The national fish and wildlife foundation (nfwf) respectfully requests 1,841,655 in funding to support project work through its pecos watershed conservation initiative and southern plains grassland…

The National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF) received a $3,683,310 Cooperative Agreement award from the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) to support the Pecos Watershed Conservation Initiative and Southern Plains Grassland Program in New Mexico and Texas. The award, effective from September 15, 2023 to September 14, 2028, will leverage at least $1,841,655 in matching funds to deliver landscape-level conservation projects. Under the BLM's Rangeland Resource Management program (CFDA 15.237), the funding will be used to restore and manage grassland habitats, improve wildlife populations, and build drought resilience across public and private lands. NFWF will administer a competitive subaward process to engage non-profit organizations, state/local governments, tribes, and universities in implementing the on-the-ground conservation work.

The national fish and wildlife foundation (nfwf) respectfully requests 1,841,655 in funding to support project work through its pecos watershed conservation initiative and southern plains grassland program in partnership with the bureau of land management (BLM) new mexico. These established nfwf programs support the blms restore new mexico programs goals of restoring and maintaining rangelands. Nfwfs programs bring together federal and non-federal partners and priorities to generate requests for proposals (rfps) that leverage partner resources, solicit targeted projects, and generate robust annual grant slates tracked through metrics and scorecards. The BLM funds will be leveraged at a minimum 1:1 ratio with non-federal funds bringing the total value of this partnership to more than 3,683,310. BLM and nfwf will coordinate on and utilize nfwfs (1) pecos watershed conservation initiative and (2) southern plains grassland program annual rfps to solicit competitive projects that address shared conservation priorities. The BLM funding will be utilized on BLM lands in new mexico and on the cross bar special recreation management area (srma) in texas. Additional nfwf funding is available to support projects in the broader canadian river watershed in texas. Together, this funding could allow for landscape level projects that span borders and are funded with a mix of BLM and other nfwf funds. These broader projects will improve the overall watershed quality further benefiting the BLM lands in new mexico and texas. Nfwf will work with BLM to determine funding allocations across each nfwf program, will ensure blms priorities are captured, have BLM participate in the review committees and provide recommendations for project funding, and will ensure that BLM funds only go to projects supported by the agency. More details on resource priorities for the pecos river watershed can be found in the southwest rivers business plan, however in summary the following practices and associated outcomes will be deployed at scale:1. Building drought resilience in arid watersheds: restore and manage grassland habitat and adjacent streams for long-term rangeland sustainability.2. Improve population levels and related outcomes for grassland wildlife species. The nfwf programs proposed for this partnership contain a mix of federal and non-federal partners. Nfwf will leverage funding from these partnerships and subrecipient matching funds to provide additional resources to blms funds. The pecos watershed conservation initiative contains funding from apache, BLM, chevron, conocophillips, occidental, USDA nrcs, USFWS, and XTO energy. The southern plains grassland program contains funding from burger king, cargill, sysco, and USDA nrcs. The intended beneficiaries of the project are the general public, agricultural producers communities with a private lands nexus and participating conservation organizations. The general public will benefit from more abundant and robust wildlife populations for consumptive and non-consumptive purposes, agricultural producers from a more productive and resilient landscape and the conservation community via increased resources to drive their mission and provide increased capacity and ultimately landscape scale conservation outcomes. Subrecipients will be responsible for the delivery of the practices and will compete for resources via an annual request for proposals (RFP) process in which BLM will have representation and determination of projects receiving sub-awards. Eligible applicants for the BLM funding include non-profit 501(C3) organizations, state government agencies, local governments, municipal governments, tribal governments, and educational institutions.