By: ESLC President & CEO Steve Kline
It takes a complicated mix of funding to accomplish all of the great on-the-ground conservation work of the Eastern Shore Land Conservancy. A single project, be it an easement or a restoration, might require several sources of funding to get over the finish line. Restoration projects, like living shorelines and wetland construction, we usually approach in phases, using one funding stream to get engineered drawings for a project, and an entirely different funding stream to get the dirt moving once we have blueprints in-hand.
For our purchased conservation easement work, we seek funding from as many available sources as possible to get land protected forever. There are private donations, Chesapeake WILD and North American Wetlands Conservation Act funding, not to mention the Farm Bill. Gone, if they ever existed, are the days when conservation work was uncomplicated.
Last week, as you have heard by now, the federal Office of Management and Budget (OMB) announced an immediate pause in federal grants and aid totaling about $3 trillion. The announcement impacted spending in innumerable categories and the work of Eastern Shore Land Conservancy was not exempt. ESLC has millions of dollars of federal funding in one form or another, money for real, on-the-ground, conservation work right here at home.
ESLC’s paused living shoreline restoration projects in Talbot County.
The funding pause forced us to pause. Work on several living shorelines came to a halt, as we sent stop work orders to small businesses, unsure if the funding would be available when invoices came due. We stopped ordering due diligence work on several in-process conservation easements funded, at least in-part, by federal dollars. And who stopped working? Equipment operators, surveyors, environmental technicians. Important members of our community, who now might be thinking twice before going out to eat at a local restaurant or stepping into a shop on Main Street. Just two weeks ago Eastern Shore Land Conservancy released a report about the enormous positive economic impact of the work we and other conservation organizations do. Now we get a small taste of what happens when our work stops.
The freeze thawed a few days after it was announced; we’ve gotten contractors back to work and projects are moving forward. But questions about the future persist. What there is no question about is what truly keeps the lights on, what keeps ESLC staff working, what shores us up day in and day out: you. The best protection we have against shifting priorities and political uncertainty is our individual supporters, who understand the important nature of our work and who live in the communities where that work is happening. At the end of the day, it is your support that keeps us working, even in times of uncertainty; perhaps especially in those times. We thank you for that steadfastness. And we are prepared to carry our work forward however high the tide.