacity Building Grants
In addition to supporting on-the-ground watershed projects through Targeted Watersheds Grants (TWG) Implementation Grants, the TWG program also supports the development and dissemination of tools, training, and technical assistance to strengthen the effectiveness of community-based partnerships working across the country to achieve clean water goals. The goal of the capacity building component of the Targeted Watersheds Grant program is to assist local watershed organizations across the country to develop and successfully implement watershed plans. Over the last decade and a half, it has become evident that addressing many of the problems facing the nation's water resources requires the involvement of local citizens who have a vested interest in the creeks, rivers, lakes, estuaries, wetlands, and groundwater resources in their neighborhoods and towns. Organized, sustainable groups that include partnerships with an array of governmental and non-governmental entities are the most successful in protecting and improving water resources and achieving on-the-ground results. Even well-established watershed organizations benefit from continuing education in areas such as organizational and leadership development, sustainable financing, monitoring and assessment, establishing performance measures, data management, and innovative approaches and technologies. TWG Capacity Building grants will assist local watershed organizations to better address water resource issues.
In 2007, EPA awarded $3.2 million in capacity building grants to six leading training organizations to help local watershed groups develop critical skills necessary to improve watershed health.
Six Finalists for 2006/2007 Solicitation
The following organizations have been invited to submit formal grant applications to EPA.
- River Network
Fact Sheet (PDF) (2 pp, 579K, About PDF)
River Network is a national nonprofit organization working for clean and healthy waters. While rivers are their focal point, they are interested in the quality of all fresh waters and the health of all people and ecosystems dependent upon them. They are unique among national organizations, because their very reason for being is to support grassroots groups working for watershed protection.
- Center for Watershed Protection
Fact Sheet (PDF) (2 pp, 691K, About PDF)
Founded in 1992, the Center for Watershed Protection is a non-profit that provides local governments, activists, and watershed organizations around the country with the technical tools for protecting some of the nation's most precious natural resources: our streams, lakes and rivers. The Center has developed and disseminated a multi-disciplinary strategy to watershed protection that encompasses watershed planning, watershed restoration, stormwater management, watershed research, better site design, education and outreach, and watershed training.
- Eastern Coal Regional Roundtable
Fact Sheet (PDF) (2 pp, 905K, About PDF)
The Roundtable serves as a helping hand to those grassroots watershed groups that strive to solve environmental problems in Appalachian Coal Country. Recognizing that these groups often experience similar challenges, the Roundtable provides informational resources to watershed groups so they can more effectively deal with those challenges. Their mission is "to help watershed organizations alleviate environmental problems in mine-scarred watersheds in Appalachia by being a unified voice for all stakeholders, including educating and communicating with decision makers, encouraging collaboration and information sharing among watershed organizations, disseminating relevant funding opportunities, and providing resources to help watershed organizations write successful proposals."
- Trees, Water & People
Fact Sheet (PDF) (2 pp, 1.3MB, About PDF)
Trees, Water & People was founded in 1998 by and is staffed by a group of dedicated conservationists who feel strongly about helping communities protect, conserve, and manage the natural resources upon which their long-term well-being depends. Their work is guided by two core beliefs: That natural resources are best protected when local people play an active role in their care and management; and preserving local trees, wetlands, and watersheds is essential for the ongoing social, economic, and environmental health of communities everywhere.
- Natural Heritage Institute
Fact Sheet (PDF) (2 pp, 634K, About PDF)
NHI is a non-governmental, non-profit organization founded in 1989 by a group of experienced conservation lawyers and scientists who foresaw the need for a toolkit for the next era of environmental problem-solving: where the technical challenges are more complex, the solutions more elusive, the economics more central, the ramifications more global, and the conventional pathways less efficacious. NHI's core mission is to restore and protect the natural functions that support water-dependent ecosystems and the services they provide to sustain and enrich human life.
- UNC- Chapel Hill Environmental Finance Center
Fact Sheet (PDF) (2 pp, 914K, About PDF)
The UNC EFC reaches local communities through the delivery of interactive applied training programs and technical assistance. The UNC EFC sees one of its major roles as increasing the capacity of other organizations to address the financial aspects of environmental protection. For this reason and to support the leveraging of resources, the UNC EFC does most of its training in a collaborative manner—partnering with established organizations that have environmental, but not necessarily financial expertise. The UNC EFC is dedicated to enhancing the ability of governments to provide environmental programs and services in fair, effective and financially sustainable ways. The UNC EFC provides a bridge between students and faculty in the university who work principally on environmental financing, management and planning tools, and the governments whose job is to use these tools for the public interest.