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The Conservation Fund

Climate Change Challenge: Rising Seas

Grant Award: $162,050; Year Awarded: 2012

Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge is one of the largest protected marsh complexes in the Northeastern U.S. With 30,000 acres of tidal marsh, it is a vital part of the Chesapeake Bay’s wildlife network. Sea level rise and marsh erosion brought about through climate change are drowning these marshes, threatening this vast, critical habitat. By planting 50 acres of switchgrass to stabilize the soil and eliminating trees just upland of the current transition zone, this project will facilitate agricultural fields and forests to become vital tidal wetlands.