Deadline: 26-Jul-22
The National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF) is soliciting proposals to voluntarily restore watershed habitats and improve water quality in targeted river basins and watersheds of the Southeast.
The Southeast Aquatics Fund is a competitive grants program that supports voluntary watershed-based restoration and improved management within riparian and in-stream areas and the forest and agricultural lands that impact them to improve the health of these aquatic systems and secure populations of native freshwater aquatic species.
Priorities
- Provide Technical Assistance and Outreach (All Geographic Focal Areas) – Support needed capacity to conduct outreach to private landowners and/or producers to increase awareness of conservation need, appropriate practices and available cost-share programs to improve water quality/quantity or connectivity.
- Agricultural and Forestry Best Management Practices (All Geographic Focal Areas) – Support agricultural and forestry practices that reduce nutrient and sediment runoff from the land and conserve water where assistance is needed in addition to or outside of available Farm Bill and other cost-share programs.
- Restore and Enhance Riparian and In-stream Habitat (Alabama, Mobile-Tombigbee, and ACF River Basin Focal Areas) – Restore wetland, streambank, and instream habitat in prioritized areas of a watershed that otherwise would not be addressed through agricultural or forestry best management practices to support key functions of the watershed and improve native aquatic species populations.
- Improve stream crossings (Alabama, Mobile-Tombigbee, and ACF River Basin Focal Areas) – Restore connectivity for fish passage and reduce sedimentation by removing or retrofitting stream barriers and stream crossings (culverts, concrete fords).
- Assessment, Prioritization and Planning (Alabama, Mobile-Tombigbee, and ACF River Basins Focal Areas) – Support the assessment of barriers and crossings within a watershed to identify which should receive highest priority for removal or retrofitting based on probable gains for target species.
- Monitoring (Alabama and Mobile-Tombigbee River Basins Focal Area) – Conduct monitoring to understand the population status and habitat conditions for bridled and trispot darter, Villosa mussels (Alabama rainbow, Coosa creekshell), Black Warrior waterdog and flattened musk turtle within the Conasauga, Locust Fork and Middle Coosa watersheds.
Funding Information
Approximately $2 million is anticipated to be available in grant funding in 2022, with individual grant awards typically ranging between $150,000 and $350,000.
Eligibility Criteria
- Eligible applicants include non-profit 501(c) organizations, U.S. Federal government agencies, state government agencies, local governments, municipal governments, Tribal Governments and Organizations and educational institutions.
- Ineligible applicants include businesses, unincorporated individuals and international organizations.
For more information, visit https://www.nfwf.org/programs/southeast-aquatics/southeast-aquatics-fund-2022-request-proposals
