Grant Funding & Administration Journal: Conservation Partners is a partnership between the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) (www.nrcs.usda.gov), the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF) (www.nfwf.org)

Monday, May 21, 2012

Conservation Partners is a partnership between the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) (www.nrcs.usda.gov), the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF) (www.nfwf.org)

Conservation Partners

Program Description

Conservation Partners is a partnership between the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) (www.nrcs.usda.gov), the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF) (www.nfwf.org) and other regional/initiative specific partners such as the Walton Family Foundation. The purpose of this program is to provide grants on a competitive basis to support field biologists and other habitat conservation professionals (ecologists, foresters, range cons, etc.) working with NRCS field offices in providing technical assistance to farmers, ranchers, foresters and other private landowners to optimize wildlife habitat conservation on private lands.

Conservation Partners aims to better focus and increase the effectiveness of Farm Bill assistance funded through programs such as Wildlife Habitat Incentives Program (WHIP), Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP), Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) and others. In addition, Conservation Partners will consider funding capacity and outreach for organizations whose mission matches the goals of this program.

Program Priority Areas (PPAs)

During the summer 2012 funding cycle priority funding will be directed to proposals that target species and ecosystems of shared interest between NFWF and NRCS, including but not limited to the following: (A map of priority project areas can be accessed by clicking here.) Current PPA's are:

Northwest Salmon Rivers
Northern Great Plains
California Sierras and Bay Delta
Lesser Prairie-Chicken

In addition, grants can be awarded to any region of the country for conservation relating to the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP). More detail about this and all other aspects of Conservation Partner's funding priorities is found on the Request for Proposals link listed below.

Note: through previous Conservation Partners' funding cycles, grants were considered for PPA's not listed here.

The following link contains access to other useful information for applicants, including videos that demonstrate the Easygrants online system: http://www.nfwf.org/applicantinfo.

Prospective applicants may contact John Curry (john.curry@nfwf.org ; 612-564-7285) before submitting a proposal. A webinar to discuss the goals of the program and the application process was held on May 17th at 11:00 am -12:00 pm.