$200,000 in 'mini-grants' available for Northwest Florida environmental projects

A new estuary program is providing $200,000 in grants to help launch projects that improve the local environment.

This week, the Pensacola and Perdido Bays Estuary Program announced the 2020-2021 mini-grant program funding opportunity. The program will award grants ranging from $5,000 to $50,000 to support waterways initiatives that serve to restore, preserve, connect, inform or educate.

Local governments and non-state entities such as educational institutions and nonprofits are eligible to submit project proposals. The projects must be located within the Perdido or Pensacola watersheds within Escambia, Santa Rosa or Okaloosa counties.

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Logan McDonald, community outreach coordinator for the Pensacola and Perdido Bays Estuary Program, said the grant approval process and project implementation timeline will move quickly, which will be both a benefit and a potential challenge. The projects have to be completed by June 1, 2021, "which in the grant world isn't a huge turnaround time," McDonald said. "So part of that is being a group that already has established community connections or expertise in the subject area to make these things happen." 

The funding will be awarded to projects in eight eligible categories that support the Estuary Program’s core vision: water quality, habitat restoration, fish and wildlife conservation, watershed awareness and education, resilience, invasive species, citizen science and aquatic trash/marine debris.

There is a good amount of flexibility in how the funds can be used, however. For instance, a group could use the grants to help assist with water quality monitoring and sampling, or to provide education programs on the local ecology.

"Folks may be particularly interested in resilience at the moment, given that we just had Hurricane Sally come through," McDonald said. "Resilience is the ability to recover after a disturbance, the things that help us build a stronger community that is storm-prepared. So things like living shorelines and green infrastructure that can protect us on the front end and help us recover more quickly from those events."

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The mini-grant program is made possible through the support of the Florida Legislature, with support of local delegation members Sen. Doug Broxson and Rep. Alex Andrade. The Pensacola and Perdido Bays Estuary Program was awarded $500,000 in legislative appropriations, $200,000 of which has been allocated to support the mini-grant program.

The deadline to apply is 11:59 p.m. Nov. 6. Priority consideration will be given to “shovel ready” action projects and projects that inform, engage and educate the community. Projects that leverage match, including volunteer efforts, also will receive priority consideration.

The Pensacola and Perdido Bays Estuary Program is a coalition of local, state and federal stakeholders from Baldwin County in Alabama and Florida's Escambia, Santa Rosa and Okaloosa counties; the cities of Pensacola, Gulf Breeze, Milton, Orange Beach, Alabama; and the town of Century.

The estuary program is a stakeholder-driven, science-based organization charged with restoring and preserving the Pensacola Bay and Perdido Bay system and their associated watersheds. The program is guided by a Comprehensive Conservation and Management Plan which serves as a blueprint for the restoration and preservation of area waterways. 

For additional details and to apply for the mini-grant program, visit ppbep.org/mini-grant-program.

Kevin Robinson can be reached at krobinson4@pnj.com or 850-435-8527.