R3 State Wildlife Grant Program (TO STATE F&G AGENCIES ONLY) | F18AS00035

Opportunity Information: Apply for F18AS00035

The R3 State Wildlife Grant Program (Funding Opportunity Number F18AS00035) is a discretionary federal grant offered by the U.S. Department of the Interior, Fish and Wildlife Service under CFDA 15.634. It is designed specifically for state-level fish and game agencies and other eligible state governments, including the District of Columbia, U.S. Commonwealths, and U.S. territories. The program provides funding to help these jurisdictions develop and carry out broad wildlife conservation efforts that benefit wildlife and their habitats, with an emphasis that clearly includes species that are not traditionally managed through hunting or fishing programs.

The opportunity supports two main types of work: planning and implementation. Planning activities must directly contribute to creating, updating, or modifying the state’s Wildlife Action Plan, and that plan must be approved by the Director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. In practical terms, this means grant-funded planning work should be tightly connected to strengthening the state’s formal conservation blueprint, such as improving priority-setting, updating species and habitat assessments, refining conservation strategies, or adjusting actions based on new information and emerging threats. Implementation activities, by contrast, are the on-the-ground or operational projects a state proposes in order to execute the actions laid out in its approved Wildlife Action Plan. These can include habitat restoration or enhancement, species conservation actions, monitoring and research tied to plan needs, and other direct measures that advance the plan’s goals.

A central program requirement is prioritization. States are expected to focus funding on “species of greatest conservation need,” and to make decisions that reflect the relative availability of other funding sources for conserving those species. In other words, the program is aimed at filling gaps and addressing the highest-priority conservation needs rather than duplicating well-funded efforts. This priority framework is meant to steer funds toward the species and habitats most at risk, and toward actions most likely to prevent further declines, reduce threats, and sustain biodiversity over the long term.

The grant also draws clear boundaries around what it will not fund. Wildlife education and law enforcement activities are generally ineligible. However, the opportunity allows a narrow exception when an education or law enforcement element is minor or incidental and is also critical to the success of an otherwise eligible project. This is intended to keep the primary focus on conservation planning and implementation while still allowing small supporting components when they are essential for project outcomes, such as limited outreach needed to ensure compliance with a conservation measure or a small enforcement-related coordination element necessary to protect a restored habitat site.

Administratively, this opportunity was posted with a creation date of November 22, 2017, and an original closing date of August 31, 2018. The award ceiling listed is $3,000,000, and the opportunity anticipated making approximately 50 awards. Additional program background and reference materials are available through the Fish and Wildlife Service’s Wildlife and Sport Fish Restoration program pages, specifically the State Wildlife Grant section at http://wsfrprograms.fws.gov/Subpages/GrantPrograms/SWG/SWG.htm.

• The Department of the Interior, Fish and Wildlife Service in the natural resources sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "R3 State Wildlife Grant Program (TO STATE F&G AGENCIES ONLY)" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 15.634.
• This funding opportunity was created on Nov 22, 2017.
• Applicants must submit their applications by Aug 31, 2018. (Agency may still review applications by suitable applicants for the remaining/unused allocated funding in 2026.)
• Each selected applicant is eligible to receive up to $3,000,000.00 in funding.
• The number of recipients for this funding is limited to 50 candidate(s).
• Eligible applicants include: State governments.

Apply for F18AS00035

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