Watershed Center Awarded $2.2 Million

Lawton Gallagher and The Watershed Center Grand Traverse Bay have worked collaboratively together for the past six years.  From raising recognition of The Watershed to planning and organizing tug boat tours, leading focus groups, designing the website and forming strategic alliences, we have worked alongside them to foster their mission of advocating for clean water in Grand Traverse Bay and to protect and preserve the Bay’s watershed.

We wholeheartedly share in their enthusiasm and congratulate them on the recent announcement of the $2.2 million in grant funding that has been awarded to The Watershed Center.

The three grants totaling $2.2 million will be used to install improved runoff filtration systems in Suttons Bay and Traverse City, and to manage sediments as two dams are removed on the Boardman River. This funding comes from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Great Lakes Restoration Initiative. More than 95 percent of this funding will be invested in on-the-ground projects in local communities.

In a recent interview, Andy Knott, Executive Director of The Watershed Center emphasized the importance of regional collaboration and community support fostered under the Grand Vision as factors in receiving these funds.

All three grant applications cited the Grand Vision and other community collaborations as important supporting factors for these projects. “More than 12,000 citizens crafted the Grand Vision, which includes protecting our magnificent natural resources as a guiding principle,” said Knott. “These grants fund shovel-ready, on-the-ground projects to help realize that vision.”