F22AS00420 - FY 22 Great Lakes Restoration Initiative – Joint Venture Habitat Restoration and Protection | F22AS00420

Opportunity Information: Apply for F22AS00420

The funding opportunity F22AS00420, titled FY 22 Great Lakes Restoration Initiative (GLRI) - Joint Venture Habitat Restoration and Protection, is a discretionary grant program run by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (CFDA 15.637) focused on on-the-ground habitat work in the U.S. Great Lakes watershed. The larger GLRI purpose is to tackle major environmental challenges affecting the Great Lakes ecosystem by investing in projects that produce measurable restoration outcomes. Under this announcement, funding is intended to support partner-led efforts that protect, restore, or enhance habitat in ways that benefit native Great Lakes fish and wildlife, with a strong emphasis on migratory bird conservation.

A key feature of this program is that it is coordinated through two established bird habitat partnerships (Joint Ventures) operating in the Great Lakes basin: the Upper Mississippi/Great Lakes Joint Venture and the Atlantic Coast Joint Venture. These Joint Ventures, working alongside the Wildlife and Sport Fish Restoration programs within the Midwest and Northeast Regions of the Fish and Wildlife Service, use a competitive process to select projects. In practice, that means proposals are expected to clearly align with recognized habitat strategies and to show how the proposed work contributes to broader, long-term conservation outcomes rather than isolated, short-lived improvements.

Project selection preferences are tied directly to existing conservation plans. Applicants are more competitive when their projects help meet habitat objectives identified in the Upper Mississippi/Great Lakes Joint Venture Implementation Plan or the Lower Great Lakes/St. Lawrence Plain (Bird Conservation Region 13) Plan, along with other relevant bird conservation plans and State Wildlife Action Plans. This emphasis signals that proposals should be grounded in established science-based priorities, target high-value habitats or limiting factors identified in those plans, and explain how the work advances specific habitat goals (for example, increasing the quantity or quality of key wetland, coastal, or upland habitats used by priority species).

Only certain types of projects are eligible. The program funds direct habitat outcomes such as restoration, enhancement, and protection activities. It explicitly does not fund research and/or monitoring projects because those activities, by themselves, are not considered direct actions that achieve the habitat goals laid out in the Joint Venture and state plans referenced in the notice. Applicants should therefore frame their work around tangible habitat deliverables (such as acres restored or protected, hydrology reconnected, invasive species removed in support of habitat recovery, habitat structures improved, or conservation protections secured), and avoid proposals that are primarily designed to study conditions or collect monitoring data.

Geography is also tightly defined. Projects must occur within the U.S. portion of the Great Lakes watershed as defined by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and they must be located within Great Lakes-bordering states: Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. That means applicants need to demonstrate clearly that their project site falls inside the eligible EPA-defined watershed boundary and within one of the listed states.

The eligible applicant pool is broad and includes state, county, and local governments; special district governments; public and state-controlled institutions of higher education; private institutions of higher education; federally recognized tribal governments and other tribal organizations; and nonprofit organizations both with and without 501(c)(3) status. The announcement also notes an important expectation for applicants that are not primarily conservation-based organizations: they must explain how their organizational priorities still support GLRI objectives and Joint Venture priorities, and they must make a convincing case that the benefits of the federal investment will be maintained over time. In other words, reviewers are looking for durability, such as long-term stewardship commitments, management plans, conservation easements or similar protections, and credible assurances that restored or enhanced habitats will not be allowed to degrade once grant funding ends.

From a funding structure standpoint, the award instrument is a grant and the award ceiling is listed as $300,000 per award. The posted closing date for this opportunity was February 7, 2023. Overall, the program is best understood as a targeted Great Lakes habitat implementation grant: it is designed for partners who can deliver concrete, plan-aligned habitat protection and restoration work within the Great Lakes basin, especially work that supports priority migratory bird populations and contributes to long-term conservation outcomes across the region.

• The Fish and Wildlife Service in the natural resources sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "F22AS00420 - FY 22 Great Lakes Restoration Initiative – Joint Venture Habitat Restoration and Protection" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 15.637.
• This funding opportunity was created on 2023-02-06.
• Applicants must submit their applications by 2023-02-07. (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 $300,000.00 in funding.
• Eligible applicants include: State governments, County governments, City or township governments, Special district governments, Public and State controlled institutions of higher education, Native American tribal governments (Federally recognized), Native American tribal organizations (other than Federally recognized tribal governments), 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, Private institutions of higher education.

Apply for F22AS00420

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