More than $6 million in federal cash is headed to Annapolis and nearby communities, and local officials are already lining up how to spend it. Rep. Sarah Elfreth says the funding will support shoreline resilience, invasive-species work, public-safety equipment and community support programs, with projects expected to start rolling out in the coming months.
The package includes money for the Maryland Department of Natural Resources to tackle invasive blue catfish and to boost resilience and public access at Holly Beach Farm, funding for a new mobile command unit for the Annapolis Police Department, seed money for a University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science headquarters in the city, and support for re-entry services.
Where the Money Came From
According to a press release from Rep. Sarah Elfreth's Office, the investments are drawn from fiscal-year appropriations and community project funding that Elfreth pushed for on behalf of Maryland’s Third District. The release lays out a slate of local awards, including roughly $2 million for blue catfish work, about $1,031,000 for an Annapolis mobile command unit, and similar sums for local nonprofits and research partners. The package is framed as a mix of conservation, public-safety readiness, and social-service investments for Annapolis and Anne Arundel County.
How the Awards Will Be Spent
The Maryland Department of Natural Resources is in line for more than $3 million from the package, DNR officials said. That includes about $2 million to support blue catfish mitigation and roughly $1 million for resilience work at Holly Beach Farm. In a statement quoted by CBS Baltimore, DNR Secretary Josh Kurtz said the funds are intended to build “a greater understanding of blue catfish, the science behind it, and how we eradicate it.”
The department already lists Holly Beach Farm as a Natural Resource Management Area and has mapped the property while it develops public-access and resilience plans, according to the Maryland DNR. The new money is expected to help move those plans from paper to on-the-ground work.
Local Services and Research
The Annapolis Police Department’s mobile command unit appears in House appropriations disclosure tables at $1,031,000, a specific line item in the committee’s community project funding list. That is the kind of specialty equipment that usually sits on the wish list for years, and federal money can speed things up considerably.
The same appropriations package and Elfreth’s district summary also name roughly $1,031,000 for the Anne Arundel County Community Action Agency to expand re-entry and rehabilitation supports, and about $800,000 for the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science to establish a permanent Annapolis presence. Officials say these awards will be administered through the named federal and local partners as procurement and planning move forward.
Why Blue Catfish Are a Focus
Federal and state managers have zeroed in on blue catfish because the invasive predator eats crabs, oysters and forage fish that underpin the Bay’s fisheries and food web. Conservation and fisheries groups have pushed a strategy that pairs removals with market and processing support so harvests become an economic as well as ecological tool, as described by the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership.
Locally, Annapolis leaders have also moved to expand pilot harvest tools, including limited gill-net authority for licensed watermen, as part of a broader removal and market strategy, according to Annapolis Greenlights Gill Nets. The new federal money for blue catfish mitigation is expected to plug into that larger push to thin out the invaders.
Next Steps
Officials say the awards will now move to the named agencies and organizations, which will begin implementing projects and purchasing equipment in the coming months. “It allows us to meet returning residents where they are and walk them through the most fragile phase of reentry,” Anne Arundel County Community Action Agency CEO Dr. Charlestine Fairley told CBS Baltimore.
For Annapolis residents, that means the impacts should show up on several fronts at once, from shoreline protection and invasive-species work to science investment and public-safety gear that city officials expect people will start noticing sooner rather than later.
