F24AS00232-Great Lakes Restoration Initiative – Joint Venture Habitat Restoration and Protection

The primary goal of this Notice of Funding Opportunity is to assist partners in protecting, restoring, or enhancing migratory bird habitat within the Great Lakes basin.  Specific outcomes that will occur are acres of habitat directly benefited from the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative funding.  Eligible applications will be for habitat restoration, enhancement, and/or protection activities. Funding will not be provided to research and/or monitoring projects, as these are not activities that directly achieve the habitat goals of the Upper Mississippi / Great Lakes Joint Venture Implementation Plan or the Lower Great Lakes/St. Lawrence Plan Bird Conservation Region Plan (BCR 13), other relevant bird conservation plans, and State Wildlife Action Plans.Project areas must be within the U.S. watershed of the Great Lakes as defined by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) (https://www.epa.gov/greatlakes/great-lakes-facts-and-figures) within states bordering the Great Lakes (Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin).An eligible proposal is a plan of action supported by grant and partner funds to conserve habitats for migratory birds and other wildlife through acquisition (including fee title, permanent conservation easements and donations of real property interests), restoration and/or enhancement that contains a grant request between $25,000 and $300,000 and matching contributions of at least 25% of total grant request (Federal share), with an anticipated completion date no more than 24 months from the date of award. Grant awards may only be used for activities that begin after the grant agreement is signed - this grant program is not eligible for reimbursement of completed or ongoing projects. Pre-planning costs such as engineering, soil testing, land surveying and other directly related preparations and site evaluations may be included in the cost of the grant if identified and quantified in the application and budget. However, please note that until pre-award costs are authorized under an approved award, the applicant has no assurance that the Service will reimburse these costs. Applications must be complete, with all required documentation described in this Notice.