R2 State Willdife Grant Program FOR STATE GAME AND FISH AGENCIES | F18AS00018

Opportunity Information: Apply for F18AS00018

The R2 State Wildlife Grant Program for State Game and Fish Agencies (Funding Opportunity Number F18AS00018) is a discretionary federal grant opportunity administered by the U.S. Department of the Interior, Fish and Wildlife Service, under CFDA 15.634. It is designed to provide financial support to state-level wildlife agencies (and other eligible jurisdictions) to conserve wildlife and wildlife habitat, including species that are not traditionally managed through hunting or fishing programs. The overarching purpose is to help jurisdictions build, update, and carry out strategic conservation work that benefits a broad range of wildlife, with a clear emphasis on science-based planning and on-the-ground actions.

Eligible applicants are limited to state governments, which in this context also includes the District of Columbia, U.S. Commonwealths, and U.S. territories. The program is structured to fund both planning and implementation activities. Planning activities must directly contribute to the development or revision of the applicant jurisdiction's existing Wildlife Action Plan, and that plan must be one that has been approved by the Director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. In practical terms, planning funds are meant to support the kind of work that strengthens the plan itself, such as updating conservation priorities, refining habitat assessments, improving threat analyses, incorporating new monitoring data, or otherwise modifying the plan in ways that better guide conservation decisions.

Implementation activities are those that a state intends to carry out to execute its approved Wildlife Action Plan. These are the applied conservation projects that translate the plan into results on the ground, such as habitat restoration or enhancement, targeted management actions to address threats, species and habitat monitoring tied to plan objectives, and other conservation measures aligned with the plan's strategies. The program guidance stresses that priority should be given to Species of Greatest Conservation Need, and that funding decisions should consider the relative level of funding available for conserving those species. That means proposals are expected to show a clear connection to the plan's highest-priority conservation targets and to demonstrate why the requested investment is important given other available funding sources.

The opportunity also spells out notable restrictions. Wildlife education and law enforcement are generally ineligible uses of these funds. However, there is a narrow exception when an education or law enforcement component is minor or incidental and is still critical to the success of an otherwise eligible project. In other words, the grant is not intended to primarily fund outreach campaigns or enforcement operations, but it may allow limited, supporting education or enforcement elements when they are clearly necessary to accomplish a specific conservation outcome tied to the Wildlife Action Plan.

From the posted opportunity details, the funding instrument type is a grant and the funding activity category is natural resources. The opportunity record lists an award ceiling of $10,000 and an expected number of awards shown as 0, reflecting how the announcement was entered in the source system rather than serving as a guaranteed funding commitment. The opportunity was created on November 2, 2017, with an original closing date of August 31, 2018.

• The Department of the Interior, Fish and Wildlife Service in the natural resources sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "R2 State Willdife Grant Program FOR STATE GAME AND FISH AGENCIES" 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 02, 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 $10,000.00 in funding.
• Eligible applicants include: State governments.

Apply for F18AS00018

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