BLM CA Wildlife and Plant Conservation | L17AS00159

Opportunity Information: Apply for L17AS00159

The BLM CA Wildlife and Plant Conservation grant opportunity (Funding Opportunity Number L17AS00159) is a Bureau of Land Management, California-focused cooperative agreement designed to fund practical, on-the-ground conservation work for imperiled wildlife, plants, and their habitats. The overall purpose is to move species closer to recovery by directly carrying out actions identified in formal recovery plans under the Endangered Species Act (ESA), implementing State Wildlife Action Plans, and advancing conservation strategies for species of special concern or species that require ongoing conservation attention. A central theme is proactive conservation: supporting work that stabilizes at-risk species and habitats early enough to prevent candidate or proposed species from needing to be listed under the ESA in the first place.

Projects supported under this opportunity are intended to be tangible and field-based, such as habitat restoration, recovery actions, conservation management, and species surveys that produce usable data for management decisions. The BLM emphasizes that the benefits and reporting products from funded work will be made publicly available and will be used not only by the BLM but also by other public and private land managers to guide decisions across California landscapes. In other words, the expected outputs are not just internal deliverables; they are meant to inform broader land stewardship and conservation planning.

A key requirement is flexibility and statewide capability. The recipient must be able to respond to BLM needs involving essentially any animal and/or plant species and to carry out habitat restoration and related conservation work across all California BLM field offices. The structure anticipates that the award could support multiple, distinct tasks over time, with each task defining a specific species goal or objective and a defined geographic area. The opportunity also notes that there may be multiple projects in a single year, potentially covering multiple species, which implies the BLM is looking for an organization with the technical breadth, staffing, and logistical capacity to manage a portfolio of conservation actions across different regions and taxa.

One identified priority need mentioned in the opportunity is a survey for the Mohave Shoulder-band Snail within the Ridgecrest Field Office area. The purpose of that survey is to gather additional information about occupied habitat on BLM-administered lands, strengthening the data foundation for habitat management and conservation decisions. This example illustrates the kind of targeted, decision-relevant field work the program intends to support, especially where improved occurrence and habitat data can directly influence protection and restoration actions.

Administratively, this was offered as a discretionary funding opportunity through the U.S. Department of the Interior, Bureau of Land Management, using a cooperative agreement instrument, which typically indicates substantial involvement or collaboration by the BLM during project implementation. The activity area is natural resources, with CFDA number 15.231. Eligibility was listed as unrestricted (open to any entity type, subject to any additional eligibility clarifications in the full notice). The original posting date was June 13, 2017, with an original closing date of August 11, 2017. The opportunity listed an award ceiling of up to $5,000,000 and anticipated a single award, suggesting the BLM intended to select one primary partner capable of implementing a wide range of conservation actions statewide under a coordinated framework.

• The Department of the Interior, Bureau of Land Management in the natural resources sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "BLM CA Wildlife and Plant Conservation" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 15.231.
• This funding opportunity was created on Jun 13, 2017.
• Applicants must submit their applications by Aug 11, 2017. (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 $5,000,000.00 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.

Apply for L17AS00159

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