CDFW distributes
federal funds for threatened and endangered species conservation and
recovery actions through the Endangered Species Conservation and
Recovery Grant Program. Funds for threatened and endangered species
conservation actions are provided to states and territories from the
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service through their Traditional Conservation
Grants Program (Traditional Section 6 Grant Program). CDFW is
responsible for managing native fish, wildlife, and plant species in
California, and directs the solicitation and implementation of
Traditional Section 6 Grant funded projects to promote species
conservation and recovery in coordination with the USFWS through a
Section 6 Cooperative Agreement. Authority for CDFW to administer the
Section 6 grant program is granted through §1501.5 of the Fish and Game
Code.
The primary objective of endangered species conservation and recovery
grants is to support the development and implementation of state
programs to conserve and recover federally threatened and endangered
inland fish and wildlife species. Grant funds to support the
conservation of certain marine species and anadromous fish species are
administered under separate programs. Project proposals must be
developed in close coordination with CDFW and USFWS biologists and
identify a CDFW employee who will sponsor the project by administering
the grant. Eligible projects are those which target recovery actions for
species listed as threatened or endangered under the U.S. Endangered
Species Act. Additionally, monitoring projects targeted at certain
at-risk species such as those for which a positive federal 90-day
finding has been made, species that are the subject of a proposed
federal listing rule, species for which the USFWS has initiated a status
review and has announced the review in the Federal Register, and
species de-listed by the USFWS within the last five years are eligible
(see the federal Legacy Region 8
Notice of Funding Opportunity(opens in new tab)
for a list of species eligible for monitoring projects). Applicants
must provide a minimum of 25% of the total project cost in non-federal
matching funds or in-kind services. Projects must focus on one or more
of the following areas:
- Introduction of species into suitable habitats within their historic range
- Enhancement or restoration of habitat
- Surveys and inventories of habitats
- Species status surveys
- Propagation of animals and plants
- Research such as genetic analysis to determine genetic health and population structure
- Monitoring of candidate, at-risk and recently recovered species
- Public education and outreach tools such as website development or
coordination workshops with local landowners to address a specific
threat to a species
Funding priority is given to projects that have a direct impact on
the recovery of listed species, prevent extinction of a listed species
or prevent the need to list a species through implementation of tasks
identified in a final or draft recovery plan, recovery outline, or
similar conservation or management strategy. Proposals that involve only
research, must produce information that can be directly used to prevent
listing, recover, manage, or improve current management strategies for a
species.
CDFW will annually solicit project proposals for funding under the
Endangered Species Conservation and Recovery Grant Program based on
approved needs, topics, and/or themes which address the goals and
objective of the program through the Proposal Solicitation Notice (PSN)
linked in the right column of this page. Each year the PSN will contain
all pertinent information needed for the submission of proposals,
including, but not limited to following:
- Types of projects or themes that will be accepted;
- Current proposal and budget templates;
- Information on the proposal scoring process;
- Other specific CDFW requirements;
- Other information as applicable.
Project proposals are evaluated and scored by an internal committee
comprised of staff from the Wildlife, Fisheries, and Habitat
Conservation Planning Branches and from CDFW Regions. From the
evaluation process a list of recommended projects is submitted to the
Director of CDFW for approval. The final list of CDFW recommendations is
then submitted to USFWS for consideration. Proposals selected by the
USFWS for funding then receive federal technical review, scoring based
on the merit criteria listed in the NOFO, environmental review, and
final project approval. Once a project is approved, CDFW will prepare
sub-grants to convey funding to project applicants. The number of
projects funded each year is dependent on the amount of funding
available. Traditional Section 6 Recovery Grants have historically been
awarded in amounts ranging from $20,000 to $400,000. Applications for
grant awards in excess of $350,000 are encouraged to include
descriptions of alternatives with fewer objectives, a narrower scope, or
phases that could be funded with a lesser award.
Grant funds for this program are made available to CDFW through the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Cooperative Endangered Species Conservation Fund (Section 6) Grant Program(opens in new tab).