Audubon Receives Grant to Monitor Innovative Salt Marsh Restoration in Somerset County

Baltimore, Maryland – February 20th, 2026 – Audubon Mid-Atlantic has been awarded greater than $610,000 to monitor the restoration of saltmarsh habitat on the Irish Grove Sanctuary on Maryland’s Jap Shore. The grant was introduced by the U.S. Environmental Safety Company and administered by the Nationwide Fish and Wildlife Basis. 

The restoration is a part of Marshes for Tomorrow, a collaborative, Audubon-led initiative to handle Maryland’s salt marsh disaster by landscape-scale restoration. With this grant, Audubon will monitor essential habitat restoration for the endangered Saltmarsh Sparrow throughout 73 acres in Somerset County. The restoration work will even result in lowered flooding and erosion dangers to close by roads.  

Deliberate tidal restoration strategies embrace digging “runnels” – shallow channels that permit water trapped on the marsh floor to flee into tidal creeks – helping to stop erosion and enhance marsh well being. 

“This grant provides us the instruments to watch and get better Saltmarsh Sparrow habitat utilizing progressive, cost-effective strategies that work with nature.” mentioned David Curson, Audubon Mid-Atlantic’s Coastal Program Director. “Constructing on years of labor by the Marshes for Tomorrow initiative, we’ll strengthen important saltmarsh habitat and proceed defending the birds, vegetation, and wildlife that depend upon it.” 

Along with supporting birds and different wildlife, wholesome saltmarshes buffer storm surges, seize carbon, and filter pollution earlier than they attain native waterways. Earlier this yr, Audubon received a $790,000 grant from the Allen Family Philanthropies to assist large-scale tidal marsh surveys on Maryland’s Jap Shore. Mixed, the funding will permit for monitoring and research that measure how restoration improves marsh well being for birds and the communities that depend on them.   

The award is a part of the 2025 funding cycle for the Small Watershed Grants (SWG) by the Nationwide Fish and Wildlife Basis. As a part of this funding cycle, Maryland obtained greater than $16 million in federal conservation funding to assist habitat restoration, local weather resilience, and water high quality enhancements alongside the Chesapeake Bay Watershed. Learn extra about Audubon Mid-Atlantic’s conservation work within the Chesapeake Bay area and the Marshes for Tomorrow initiative. 

Audubon Mid-Atlantic is a regional workplace of the Nationwide Audubon Society, envisioning a Mid-Atlantic area of wholesome and resilient ecosystems the place birds thrive and the place all individuals have entry to nature and a voice in environmental stewardship. Working alongside a various flock of supporters and companions, Audubon Mid-Atlantic strives to decelerate and reverse the influence that local weather change and habitat loss have had on the wide selection of fowl species that depend upon the Mid-Atlantic area.