CDFW distributes grant funds made available through the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Cooperative Endangered Species Conservation Fund (Traditional Section 6) Grant Program for threatened and endangered species conservation and
recovery actions through Endangered Species Conservation and Recovery Program Grants. 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. 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 federally listed species into suitable habitats within their historic range
- Enhancement or restoration of federally listed species habitat
- Surveys and inventories of federally listed species habitats
- Federally listed species status surveys
- Propagation of federally listed animals and plants
- Research on federally listed species such as genetic analysis to determine genetic health and population structure
- Monitoring of federal 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 federally listed species identified in a federal Recovery Plan
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 annually solicits 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. The PSN contains 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, environmental review, and final project approval. Once a project is approved, CDFW will prepare sub-grants or contracts to convey funding to project partners. 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 $40,000 to $400,000. Applications for grant awards in excess of $400,000 should include descriptions of alternatives with fewer objectives, a narrower scope, or phases that could be funded with a lesser award.