{"id":131116,"date":"2026-03-06T09:20:14","date_gmt":"2026-03-06T09:20:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/131116\/"},"modified":"2026-03-06T09:20:14","modified_gmt":"2026-03-06T09:20:14","slug":"delaware-river-receives-8-figure-grant-supports-downstream-easton-the-lafayette","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/131116\/","title":{"rendered":"Delaware River receives 8-figure grant, supports downstream Easton \u2013 The Lafayette"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>            <a class=\"modal-photo photooverlay\" data-story-id=\"188621\" data-photo-id=\"188646\" href=\"#photo\" aria-haspopup=\"dialog\" aria-expanded=\"false\" aria-label=\"View larger version of image.\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/BreaWhiteDelaware-1200x800.jpeg\" alt=\"The grants are expected to both protect wildlife habitats and provide recreational access.\" style=\"width:100%\" class=\"catboxphoto feature-image\"\/><\/a>                    <\/p>\n<p>                Photo by <a href=\"https:\/\/lafayettestudentnews.com\/staff_name\/brea-white\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Brea White<\/a> for The Lafayette                <\/p>\n<p>The grants are expected to both protect wildlife habitats and provide recreational access.<\/p>\n<p>The Delaware River watershed, which includes Easton and surrounding cities, will <a href=\"https:\/\/www.lehighvalleylive.com\/outdoors\/2026\/02\/delaware-river-watershed-gets-125m-for-access-conservation-projects.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">receive<\/a> nearly $30 million in funding for fish and wildlife conservation, the U.S. Fish &amp; Wildlife Service <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fws.gov\/press-release\/2026-02\/125-million-awarded-partners-delaware-river-watershed-conservation\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">announced<\/a> Feb. 4.<\/p>\n<p>Of that total, $12.5 million comes from the Delaware Watershed Conservation Fund, an Obama-era grant program, with the other $16.8 million provided through matching funds.<\/p>\n<p>The grants are expected to result \u201cin strategic conservation to restore fish and wildlife habitats, improve water quality, build community readiness and resilience to natural disasters, and enhance public access to recreational opportunities,\u201d per the U.S. Fish &amp; Wildlife Service\u2019s news release.<\/p>\n<p>Rachel Carr, founder of Easton\u2019s Nurture Nature Center, a downtown community science education center, and a Lafayette College visiting professor, highlighted the importance of habitat grants.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cEaston sits at the convergence of the Delaware and the Lehigh Valley River, and it is our obligation to continue the legacy of the health of those waterways,\u201d Carr said, adding that the river provides a rich ecosystem for various habitats.<\/p>\n<p>Carr called for eroded beach lines to be \u201cshored up\u201d by riparian buffers, or thin strips of vegetation near shorelines.<\/p>\n<p>A 2025 American Fisheries Society report <a href=\"https:\/\/fisheries.org\/2025\/11\/new-report-reveals-economic-benefits-of-fish-and-wildlife-conservation\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">revealed<\/a> that conservation projects can be economic drivers. Investments in fish and wildlife conservation support over half a million jobs and generate billions in economic activity, according to the report.<\/p>\n<p>Olivia Bamford \u201824, a grant administrator with the city of Easton, stressed the importance of taking advantage of long-term grants such as the Delaware River funding.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI usually don\u2019t get a response, positive or negative, until at least six months,\u201d Bamford said of her work applying for grants. \u201cThese things take time.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Robert Christopher, Easton\u2019s conservation manager, declined to comment on specific questions. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Photo by Brea White for The Lafayette The grants are expected to both protect wildlife habitats and provide&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":131117,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[153,155,154],"class_list":["post-131116","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-bethlehem","tag-bethlehem","tag-bethlehem-headlines","tag-bethlehem-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131116","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=131116"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131116\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/131117"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=131116"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=131116"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=131116"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}