State Wildlife Grants - Region 5 - Northeast Region | F16AS00154

Opportunity Information: Apply for F16AS00154

The State Wildlife Grants - Region 5 - Northeast Region opportunity (Funding Opportunity Number F16AS00154) is a discretionary grant program run by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to help state-level governments strengthen and carry out wildlife conservation work. The program is designed to support conservation of wildlife and wildlife habitat broadly, with an explicit emphasis on species that are not typically managed through hunting or fishing programs. In practice, this funding is meant to help states build out comprehensive conservation strategies and then implement on-the-ground actions that measurably benefit wildlife populations and the places they depend on.

A central requirement of the program is that proposed work must be tied to the applicant jurisdiction's Wildlife Action Plan, meaning the statewide plan that has been reviewed and approved by the Director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The grant supports two major categories of work. First, planning activities are eligible when they directly contribute to developing, updating, or modifying the current Wildlife Action Plan, such as improving the underlying assessments, refining priorities, addressing emerging threats, or updating conservation approaches based on new data. Second, implementation activities are eligible when they carry out specific actions identified in the Wildlife Action Plan, which can include habitat restoration, species monitoring and management actions, addressing key threats, or other practical measures that advance the plan's goals.

The program also sets a clear conservation priority framework. Applicants are expected to place priority on "species of greatest conservation need," and to weigh how limited conservation dollars are distributed across those needs. This means proposals that are strongly aligned with the plan's highest-priority species and threats, and that show a rational basis for why funds are targeted in a particular way, are most consistent with the program's intent. The overarching aim is to ensure the funds are used strategically rather than spread too thinly across lower-priority efforts.

Certain activities are not eligible for support under this opportunity. Standalone wildlife education and law enforcement activities are generally ineligible. However, the notice allows 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 conservation project. In other words, education or enforcement cannot be the main purpose of the grant-funded work, but a limited component may be allowed if it is clearly necessary to achieve the project's conservation outcomes.

Eligibility is limited to state governments (which, per the program description, includes states, the District of Columbia, and U.S. commonwealths and territories). The funding activity category is Natural Resources and the CFDA number is 15.634. The opportunity listed an award ceiling of up to $1,000,000 and anticipated roughly 50 awards. The opportunity was created on March 31, 2016, and the original closing date was August 31, 2017. Overall, this grant is best understood as a vehicle for state wildlife agencies and equivalent government entities in the Northeast Region to refine their statewide conservation planning and to deliver concrete, plan-driven conservation actions for high-need species and habitats.

• The Fish and Wildlife Service in the natural resources sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "State Wildlife Grants - Region 5 - Northeast Region" 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 2016-03-31.
• Applicants must submit their applications by 2017-08-31. (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 $1,000,000.00 in funding.
• The number of recipients for this funding is limited to 50 candidate(s).
• Eligible applicants include: State governments.

Apply for F16AS00154

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