West Virginia Stream Partners Program announces $104,000 in watershed protection grants

West Virginia’s Stream Partners Program (SPP) recently awarded 21 grants worth up to $5,000 each, for a combined total of over $104,000, to organizations throughout the state that will use it for projects to preserve and protect local watersheds.

Coal River Mountain Watch won a $4,468 grant and the Warm Springs Watershed Association received $4,920. All other winners received $5,000 in funding, including: Buckhannon River Watershed Association, Buffalo Creek Watershed Improvement Association, Cacapon and Lost Rivers Land Trust, Coal River Group, Fourpole Creek Watershed Organization, Friends of Blackwater, Friends of Deckers Creek, Friends of the Cheat Inc., Friends of the Hughes River Watershed, Friends of the Lower Greenbrier River, Greenbrier River Watershed Association, Indian Creek Watershed Association, Jefferson County Water Advisory Committee, Morris Creek Watershed Association, Paint Creek Watershed Association, Piney Creek Watershed Association, Plateau Action Network, Potomac River Keepers, and Save the Tygart.

The SPP was created in 1996 and has provided over $2 million in grant funding since then. It is jointly administered by the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection, the Division of Forestry, the Division of Natural Resources and the West Virginia Conservation Agency.