2024 Enbridge Watershed Mini Grant Program – Funding Now Available for Local Ohio Watershed Groups

We’re thrilled to announce Dominion Energy Ohio is now Enbridge Gas Ohio. We’re excited to embrace our new identity as Enbridge Gas Ohio and continue our strong commitment to the community. Thank you for you continued interest in the Watershed Mini Grants Program in collaboration with the Western Reserve Land Conservancy.

Some of us live in the country. Others dwell in the city. Everyone lives in a watershed. In 2015, Dominion Energy now Enbridge and Western Reserve Land Conservancy teamed up to create a grant program, one similar to a program Dominion Energy has been doing with Western Pennsylvania Conservancy for more than 10 years. Understanding that many watershed groups work with a skeleton staff on very limited budgets, our hope is the Watershed Mini Grant Program helps fill a void and reduce some of the financial burdens these small watershed groups face. Grants are made available to eligible watershed groups for activities designed to promote and maintain the health of Ohio watersheds.

Protecting our watersheds is vital. Watershed groups provide an important service to the larger community by recognizing potential threats, devising plans, taking corrective actions and educating the public. Water quality can be affected by many things – human and non-human – but habitat degradation and nonpoint source pollution are two of the biggest continuing problems. The quality of our water is affected by alterations to the land – mining, roadways, agriculture, urban development, deforestation, and the everyday activities of the people within the watershed.

As Ohio’s largest land trust, Western Reserve Land Conservancy believes it is our responsibility to support organizations whose mission and values are similar to ours. We are excited to once again offer these grants, thanks to the tremendous support from Enbridge and the Enbridge Charitable Foundation. Through this program we hope to foster long lasting relationships with working watershed groups across the state of Ohio.

Proposals will be accepted from working watershed groups only and must be located within the state of Ohio and within a county served by Enbridge or the Land Conservancy. To be eligible for the Spotlight Award, applicants must be located in a county served by both the Land Conservancy and Enbridge. Only projects and/or project components that are not yet completed are eligible to apply.

Grants will be made available to eligible watershed groups throughout Ohio. Interested groups may apply for a Mini Grant in one of two (2) categories. Each category has specific maximum request amounts. Mini Grant Categories and maximum request amount limits include:

• Marketing, Promotions and Outreach (maximum request amount $1,500): Grant funds for marketing, promotions and outreach may be used for materials needed to raise awareness for the work of the watershed group. This could include: flyers, brochures, web development, advertisements, hands-on educational materials, etc. Grant funds may not be used to cover salaries or staff costs. Grant recipients will be required to submit copies of marketing, promotions and outreach materials created with grant funds as part of the final report and report on the number of pieces produced and how they were distributed.

• Healthy Watershed Projects (maximum request amount $2,500): Grant funds may be used to cover specific restoration or water quality project expenses. Special consideration will be given in this category for proposals that involve partnerships or volunteers to complete important projects such as tree plantings, stream restorations, and river clean-ups. Priority will be given to projects where the majority of grants fund are used to purchase project supplies or materials, i.e., tools, trees, shrubs, shovels, bags, gloves, etc.

• Spotlight Project (maximum request amount $5,000): One special grant award will be made in support of a larger water quality or restoration project. To be considered, the project must include at least 10% matching funds. Higher match amounts will be viewed more favorably. Partner and volunteer time, cash, in-kind, donated materials, etc. may be used as match.

For more information and to apply, please visit: www.wrlandconservancy.org/watershedminigrants2024