Coldwater Land Conservancy Fund

Much of America's best remaining trout and salmon habitat isn't on public lands—it's in rivers and streams on private lands. Approximately 80 percent of remaining Eastern brook trout habitat, for instance, is privately held.

If this land were paved over, clearcut for timber, or exploited for energy development, the consequences for fish—and the places people fish—could be dire. That's why TU launched the Coldwater Land Conservancy Fund (CLCF), a grant program that empowers land trusts and public agencies to protect trout and salmon habitat through land and conservation easement [1] acquisition.

The CLCF provides matching grants for land and easement transaction costs—expenses like boundary surveys, appraisals, and legal fees. These expenses can be difficult to fund and can keep good projects—especially donations of land and conservation easements—from happening. The CLCF is designed to remove the barriers posed by transaction costs.

In its inaugural year, the CLCF helped put nearly 1,500 acres and 6 miles of trout streams under permanent protection throughout the Chesapeake Bay watershed. 10 grants to the region's top land conservation organizations leveraged over $2 million in state funding and donations of land value. Blue ribbon trout streams such as Virginia's Jackson and Conway Rivers and Maryland's Savage River were among the CLCF's beneficiaries in 2012.

Funding for 2013 Projects Now Available

TU is pleased to announce the availability of a second round of CLCF funding for land protection projects on track to close by December 31, 2013. Projects must benefit Eastern brook trout in the Mid-Atlantic or Southeastern Appalachian Mountain Regions [2]. Support for the CLCF comes from TU, the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

CLCF grants will generally not exceed $8,000 and must be matched. Matching funds may consist of grants, cash gifts, in-kind donations, and/or landowner donation of easement or land value.

Proposals for this second round of funding will be accepted and reviewed on a rolling basis until July 31, 2013. Grants may be awarded prior to that date depending on need.

For more information, review the Request for Proposals available here [3]. For projects in states south of Virginia, please direct questions to Damon Hearne at (828) 398-0177 or dhearne@tu.org. For all other states, direct questions to Kevin Anderson at (703) 284-9420 or kanderson@tu.org. Applicants are encouraged to contact Damon or Kevin for assistance with project planning and proposal preparation.