Deadline: 25-Apr-2024
The Lower Mississippi Alluvial Valley Restoration Fund (Fund) will award grants to:
- Restore, enhance and maintain bottomland hardwood forests and wetlands,
- Implement voluntary conservation practices on working agricultural lands to improve soil health, wildlife habitat, and water quality, and
- Promote aquatic connectivity on private and public lands to improve wildlife habitat and water quality.
Funding Categories
- Projects should seek to address one or more of the following categories to address the earlier mentioned program habitat priorities and populations of at-risk, listed and other wildlife species, with preference given to projects that benefit Business Plan focal and prospective species such as the Louisiana black bear, swamp rabbit, forest birds, waterfowl and/or freshwater fish.
- Bottomland Hardwood Forest Enhancement and Maintenance: Promote and implement the management and enhancement of existing bottomland hardwood forests to improve wildlife habitat and water quality, including, but not limited to lands enrolled in the NRCS Wetland Reserve Program (WRP)/Agricultural Conservation Easement Program – Wetland Reserve Easements (WRE), Conservation Stewardship Program (CSP), and/or Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP).
- Bottomland Hardwood Forest Restoration (Planting): Restore bottomland hardwood forests in targeted areas that expand existing bottomland hardwood forests and create corridors between existing blocks of bottomland hardwood forest to promote wildlife dispersal and expansion.
- Restore, Wetland and Floodplain Hydrology: Improve water quality, natural hydrological function, and wildlife habitat through implementation of practices including, but not limited to:
- Connecting wetlands and water features between adjacent properties
- Improving wetland habitat and function through vegetation management
- Implement Conservation Practices on Working Agricultural Lands: For the benefit of wildlife, support practices that reduce runoff and sedimentation, improve soil health, and enhance wildlife habitat through the implementation of conservation practices on working agricultural lands, including, but not limited to:
- Rerouting agricultural runoff to constructed or restored wetlands,
- Rehabilitating or stabilizing ditches and/or gullies.
- Target Outreach, Education and Technical Assistance to Private Landowners, Forest Practitioners and Other Key Constituencies: Significant funding is available this year from USDA NRCS to support technical assistance and outreach to private landowners/producers. The Fund desires to support projects that emphasize outreach and technical assistance to, and enhanced participation of, minority and underserved landowners and producers, including historically underserved farmers and ranchers as defined by USDA.
- Targeted Areas: Projects providing outreach, education and technical assistance to private landowners and producers are eligible within the entire program boundary. However, there is also additional designated funding this year for projects providing direct technical assistance to private landowners and producers in the Missouri and Mississippi portions of the LMAV that must be awarded to projects within these states.
- Landowner/producer outreach and education: Targeting outreach and education to landowners/producers to expand landowner implementation of conservation practices.
- Landowner/producer technical assistance: Providing technical assistance to interested landowners to develop management plans, design and implement conservation practices, and participate in Farm Bill programs.
- Increase forest practitioner technical capacity: Investments to improve forest practitioners’ technical knowledge of management treatments that will achieve desired forest conditions for wildlife through peer-to-peer learning, workshops, and field days.
- Public engagement to minimize human-bear conflicts: Capacity for outreach, education, training, technical assistance, and implementation of practices to promote human-bear coexistence and improve perceptions towards Louisiana black bears in the LMAV.
- Advance new market-based solutions or incentives: Pilot innovative, market-oriented solutions or incentives that stimulate landowner participation in restoration, enhancement, and protection practices of bottomland forests and wetland; and/or conservation practices on agricultural lands. Projects should effectively align with other existing private landowner initiatives or programs, such as US Fish & Wildlife Partners for Fish & Wildlife Program and USDA’s Working Lands for Wildlife.
- Increase participation in third-party forest certification: Increase participation in third-party forest certification programs to encourage third-party verification of sustainable forest management practices for bottomland hardwood forests and associated wildlife.
- Targeted Areas: Projects providing outreach, education and technical assistance to private landowners and producers are eligible within the entire program boundary. However, there is also additional designated funding this year for projects providing direct technical assistance to private landowners and producers in the Missouri and Mississippi portions of the LMAV that must be awarded to projects within these states.
- Bottomland Hardwood Forest Habitat Conservation (Easements): Facilitate voluntary conservation easements that protect existing, high quality bottomland hardwood habitat, or key sites targeted for bottomland hardwood restoration and/or enhancement. Conservation easement projects will be most competitive when included as part of a broader restoration proposal.
- Improve Aquatic Connectivity: Remove or retrofit water conveyance structures, such as dikes and levees, to improve flows between rivers and side channels to increase habitat connectivity for fish and other aquatic species. Projects that benefit gar (fish) and increase the frequency and duration of floodplain and/or oxbow connection to the Mississippi River main stem for gar are of interest.
- Restoration Response Monitoring: Develop and implement monitoring protocols to measure Louisiana black bear, swamp rabbit, forest bird, waterfowl and gar (fish) response to habitat restoration and enhancement. Where baseline data is not available, monitoring proposals should establish a baseline measurement. This baseline should then be used to measure change over time as restoration activities are undertaken. Monitoring projects may be paired with other monitoring work that federal and state agencies or other partners are performing. Preference will be given to monitoring proposals that include habitat restoration and/or enhancement activities or monitor species response to habitat restoration and/or enhancement work funded through another NFWF Lower Mississippi Alluvial Valley Restoration Fund project.
Funding Information
- The Lower Mississippi Alluvial Valley Restoration Fund anticipates awarding approximately $4.2 million in grants in FY 2024. Grant awards are expected to range from $150,000 to $750,000, depending on the overall scale of the project. Applicants considering proposals outside of this funding range are encouraged to contact NFWF prior to submitting. This program has one annual application cycle.
- Project Period: Anticipated completion time for funded projects typically will be 24-48 months following finalization of a grant agreement.
Eligibility Criteria
- Eligible and Ineligible Entities
- Eligible applicants include non-profit 501(c) organizations, state government agencies, local governments, municipal governments, Tribal Governments and Organizations, and educational institutions.
- Ineligible applicants include U.S. Federal agencies, businesses, unincorporated individuals and international organizations.
For more information, visit NFWF.
