The U. S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Chesapeake Bay Program Office (CBPO) is announcing a Request for Applications (RFA) for applicants to provide the Chesapeake Bay Program (CBP) non-federal partners with support for further expanding the capacity of citizen based and nontraditional environmental

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monitoring programs and integrating these programs into the CBP partnership’s existing monitoring networks.

Citizen-based monitoring programs are routine environmental data collection efforts carried out by volunteers and overseen and coordinated by a given organization.

Nontraditional monitoring programs are defined here as routine environmental data collection carried out by a given organization or agency and may include local governments, conservation districts, or nongovernmental organizations (academia, river basin commissions, watershed organizations, etc.) that are currently not formally part of the CBP partnership’s existing monitoring networks.

Expanding capacity of citizen-based and nontraditional partner monitoring programs will enable more partner organizations to conduct monitoring that can be utilized by the CBP partnership and its members to address CBP programmatic data gaps.

Further integration of citizen-based and nontraditional partner monitoring programs into the CBP partnership’s monitoring networks through a strategic data gap-filling approach will provide additional cost-effective data and information that supports shared decision-making and adaptive management by the CBP partners focused on restoration of the Chesapeake Bay and its watershed.