Deadline: 14-Oct-22
The Department of Commerce is soliciting grant proposals from eligible state and territory Coastal Zone Management Programs (CZM Programs) for coastal habitat restoration; coastal habitat restoration planning, engineering, and design; and land conservation projects that support the goals and intent of the Coastal Zone Management Act (CZMA), the Coastal and Estuarine Land Conservation Program (CELCP), and the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, Public Law 117-58.
For the purposes of this funding opportunity, coastal habitat conservation is defined as the acquisition of fee simple interest in real property or conservation easements.
The NOAA Office for Coastal Management (OCM) encourages applicants and awardees to support the principles of equity and inclusion when writing their proposals and performing their work. Promoting equity and inclusion through community engagement, co-development, and partnership improves creativity, productivity, and the vitality of the coastal management community that OCM supports.
Categories
There are three categories of projects that are eligible, as follows.
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Habitat Restoration. For habitat restoration projects, priority will be given to projects that:
- Reflect coastal habitat restoration priority areas identified in state or regional plans;
- Restore important habitats and connected ecosystem functions/species;
- Restore hydrologic connections between habitats that improve ecosystem function;
- Enhance or restore important ecosystem services that support coastal communities, vulnerable populations or cultural resources (i.e., coastal flood protection, extreme weather resilience, water quality and quantity, food safety & security, and chronic coastal erosion, etc.;
- Include a long-term plan for monitoring specific criteria relevant to achieve project objectives;
- Provide for engineering and design needs, if not already completed.
- Habitat Restoration Planning, Engineering, and Design: Habitat restoration planning, engineering, and design projects will be evaluated using the same criteria as noted above for habitat restoration projects, with the exception that monitoring plans are not required for planning, engineering, and design projects. Applicants proposing pre-implementation activities should demonstrate how these efforts will support or catalyze subsequent on-the-ground restoration. As with on-the-ground projects, all planning, engineering, and design projects must be located State’s Coastal Zone Management Program Boundary or within a coastal watershed county.
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Land Conservation: For land conservation projects, priority will be given to projects that:
- have significant ecological value, and
- have a demonstrated need for protection; and
- can be effectively managed and protected.
Funding Information
- Estimated Total Program Funding: $35,000,000
- Award Ceiling: $6,000,000
- Award Floor: $200,000
Eligibility Criteria
- Any coastal State or Territorial CZM Program that has been approved by NOAA pursuant to the Coastal Zone Management Act (16 U.S.C. § 1455) is eligible for habitat restoration and conservation funds under this announcement. Each applicant may submit no more than three letters of intent for consideration under this competition.
- For selected projects, NOAA may make financial assistance awards to the lead CZM Program agency, which will be responsible for ensuring that allocated funds are used for the purposes of and in a manner consistent with this program, including any funds awarded to an eligible sub-applicant.
- NOAA may, with concurrence of the State’s CZM Program lead agency, make a grant directly to an identified sub-applicant in order to expedite completion of an approved project.
- For these projects, the CZM Program lead state agency would submit the Letter of Intent and include a description of which CZM Program partner would be the final grant recipient. If the CZM Program is invited to submit a final application for this proposal, then the CZM Program partner would submit the final application through grants.gov.
- In such cases, the CZM Program partner (as the grant recipient) will be responsible for ensuring that allocated funds are used for the approved purposes of, and in a manner consistent with, this program
For more information, visit Grants.gov.
For more information, visit https://www.grants.gov/web/grants/view-opportunity.html?oppId=341538