FY25 IIJA/IRA Bureau of Land Management Oregon/Washington (OR/WA) Wildlife Program | L25AS00164

Opportunity Information: Apply for L25AS00164

The FY25 IIJA/IRA Bureau of Land Management Oregon/Washington (OR/WA) Wildlife Program (Funding Opportunity Number L25AS00164) is a discretionary federal funding opportunity from the Bureau of Land Management that will award cooperative agreements for wildlife-focused work tied to BLM-managed public lands in Oregon and Washington, with an emphasis on projects that can operate at a national or regional scale through partnerships. The program is framed around Department of the Interior priorities, including addressing the climate crisis, restoring balance on public lands and waters, advancing environmental justice, and investing in a clean energy future, and it seeks projects that translate those broad priorities into on-the-ground habitat work, improved monitoring and data use, and public-facing stewardship and education.

The program prioritizes protecting and improving wildlife habitat, migration routes, and habitat connectivity to support biodiversity, while also increasing resilience to climate change and leveraging natural climate solutions where appropriate. It explicitly aligns with the national conservation goal of conserving at least 30 percent of lands and waters by 2030, and it also emphasizes practical coordination with State wildlife agencies by supporting efforts that help meet State wildlife population objectives. A key equity component runs through the opportunity as well: applicants are encouraged to design work that engages communities of color, low-income families, and rural and Indigenous communities, particularly in ways that expand economic opportunities connected to wildlife and conservation. Across all work, the program stresses using the best available science and data to guide decisions.

Projects supported under this NOFO can include a wide range of wildlife conservation activities. On-the-ground efforts may focus on maintaining or restoring habitat for upland game, waterfowl, big game, pollinators, sensitive species, and watchable wildlife, including work that conserves priority vegetation communities, water resources, or landscape connectivity, and actions that reduce threats to species or habitats. The program also supports monitoring and inventory efforts that improve the quality and completeness of information about where wildlife occur, how abundant they are, and what habitats they depend on across BLM lands. Related assessment work can measure habitat condition and evaluate progress toward BLM resource management goals and objectives, and the program is also interested in strengthening the overall understanding of conservation opportunities for wildlife that rely on BLM-managed lands.

A notable focus is improving how BLM uses and integrates coordinated monitoring datasets and established monitoring frameworks, with explicit references to Integrated Monitoring in Bird Conservation Regions (IMBCR) and the North American Bat Monitoring Program (NaBat). Beyond routine monitoring, the opportunity can support new research that evaluates how well wildlife habitat and land use plan objectives are being met at ecosystem and watershed scales, which implies a strong interest in projects that can demonstrate outcomes, effectiveness, and learning that can be applied broadly. Education and outreach are also eligible, including citizen science and student-based science efforts that build wildlife stewardship, along with broader public awareness projects that communicate conservation challenges and successes on BLM lands, again with targeted attention to underserved and historically marginalized communities.

Eligibility is limited to governmental, educational, Tribal, and nonprofit entities. Eligible applicants include State, county, city/township, and special district governments; public and State-controlled institutions of higher education; private institutions of higher education; federally recognized Tribal governments and other Tribal organizations; and nonprofits with or without 501(c)(3) status (as long as they are not institutions of higher education). Individuals and for-profit organizations are not eligible to apply under this NOFO, which is an important screen for partnership planning and subaward structures.

The award instrument is a cooperative agreement, which generally signals that BLM expects substantial involvement during the project (for example, collaboration on design, implementation, or monitoring and reporting) rather than a more hands-off pass-through grant relationship. The stated award ceiling is $1,500,000. The original application closing date is March 14, 2025. The opportunity is categorized under CFDA (Assistance Listing) 15.247 and the funding activity category is Natural Resources.

Two administrative constraints stand out. First, this NOFO does not support projects that involve hiring interns or crews under the Public Lands Corps Act of 1993; entities seeking to do Youth Conservation Corps-style intern or crew hiring are directed instead to the separate BLM Youth Conservation Opportunities on Public Lands program (Assistance Listing 15.243). Second, for projects pursued through Cooperative Ecosystem Studies Units (CESUs), the NOFO highlights the CESU indirect cost limitation: indirect costs are capped at no more than 17.5 percent for cooperative agreements with CESU partners. Applicants are expected to disclose whether they will participate in the CESU program and, if so, identify which CESU Network would serve as the host.

• The Bureau of Land Management in the natural resources sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "FY25 IIJA/IRA Bureau of Land Management Oregon/Washington (OR/WA) Wildlife Program" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 15.247.
• This funding opportunity was created on 2024-12-05.
• Applicants must submit their applications by 2025-03-14. (Agency may still review applications by suitable applicants for the remaining/unused allocated funding in 2026.)
• Each selected applicant is eligible to receive up to $1,500,000.00 in funding.
• Eligible applicants include: State governments, County governments, City or township governments, Special district governments, Public and State controlled institutions of higher education, Native American tribal governments (Federally recognized), Native American tribal organizations (other than Federally recognized tribal governments), Nonprofits having a 501 (c) (3) status with the IRS, other than institutions of higher education, Nonprofits that do not have a 501 (c) (3) status with the IRS, other than institutions of higher education, Private institutions of higher education.

Apply for L25AS00164

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