Fiscal Year 2010 Endangered Species Candidate Conservation Action Funds

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The purpose of the Endangered Species Act is to provide a means by which the ecosystems upon which endangered and threatened species depend may be conserved, to provide a program for the conservation of these species, and to take appropriate steps to achieve the purposes of treaties and conventions set forth in the law.The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) Endangered Species Program provides Federal financial assistance on a competitive basis to states, other Federal agencies, landowners, educators, non-profit organizations, researchers and other potential partners to secure information about endangered, threatened or candidate species, to aid in the recovery of these species, to avert listing of species pursuant to the Endangered Species Act, and to help conserve the ecosystems upon which these species depend. This funding opportunity uses FWS Regional and Field Office discretionary funding, if available. The amount of actual funding available will vary from year to year. Funding may not be available every year in each Regional or Field Office. The overall goal of this Candidate Conservation funding opportunity is based on cooperative relationships with states, non-profit organizations, private landowners and those interested in habitat restoration or undertaking endangered and threatened species research, surveys and monitoring, or educational outreach efforts. Work may be done via cooperative agreement, grant agreement, project grants, or direct payment for specified use.This opportunity provides funds to accomplish high priority conservation tasks for high priority, FWS-managed, candidate and at-risk species in the United States (based on our annual Candidate Species Assessments), such that known threats to the species may be reduced or eliminated. Projects for NMFS-managed species are not included in this funding opportunity.This opportunity is limited to projects carrying out actions described in a species’ annual Candidate Species Assessments or in a spotlight species action plan, or projects documenting species’ response to climate change. For example: securing scientific information about candidate and at-risk species and their habitat, implementing restoration actions that will lead to removing threats so as to preclude the need to list, help prevent extinction of a species, or aid in the recovery of a species. Projects that address species response to climate change will receive additional consideration. Copies of species’ approved Candidate Species Assessments and completed spotlight species action plans are available on the Endangered Species Program’s website. Go to our Species Information website at http://www.fws.gov/endangered/wildlife.html. Enter a species name in the blue regulatory profile query box at the top left of the page, and then hit the Submit button. If you enter a general name like the word “trout,” then a list of species names containing the word “trout” will appear. Click on the scientific name of the desired species to see the regulatory profile for that species. Once you’re in the species’ profile, look under Lead Region to find the FWS Regional Office with lead for the species. Next, scroll down to the Candidate Information section of the regulatory profile. Look for the Species Assessment Form. If a species has a spotlight species action plan, it will be posted under the Action Plans section of the regulatory profile.The FWS is committed to addressing the issue of climate change. Through thecreation of the FWS proposed strategic plan, “Rising to Challenge: Strategic Plan for Responding to Accelerating Climate Change,” we developed a proposed 5-year action plan that details the actions that we will undertake to implement the strategic plan. One of the objectives in the proposed 5-year action plan is to evaluate and determine whether it is appropriate to revise FWS grant criteria to incorporate climate change considerations. Therefore, through this notice for Fiscal Year 2010, we are including species response to climate change as one of the funding application ranking criteria to help us evaluate whether it would be appropriate to include climate change considerations in this and future funding opportunities. The FWS proposed strategic plan and action plan are available on the FWS website at http://www.fws.gov/home/climatechange/strategic_plan.html

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