FY 2018 Multistate Conservation Grant Program | F17AS00187

Opportunity Information: Apply for F17AS00187

The FY 2018 Multistate Conservation Grant Program (MSCGP) is a competitive federal grant opportunity run through the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS), specifically its Wildlife and Sport Fish Restoration (WSFR) Program, to fund conservation projects that operate across multiple states. The program exists because Congress, through the Sport Fish Restoration Act and the Wildlife Restoration Act (as strengthened by the Wildlife and Sport Fish Restoration Programs Improvement Act of 2000, Public Law 106-408), authorized the Secretary of the Interior to make up to $6,000,000 available each year for multistate work. That total is split evenly, with up to $3,000,000 coming from the Sport Fish Restoration trust fund and up to $3,000,000 coming from the Wildlife Restoration trust fund. The basic idea is to support regional or national conservation priorities that state fish and wildlife agencies agree are important but cannot realistically tackle on their own within a single state boundary.

A defining feature of this program is that it is built around a set of annually identified priorities called National Conservation Needs (NCNs). These NCNs are selected each year by the Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies (often simply called "the Association") to reflect shared, multistate-level needs of state fish and wildlife agencies. To be eligible and competitive, applicants must clearly tie their proposed work to one or more of those NCNs. In practice, this means proposals should not be framed as single-state projects with a minor regional angle; they need to show real multistate relevance, collaboration, and benefits that extend beyond one jurisdiction.

The administration of the program is shared between the Association and the FWS WSFR Program. The Association plays the lead role in the front end of the competition by running the application process, coordinating the review, and providing guidance and oversight to applicants. The federal role, through WSFR, is to award and manage the grants once projects have been selected through the Association-led process. A key constraint is that WSFR can only make awards from the Association's annually prepared Priority List, meaning a project must successfully move through the Association's screening and ranking steps before it can receive federal funding.

The selection process happens in two stages. First, eligible applicants submit a Letter of Intent (LOI), which serves as an initial, shorter concept submission. After review, only the strongest LOIs are invited to move forward. In the second stage, invited applicants submit full grant proposals along with all required federal forms to the Association's National Grants Committee (NGC). The NGC reviews, scores, and ranks the proposals, then develops the final Priority List of recommended projects. That list is provided to WSFR, which then makes the grant awards and handles ongoing federal grant management. Projects that receive awards are published annually in the Federal Register, providing a public record of funded work.

For this specific opportunity posting, the funding opportunity title is "FY 2018 Multistate Conservation Grant Program" and the funding opportunity number is F17AS00187. It is categorized as a discretionary grant opportunity in the natural resources area and is associated with CFDA number 15.628. The posting indicates an expected number of awards of about 15, with an award ceiling of $1,000,000 per project. The original closing date listed for submissions was August 4, 2017, and the opportunity record shows a creation date of April 6, 2017. Eligible applicants are listed as special district governments, though the program narrative emphasizes alignment with the priorities and needs of state fish and wildlife agencies and the NCN framework as the central eligibility and competitiveness driver.

In practical terms, this grant program is designed for projects like multistate coordination efforts, shared tools or datasets, regional planning and implementation strategies, or other collaborative work products that help multiple state agencies address a common conservation or management issue. The program is not just funding conservation activities in the abstract; it is specifically funding work that fills regionally or nationally significant gaps identified by states collectively, using the NCNs as the roadmap for what the program will support in a given year.

• The Fish and Wildlife Service in the natural resources sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "FY 2018 Multistate Conservation Grant Program" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 15.628.
• This funding opportunity was created on 2017-04-06.
• Applicants must submit their applications by 2017-08-04. (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 $1,000,000.00 in funding.
• The number of recipients for this funding is limited to 15 candidate(s).
• Eligible applicants include: Special district governments.

Apply for F17AS00187

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