At Risk Species; Conservation without Conflict in the Northeast USA | F18AS00306

Opportunity Information: Apply for F18AS00306

The grant opportunity titled "At Risk Species; Conservation without Conflict in the Northeast USA" (Funding Opportunity Number F18AS00306) was a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) Region 5 funding action under the Department of the Interior, released on August 17, 2018 and originally closing on September 25, 2018. It was offered as a discretionary cooperative agreement under CFDA 15.670 (Fish and Wildlife Management Assistance). Although the eligibility field is listed as unrestricted in the database, the narrative makes clear this was a single-source action intended for one specific recipient: the Wildlife Management Institute (WMI) in Gardners, Pennsylvania. The posted notice functioned primarily as a public notification rather than an open competition, with an expected total of one award and an award ceiling of $780,000.

The central purpose of the agreement was to strengthen the capacity, coordination, and practical tools needed to improve multi-state, multi-partner collaboration on conserving and recovering species that are either already listed under the Endangered Species Act (ESA) or considered at-risk of becoming listed. The work is framed around a "Conservation without Conflict" approach, emphasizing non-regulatory and cooperative solutions rather than enforcement-driven or adversarial processes. In practical terms, the intent is to help prevent new ESA listings when proactive conservation can address threats early, and to support progress toward down-listing or delisting species already protected by the ESA when recovery benchmarks are met.

A major theme of the opportunity is partnership-driven conservation across boundaries and ownership types. The agreement is designed to support collaboration among Northeastern states, USFWS Region 5, and additional partners, explicitly including forest landowners and the Department of Defense. This signals an emphasis on aligning conservation planning and implementation across working landscapes and installations where mission needs, land management, and species conservation have to be balanced. By investing in coordination and shared technical resources, the project aims to reduce friction and uncertainty for partners while improving on-the-ground outcomes for wildlife and habitat.

The agreement is described as having two main components. The first component focuses on building and maintaining the capacity to coordinate collaborative conservation efforts. This includes organizing and supporting cross-agency coordination, ensuring information flows effectively among states and federal partners, and helping partners work from a common set of technical assumptions. Specific examples listed include habitat mapping efforts, shared development of conservation designs (meaning jointly developed spatial plans or strategies that identify priority areas and actions), and coordination to support implementation of effective conservation practices. In other words, this component is about the people, processes, and shared planning infrastructure that make regional collaboration workable and efficient.

The second component centers on updating and improving mapping and related decision-support information that states and partners use to guide conservation actions for at-risk and listed species across the Northeast. The notice highlights two types of technical updates in particular. One is updating regional mapping of terrestrial and aquatic habitats, which is often essential for identifying priority conservation areas, assessing threats, tracking habitat availability and connectivity, and targeting management actions where they will have the greatest benefit. The other is evaluating road-stream crossings that create both public safety concerns and barriers to aquatic organism passage. This reflects a common conservation and infrastructure challenge in the Northeast, where undersized or failing culverts and crossings can increase flood risk, fragment stream habitats, and block fish and other aquatic species from reaching critical upstream and downstream habitats. By supporting evaluation work in this area, the agreement ties biodiversity goals to practical community and infrastructure outcomes.

Overall, the opportunity can be understood as an investment in regional coordination and shared technical tools that help partners act earlier and more strategically for species conservation. Rather than focusing on a single species or a single site, it is structured to improve the underlying capacity and data systems that allow multiple states and partners to plan and implement conservation consistently across the Northeast. The intended end result is better-aligned, science-informed, and collaboratively delivered conservation that reduces the likelihood of future ESA conflicts while improving recovery prospects for species already under ESA protection.

• The Department of the Interior, Fish and Wildlife Service in the natural resources sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "At Risk Species; Conservation without Conflict in the Northeast USA" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 15.670.
• This funding opportunity was created on Aug 17, 2018.
• Applicants must submit their applications by Sep 25, 2018. (Agency may still review applications by suitable applicants for the remaining/unused allocated funding in 2026.)
• Each selected applicant is eligible to receive up to $780,000.00 in funding.
• The number of recipients for this funding is limited to 1 candidate(s).
• Eligible applicants include: Unrestricted (i.e., open to any type of entity above), subject to any clarification in text field entitled Additional Information on Eligibility.

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