Apply for a cost share grant from the Nine Mile Creek Watershed District!

Grant funds are available to residents, associations, nonprofits, schools, businesses, and cities for projects located within the boundaries of the Nine Mile Creek Watershed District.

Apply for a 2025 Cost Share Grant

butterfly milkweed and other native plants amongst much starting to vigorously grow on the shore of a pond.
Residential shoreline buffer on a pond in Edina

Eligible Projects

We award cost share grants to projects that prevent stormwater pollution or to projects that restore native plant and wildlife habitat. Examples projects include raingardens, shoreline buffers, permeable pavers, chloride reduction projects, native plantings, and habitat restoration projects. In order to be eligible for funding, all projects must meet one or more of the grant program goals:

  • Improve water quality or increase the capacity of the watershed to store or infiltrate water
  • Protect and preserve groundwater quality and quantity
  • Preserve, protect, and restore native plant and wildlife habitats, with emphasis on projects adjacent to or near lakes, rivers, and wetlands

Required Grant Match

Habitat restoration projects or native plantings require a 50% match. All other eligible projects require a 25% match from the applicant.

In-kind materials and services can be used as match. Landowner/volunteer labor is eligible as an in-kind contribution at $20 per hour.

Removal of vegetation and/or invasive species, including buckthorn removal, garlic mustard, turfgrass, etc. is not an eligible grant expense for habitat restoration projects or native plantings, but may be used as grant match.

Grant Awards

raingardens between apartments and parking lot
Raingardens collecting stormwater off the 151 on 8th apartments in Hopkins.

Maximum grant award for habitat restoration projects or native plantings:

  • $3,000 for residential projects
  • $5,000 for townhome, condominium, or lake associations
  • $10,000 for commercial, government, or nonprofit projects

Maximum grant award for other eligible projects:

  • $5,000 for residential projects
  • $20,000 for townhome, condominium, or lake associations
  • $50,000 for commercial, government, or nonprofit projects

Grant Review

Starting January 1, 2024, applications will be reviewed monthly by a grant committee after which you will be notified if your project was selected for funding.

Cost Share Grant Overview

Need Help?

Read through our Cost Share Grant Guidelines to learn more about the program

Learn how to create your own planting design

Not sure where to start? We now fund technical assistance to complete site assessments and potential project design

Have questions or want to talk through a project idea? Contact Lizzy, Watershed Specialist, at 952-248-0410 or eboor@ninemilecreek.org

Current Grantee Reporting and Reimbursement Resources