DEM awards $169,200 for watershed protection

PROVIDENCE – Seven transitional wetlands restoration projects have been awarded a total of $169,200 in assistance from the R.I. Department of Environmental Management. The grants will help establish or replant native vegetation in “riparian buffers,” where water’s edge plants reduce erosion and serve as a natural filter, removing sediment and pollutants before water reaches the adjacent river, stream, lake, pond or other wetlands.
“Maintaining riparian buffers in a natural condition is integral to the ecology of natural systems,” DEM Director W. Michael Sullivan said in a statement. “I am pleased that we are able to fund these seven diverse projects, for protection and restoration of riparian buffers plays an important role in preserving and enhancing Narragansett Bay and its watersheds.”
The seven grants are:
• $59,000 to Middletown, in two separate grants: $20,000 to remove invasive plants and establish native trees and shrubs in a newly acquired parcel next to Bailey Brook; and $39,000 to restore three parcels at the northern end of the Bailey Brook Watershed, north of O’Neil Boulevard.
• $32,000 to East Greenwich, to establish a 50-foot-wide buffer of plantings on either side of the peninsula at Maskerchugg Creek and Greenwich Cove. (The 13-acre parcel is also part of a larger restoration project involving the closure of a former landfill.)
• $26,000 to Johnson & Wales University to establish a vegetated buffer along its urban coastal greenway at the Providence-Cranston line. The project involves about 2 acres of a 4.7-acre project.
• $42,200 in two separate grants to the DEM’s Arcadia Management area: $7,700 to restore vegetation at Brook Trail, by the Wood River; and $34,500 for projects at Beach Pond, to restore vegetation in a former parking lot and filter runoff from Route 165 before it reaches the pond.
• $10,000 to the Woonasquatucket River Council, to restore a riparian buffer region along Cutler Brook in Glocester that is owned by the R.I. Department of Transportation.
The money – for up to half the eligible costs of each project – comes from the $70 million Open Space, Recreation, Bay and Watershed Protection bond approved by voters in 2004.
“While this work will be performed in communities like East Greenwich and Middletown,” Gov. Donald L. Carcieri said in a statement, “the benefits of these environmental improvements will be felt throughout Narragansett Bay and throughout Rhode Island for years to come.”
To learn more about riparian buffer restoration and other water-quality efforts, visit the R.I. Department of Environmental Management’s Office of Water Resources at www.dem.ri.gov.

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