SNEP Watershed Implementation Grants (SWIG)

In early December, Rhode Island Trout Unlimited and partners, including the RI Dept. of Environmental Management and Save The Bay, removed Sweet Pond Dam with funding from SNEP Watershed Implementation Grants (SWIG). This was a small dam located on the Carr River in Rhode Island’s Big River Management Area. Though the dam was removed by hand, a number of studies and surveys were required in order to obtain approval to remove it. The project will help restore populations of wild brook trout in the Pawtuxet River watershed, along with habitat for other native species.

Click on the thumbnail to play this brief video of the work underway!

Program Summary

This interactive map shows the locations and descriptions of projects funded by SWIG in past years. Click on a site pin to learn more about the project.

SNEP Overview

In 2012, at the direction of Congress, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) created the Southeast New England Program (SNEP), a comprehensive effort to restore and protect the region’s coastal waters and watersheds. SNEP works in partnership with stakeholders in these states to promote a resilient ecosystem of clean water, healthy diverse habitats, and sustainable communities in Southeast New England.

Download the SNEP Watershed Implementation One Pager

To help restore clean water and healthy ecosystems to Southeast New England, Restore America’s Estuaries launched the Southeast New England Program (SNEP) Watershed Implementation Grants. With financial support from the EPA, the grants target water pollution, habitat degradation, and other high-priority environmental issues, in order to foster sustainable coastal and watershed communities.

The geographic region eligible for SNEP Watershed Implementation Grants extends from Westerly, RI to Pleasant Bay on Cape Cod, encompassing the major estuaries of Narragansett Bay and Buzzards Bay, and their watersheds as far north as Worcester, Mass. It includes the south shore of Cape Cod as well as Martha’s Vineyard, Nantucket, Block Island and the Elizabeth Islands. Please refer to this boundary map of the SNEP region.

SNEP Watershed Implementation Grants target integrated approaches to water quality and ecosystem restoration. SNEP recognizes that clean water, healthy habitats, resilient ecosystems, and prosperous communities are closely interconnected, and that strong partnerships offer the most effective means of meeting Southeast New England’s environmental challenges.

Clean water, healthy watersheds, and vibrant coastal ecosystems are essential to the communities of Southeast New England — a foundation of our region’s prosperity and quality of life. In Rhode Island and Massachusetts, clean water and healthy coastal ecosystems generate billions of dollars in economic value through beach-going, fishing, tourism, and many other uses. Yet despite recent improvements, water pollution and ecosystem degradation threaten our most important natural assets.

Check out EPA’s archived SNEP monthly newsletter for additional information on the program’s success in the region.

SNEP Final Report

RAE recently completed its first cooperative agreement with EPA, which funded SNEP Watershed Grants from 2018 – 2021, as well as most of the SNEP Restoration Capital Mini-Grants awarded earlier this year. Read our report to EPA here, which covers the first four years of grantmaking under this program. For information on more recent grants, stay tuned for our year-end report, coming soon!

Click here to download the full report

2023-2024 SWIG Year in Review

Our new SWIG Program Impact Report is out for 2023! Catch up on all the work supporting restoration and water quality improvement in the Southeast New England Region that SWIG recipients have carried out over 2023. Special thanks to our partners at EPA Region 1 and the SNEP Network, members of the SWIG Application Review Committee, and our numerous grantees and local partners for making this program a success!

Click here to download the full report

2022 SWIG Year in Review

Learn more about our recent work supporting restoration and water quality improvement in the Southeast New England Region. Special thanks to our partners at EPA Region 1 and the SNEP Network, members of the SWIG Application Review Committee, and our numerous grantees and local partners for making this program a success!