This agreement supports landscape conservation programs that occur on or benefit national forest system lands

The U.S. Forest Service (USDA), through the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF) program (CFDA 10.683), awarded a $5.512 million Cooperative Agreement to the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation on September 17, 2025, to support landscape conservation programs on National Forest System lands through June 30, 2030. This agreement funds conservation projects designed to improve ecosystems, fish and wildlife habitat, native plant habitat, and forest health conditions across the nation's forest lands. The NFWF operates as a grant administrator and intermediary, leveraging federal appropriations with private philanthropic funding on at least a one-for-one matching basis to amplify conservation outcomes.

The agreement supported multiple landscape-scale conservation initiatives delivered through five sub-awardees including The Nature Conservancy, Trout Unlimited, Inc., American Forests, Friends of the Cheat, Inc., and Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University. Sub-awarded projects included controlled burn management across public and private lands in Maryland and Pennsylvania; brook trout and eastern hellbender habitat restoration in West Virginia river headwaters; regional forest management capacity building on private lands in Southwest Virginia; hellbender population sustainability and riparian habitat restoration across Central Appalachia (targeting 30 acres of restored riparian buffer, 200 stream crossings surveyed, and 30 long-term monitoring sites); and innovative captive rearing and release techniques for hellbender species in Virginia. These integrated efforts collectively addressed ecosystem restoration, species conservation, and habitat connectivity across multiple forest regions.

This cooperative agreement supports conservation projects that improve ecosystems associated fish and wildlife, native plant habitat, and forest health conditions on land administered by the forest service.