The development of the grhcp was initiated through a fiscal year (FY) 2019 cooperative endangered species conservation fund section 6 of the endangered species act competitive (nontraditional) grant

This federal Project Grant award for $1,339,202 was provided by the U.S. Department of the Interior Fish and Wildlife Service through the Cooperative Endangered Species Conservation Fund (CFDA 15.615) program. The funding supported the Guadalupe-Blanco River Authority (GBRA) in Texas in the development of the Guadalupe River Habitat Conservation Plan (GRHCP). Specifically, the grant enabled GBRA to secure consultants and make progress on key elements of the GRHCP, including defining the plan and permit areas, covered species, preliminary covered activities, public/stakeholder outreach, and modeling needs. This funding allowed GBRA to expand the scope of work to include a more robust stakeholder process, a second party take program, a technical advisory group, climate change analysis, and updated environmental review. The grant period is from June 1, 2024 to June 1, 2026.

This funding has been instrumental in the guadalupe-blanco river authoritys (gbra) progress to date on the guadalupe river habitat conservation plan (grhcp). Specifically, the grant enabled gbra to secure a group of highly qualified consultants through a competitive procurement process and make significant progress on the HCP planning process by identifying six fundamental elements of the grhcp: 1) plan area and permit area 2) 50-year permit term 3) covered species, 4) selected preliminary covered activities 5) a public and stakeholder outreach program and 6) potential hydrologic, hydrogeologic, and water quality modeling needs. Currently, gbra is preparing technical memorandums summarizing the following: 1) climate change analysis 2) species take assessment for all 12 proposed species and 3) species take assessment methodology. While working through these aspects of the grhcp, we have developed an expanded scope of work that includes a more robust stakeholder input process than previously anticipated, a second party take program, a technical advisory group (tag), climate change analysis of conservation measures that would allow for a longer permit term, and the ability to meet updated nepa requirements. This funding request will support the expanded scope of work developed by gbra that will address a complex set of issues and new elements specific to the development of the grhcp that were not anticipated in the FY 2019 grant application.