Competitive State Wildlife Grant Program

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Since 2001, the Service has awarded State Wildlife Grants for the development and implementation of programs for the benefit of wildlife and their habitat, including species that are not hunted or fished. To participate in the SWG program, as directed by Congress, each State, Commonwealth, territory, and the District of Columbia developed a Comprehensive Wildlife Conservation Plan or State Wildlife Action Plan for review and approval by the Service. All the State SWAPs were submitted to the Service and approved by early 2006. Each SWAP identifies species of greatest conservation need that occur in a State, and the habitats needed to conserve them. In addition, the SWAPs provide detailed information on issues affecting SGCN and their habitats, and conservation actions and strategies to address these issues. Congress annually appropriates funds for the SWG program to support implementation and updating of the SWAPs. The majority of these funds are noncompetitively apportioned by the Service to State fish and wildlife agencies through a formula based on population and geographic area. Congress established the SWG Competitive Grant Program in 2008 through Public Law 110-161. This nationally competitive program, the focus of this announcement, also provides a resource to implement or enhance the SWAPs, with a special focus on promoting and advancing cooperative partnerships that result in large scale landscape conservation. SWG Competitive Grant Program applications must address: a. eligible issues identified in Service-approved SWAPs; b. emerging issues,such as climate change effects on SGCN, that are adequately documented in the grant application and that propose to improve the status of SGCN and their habitats; and/or, c. improvements to SWAPs that meet one or more of the themes described in Section IV.F. of this announcement. In FY2013, eligibility for competitive SWG is restricted to a minimum of two States which choose to work together to jointly manage and administer a project, with exceptions for those States which do not share common boundaries with other States, including Alaska, Hawaii, and the other insular jurisdictions. States applying to the SWAP Enhancement Fund may also apply as single States. In administration of SWG competitive, the Service adopts policies described in the Service¿s policy handbook for the non-competitive apportioned State Wildlife Grants, except where there may be conflicts with information contained in this announcement. Priority will be given to proposals that identify measurable performance results and outcomes. Additional consideration will be given to proposed projects that seek to contribute to the goals and objectives of regional, science based multi partner conservation strategies, Landscape Conservation Cooperatives, Joint Ventures, Fish Habitat Partnerships or other similar landscape scale conservation efforts. Funds will be awarded to the highest scoring applications using the scoring criteria contained in this announcement, at the discretion of the Service Director.

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