The Caesar Rodney School District is proud to announce that it has recently received a $227,000 grant award from the National Fish & Wildlife Foundation (NFWF) as part of the Delaware Watershed Conservation Fund. The grant funds will be used to build capacity for habitat restoration and education across the district. 

Caesar Rodney is one of 36 entities from the northeast region (DE, NY, NJ, PA) that received new or continuing conservation and restoration grants totaling $13.8 million. The 36 awards also generated $14.2 million in matching funds from the grantees, providing a total conservation impact of $28 million. This year’s grant slate is the first to include funds from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, which was enacted in November 2021 and includes an historic $26 million investment in the watershed over five years.

The Delaware Watershed Conservation Fund supports projects that conserve and restore natural areas, corridors, and waterways on public and private lands to support native migratory and resident wildlife and fish, and native plants; and to contribute to the social health and economic vitality of the communities in the Delaware River watershed. These grants address priorities in NFWF’s Delaware River Watershed Business Plan. The fund was launched in 2018 to bring together various stakeholders to deliver restoration and conservation efforts throughout the Delaware River Watershed to strategically improve fish and wildlife habitat, grow partner capacity, build networks, and improve project efficiency and focus on a basin-wide scale.

As the only school district in the country to receive a 2022 NFWF grant, Caesar Rodney will use the monies to continue to restore underutilized space on 14 public school campuses within the district through a revitalized, EcoTeam Volunteer Corps, traditional coursework, district professional development, community outreach, and a growing network of community partners. Projects will provide benefits to wildlife with increased intent to target listed, at-risk, and priority species’ needs while increasing equitable access to authentic place-based learning for all students.