July 25, 2013

Yesterday, the Portland City Council approved $95,000 in grant funding to support 12 local community groups for the Bureau of Environmental Services Community Watershed Stewardship Program (CWSP).

CWSP projects support our City’s green infrastructure by providing a range of environmentally friendly functions including rain water filtration, water quality improvement, stream restoration, pavement removal, watershed data collection, and flood mitigation.

The Community Watershed Stewardship Program supports innovative neighborhood projects that help us manage the City’s stormwater. Each dollar we invest in a community partnership leverages three dollars in volunteer time and in-kind contributions.

Since the beginning of CWSP in 1995, the program has granted more the $867,000 in watershed projects, helped generate more than $3.3 million in volunteer time and other in-kind contributions, and brought together over 40,000 volunteers. The program has also facilitated the planting of nearly 136,000 native plants, enhanced close to 65 acres of natural area, and restored more than 52,000 feet of stream banks.

Programs like CWSP have made Portland a national leader in environmental stewardship.

Congratulations to this year’s grant recipients.