Five Star Wetland and Urban Waters Restoration Grants

The Five Star and Urban Waters Restoration Grant Program 2025.

Learn more and apply.

The Five Star and Urban Waters Restoration Grant Program (“Five Star Program”) awards grants of $10,000 to $40,000 to schools, organizations, corporations, landowners, and local governments to provide environmental education and training through projects that restore wetlands and streams throughout the United States.

image of NFWF map of 5 Star grant projects

Since 1999, the Five Star Program has provided more than $33 million in challenge grants to support over 1,150 projects throughout the United States. These grants have been used by recipients to leverage close to $101 million in matching funds, for a total of more than $134 million supporting local community restoration and environmental education projects.

The funded Five Star Program projects can be located through an interactive National Fish and Wildlife Foundation map. NFWF has supported thousands of conservation projects in the United States and abroad since 1985.

The Five Star Program is administered by the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation and the Wildlife Habitat Council and is funded by the EPA via the Wetland Program Development Grant Program. Additional partners include U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Service, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, USDA Natural Resource Conservation Service, USDA Office of Urban Agriculture and Innovative Production, FedEx and Southern Company. Additional information on the impact of the Five Star Program can be found in the Fact Sheet for the Five Star and Urban Waters Restoration Grant Program.

screenshot of PDF of 5 Star Grant Program 2024 Grant Slate

2024 Grant Recipients

Congratulations to the 2024 Five Star and Urban Waters Restoration Program Grant recipients, and particularly those recipients that received Five Star funding via the EPA’S Wetland Program Development Grant Program!

For more information on the 2024 grant recipients, see the 2024 Grant Slate for the Five Star and Urban Waters Restoration Grant Program.

2024 Five Star and Urban Waters Restoration Grant Recipients
Alaska Geographic Association	Jackson Public School District
Allegheny Land Trust	Johnson Creek Watershed Council
Arizona Sustainability Alliance	Keep Indianapolis Beautiful, Inc.
Audubon Society of Western Pennsylvania	Land Trust for the Mississippi Coastal Plain
Bridging The Gap - Kansas City WildLands	Miami Waterkeeper
Charles River Watershed Association	Milwaukee Public Schools
City of Battle Creek	Mississippi State University
City of Davenport, Iowa	National Audubon Society, Inc.
City of Moreno Valley	NeighborSpace of Baltimore County, Inc.
Common Ground Relief, Inc.	New Haven Ecology Project, Inc. / Common Ground
Concrete Couch	New Roots Urban Farm
Delridge Neighborhoods Development Association	New York City Audubon Society, Inc.
Denver Parks and Recreation	New York Restoration Project
Earth Island Institute/ WIld Oyster Project	Nooksack Salmon Enhancement Association
Friends of the Chicago River	Outdoor Outreach
Friends of the Front Range Wildlife Refuges	Pendleton King Park
Friends of the Los Angeles River	Ruffner Mountain Nature Coalition, Inc
Friends of the Mississippi River	Shedd Aquarium Society
Georgia Audubon	Think Wild
GreenRoots, Inc.	Town of Fort Mill
Grow Pittsburgh	Virginia Wesleyan University
23Heartland Conservation Alliance, Inc.

Contacts

Program Coordinators

Rachel Dawson (Rachel.Dawson@nfwf.org)
National Fish and Wildlife Foundation
1120 Connecticut Avenue, NW Suite 900
Washington, DC 20036
202-857-0166

Rebecca Culler (Rculler@wildlifehc.org)
Wildlife Habitat Council
8737 Colesville Rd., Suite 800
Silver Spring, MD 20910
301-588-8994

Leslie C. Montgomery (lcmontgo@southernco.com)
Southern Company
600 N. 18th Street / 14N-8195
P.O. Box 2641
Birmingham, AL 35291-8195
205-257-5187

Myra Price (price.myra@epa.gov)
USEPA Wetlands Division
Room 7410G (4502 T)
1200 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20460
202-566-1225