FY2020 BLM WO Wildlife Resources Management Program Funding Opportunity Announcement | L20AS00070

Opportunity Information: Apply for L20AS00070

The FY2020 BLM WO Wildlife Resources Management Program Funding Opportunity Announcement (Opportunity Number L20AS00070) is a discretionary federal grant opportunity from the Department of the Interior, Bureau of Land Management (BLM). It is offered as a cooperative agreement, which generally means funded projects are expected to involve active collaboration with BLM staff rather than operating as completely independent, pass-through grants. The program sits in the natural resources funding category (CFDA 15.247) and is focused on conserving and restoring wildlife habitats on public lands, with an emphasis on working across state boundaries and coordinating closely with a wide range of conservation partners.

At its core, the opportunity supports a shared conservation stewardship approach. BLM is looking to fund projects where States, Tribes, other federal agencies, and additional organizations coordinate their efforts to improve habitat conditions for wildlife and to sustain wildlife-related uses. The announcement highlights that BLM relies on up-to-date geospatial data technologies to share wildlife and habitat information both internally and with partners. In practical terms, this points to projects that either use geospatial data to plan, prioritize, implement, or monitor habitat work, or that improve the way wildlife data is collected, managed, or shared so multiple partners can work more efficiently and with a common understanding of conditions on the ground.

A major theme of the announcement is habitat improvement through vegetation restoration, especially projects that provide multiple benefits. The Wildlife Program explicitly notes that it leverages funds with other BLM programs, indicating that proposals aligning with broader BLM priorities and that can be coordinated or co-funded alongside other BLM initiatives are likely a strong fit. The vegetation restoration work described is not limited to wildlife benefits alone; it is framed as an integrated land management strategy that can simultaneously improve wildlife habitat, increase forage availability for livestock, improve water quality, remove invasive weed species, and lower the risk of catastrophic wildfires. This suggests that competitive projects may be those designed with cross-program outcomes in mind, such as integrated restoration plans that address invasive species, fuels reduction, riparian or watershed health, and habitat structure for priority wildlife species.

Eligibility is broad and includes many common public and nonprofit entities. Eligible applicants include state, county, city or township governments, special district governments, and independent school districts; public and state-controlled institutions of higher education; federally recognized Native American tribal governments; and nonprofits, including both 501(c)(3) organizations and nonprofits without 501(c)(3) status (as long as they are not institutions of higher education). The diversity of eligible applicants reinforces the partner-driven nature of the program and makes it suitable for multi-organization collaborations, including state wildlife agencies, tribal natural resource departments, local governments managing adjacent lands, universities supporting monitoring and analysis, and conservation nonprofits implementing on-the-ground habitat work.

The application window for this funding round opened March 4, 2020 and closed May 4, 2020. Applications were required to be submitted in English and were due by 5:00 PM EDT on May 4, 2020, with late applications not accepted for review. BLM anticipated making around six awards, with an award ceiling of $2,000,000 per award. Taken together, the expected number of awards and the relatively high ceiling indicate that BLM was prepared to support a small set of potentially large, high-impact efforts, such as landscape-scale habitat restoration initiatives, multi-state coordination and planning efforts, or robust monitoring and data-sharing projects that benefit multiple jurisdictions and partner organizations.

Overall, this opportunity is aimed at practical, collaborative wildlife habitat conservation and restoration on BLM-managed public lands, designed to be implemented with partners and informed by modern geospatial data. The ideal project concept is one that improves habitat conditions while also delivering broader land health benefits, aligns with cross-boundary and multi-partner stewardship, and can be integrated with other BLM program goals such as invasive species management, water quality protection, and wildfire risk reduction.

• The Department of the Interior, Bureau of Land Management in the natural resources sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "FY2020 BLM WO Wildlife Resources Management Program Funding Opportunity Announcement" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 15.247.
• This funding opportunity was created on Mar 04, 2020.
• Applicants must submit their applications by May 04, 2020 Open from March 4, 2020 -- May 4, 2020 Applications must be submitted by 500 PM EDT on May 4, 2020. Applications must be submitted in English. Late applications will not be accepted and reviewed.. (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 $2,000,000.00 in funding.
• The number of recipients for this funding is limited to 6 candidate(s).
• Eligible applicants include: State governments, County governments, City or township governments, Special district governments, Independent school districts, Public and State controlled institutions of higher education, Native American tribal governments (Federally recognized), Nonprofits having a 501(c)(3) status with the IRS, other than institutions of higher education, Nonprofits that do not have a 501(c)(3) status with the IRS, other than institutions of higher education.

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