The New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection said $30 million are available in Natural Climate Solutions grants for local governments and nonprofits to create, restore, and enhance New Jersey’s coastal wetlands, forests and urban tree canopies.
This second round of grants, combined with the initial funding round, brings total Natural Climate Solutions funding to $54.3 million to date.
The funding supports natural solutions that sequester carbon through projects such as building living shorelines; restoring tidal wetlands, salt marshes, aquatic vegetation and forests; and improving urban tree canopies.
The grants represent an important component of New Jersey’s strategy to achieve its 2050 goal of an 80% reduction in greenhouse gases below 2006 levels.
Grant applications will be accepted on a rolling basis for one calendar year through DEP’s online application portal starting Aug. 4. Projects will be awarded on a first-come, first-serve basis.
“This unique program empowers communities across New Jersey to pursue natural ways of reducing climate pollutants that worsen the effects of our changing climate,” Environmental Protection Commissioner Shawn M. LaTourette said.
Grant amounts will range between $250,000 and $5 million, with each project spanning three to five years. Funding for the program is sourced from auction proceeds obtained through New Jersey’s participation in the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative.
The $30 million total funding will be equally divided, with $15 million set aside for projects in New Jersey’s coastal ecosystems (blue carbon projects) and $15 million allocated for projects that improve the health of forests (green carbon projects). DEP will regularly update its Natural Climate Solutions Grant Program webpage as funds are awarded.
Each project will support carbon sequestration, the process of capturing carbon dioxide from the air by plants through photosynthesis and storage of that element in woody biomass and in plant-derived soil organic carbon. While this is a naturally occurring process on land and in aquatic habitats, there are human actions that can help maintain and enhance carbon sequestration capacity to further help mitigate the effects of climate change.
The principal methods to promote carbon sequestration include improved land management practices, such as reforestation, street tree planting, afforestation (planting trees on land that has been used for other purposes), and protecting tidal marshes from erosion. Protecting coastal ecosystems is particularly important since tidal marshes and seagrass meadows sequester more carbon per unit area than terrestrial forests.
In January 2023, DEP awarded $24.3 million for 14 projects through the grant program’s initial funding round. Funded projects included New Jersey Conservation Foundation’s effort to plant 1,000 trees in Trenton to enhance the city’s urban tree canopy and American Littoral Society’s initiative to restore 19.5 acres of tidal salt marsh and create up to 3,500 feet of living shoreline and oyster reefs.
