Helping Communities Find Funding for Nature-Based Solutions
- Lacey McCormick
- Jan 13, 2025
Free Website Makes It Easy to Sort Through 91 Sources of Federal Funding
WASHINGTON, D.C. (January 13th, 2025) — The National Wildlife Federation’s newly-updated makes finding federal funding for natural infrastructure projects easier.
“Across the country, communities are increasingly interested in building infrastructure that uses nature to ward off natural disasters,” said Mahtaab Bagherzadeh, a senior program manager with the National Wildlife Federation. “From coastal oyster reefs to urban stormwater greenways, nature-based solutions are becoming the new normal.”
That’s because these types of projects are often less expensive to build and have additional community benefits, such as improving water quality or creating parkland. One found that urban nature-based solutions were cheaper and created more overall value than traditional projects.
Nature-based solutions are often based on a simple idea, but finding the right source of federal funding is anything but,” Bagherzadeh said. “Our website makes it easier by summarizing and categorizing more than 90 different federal programs.”
The database is updated regularly and more than a dozen funding sources have been added recently.
The website also includes several case studies describing how communities have found funding for nature-based projects. For example, nearly every home in Three Forks, Montana is at risk of flooding. The community secured FEMA funding for a $4.5 million project to divert floodwaters into a historic riverbed — restoring natural river flows while preventing as much as $100 million in property damage.
Recent legislation, including the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and the Inflation Reduction Act, created additional funding for projects that provide flood protection, disaster recovery, transportation resilience, and water quality improvements.
Visit the database:
Watch a short tutorial on how to use the database .
