As the new year begins, the SWIG program is wrapping up last year’s completed grants while preparing for the 2022 grants season.
One SWIG-funded project completed in 2021 was
“A Comprehensive Plan to Restore Water Quality in Hundred-Acre Cove”
by Save The Bay of Providence, RI. Hundred-Acre Cove is a shallow estuary at the head of Narragansett Bay.
Its watershed is shared by four municipalities in two states: Barrington and East Providence, RI, and Seekonk and Swansea, MA. Runoff from all four communities’ washes into the Cove, carrying nutrients and bacterial pollution, harming the ecology of the Cove, degrading fish and wildlife habitats, and preventing the safe harvesting of shellfish.
Beginning in 2018, Save The Bay reviewed landcover and water quality data, and worked with all four communities to identify restoration goals for Hundred Acre Cove.
The partners developed an action plan with specific recommendations for achieving clean water goals, focusing on several areas: reducing storm water pollution; reducing impacts from septic systems; and restoring wetlands.
Now that the plan is complete, Save The Bay will work with the communities neighboring the Cove and others to advocate for and support restoration.
By funding partnerships such as the Hundred Acre Cove initiative, SWIG builds capacity for better environmental stewardship throughout southeast New England.
For more about the Hundred Acre Cove project and for more about SWIG, see