The National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF) is requesting proposals to enhance, restore, and protect stream flows for key fish habitat in the Columbia Basin.
Donor Name: National Fish and Wildlife Foundation
State: Oregon, Washington, Idaho, and Montana
Type of Grant: Grant
Deadline: 05/18/2022
Size of the Grant: $1.8 million
Grant Duration: 1 year
Details:
The Columbia Basin Water Transaction Program (CBWTP) funds water transactions development and implementation in the United States portion of the Columbia Basin and is the largest voluntary instream flow restoration program in the country. Since its inception in 2002, the CBWTP has implemented over 661 voluntary water transactions and secured over 12.5 million acre feet of water in flow-limited tributaries of the Columbia River Basin. The CBWTP works across portions of Oregon, Washington, Montana and Idaho, and its investments in water transactions have increased stream flows for the benefit of native fish species, including Pacific salmon, steelhead trout, and resident fish species.
Program Priorities
Competitive programmatic proposals will be sub-basin focused and will address species of concern and flow limitations, while also demonstrating innovation, and incorporating a monitoring plan.
- Species of concern: Proposals must showcase how the applicant will work toward addressing the conservation needs of one or more species of concern through water transaction implementation.
- Flow limitations: The proposals must articulate an organizational competency in securing water for in-stream tributary flows at a location(s) where low flows are a limiting factor to fish survival, productivity, and distribution and for the maximum reach of river legally and physically possible. The scale of the recovered instream flows should be measurable relative to the overall flow and the scale of habitat loss and other issues in the basin. Proposals should document the entity’s intention of working in areas where significant seniority can be protected in-stream through state agency process or is contractually protectable instream at a time of year when needed to benefit fish and wildlife.
- Prioritization: Proposals should clearly articulate the prioritization efforts for each subbasin both historic and future. Prioritization efforts should show the hierarchical planning that has gone into the selection of subbasins, streams, and water rights/properties/landowners. The efforts should articulate WHY the subbasin is important compared to other subbasins, WHY a particular stream is important compared to other streams in the subbasin, and WHY those particular transactions are being pursued. Proposals should show this logic path from the subbasin down to the transaction level to emphasize priorities and levels of importance for species.
- Existing plans: If prioritization plans have been completed, describe how those are used in transaction development and planning.
- New plans: If prioritization plans have not been developed, describe how you will utilize the budget to develop them.
- Prioritization of projects within the CBWTP should be established locally but linked to broader subbasin and recovery plan efforts (NPCC subbasin plan, watershed assessment, or National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Recovery Plan). When applying for transactions, the applicant should be able to clearly explain why the particular transaction is important in the system compared to others and what impact it will have for the region.
- Adaptive management: Demonstrate how your efforts are moving beyond preliminary practices and proof of concept methods. Transactions should strive towards permanent instream flow and work to build on previous efforts. Applicants should use monitoring results to show how experience with local systems has contributed to selection of the most impactful transactions.
- Innovation: Where possible, proposals should demonstrate how the applicant plans to implement innovative methods to increase tributary flows during critical periods for targeted species. Innovative methods for securing water should also be cost-effective in terms of local and regional markets and build trust with water rights holders.
- Monitoring: The proposal should document how compliance and implementation monitoring will be carried out and reported via the CBWTP’s Flow Restoration Accounting Framework (FRAF) compliance monitoring forms (subject to change from previous years). The proposal should include a description of long-term monitoring of water flow, and how the benefits to habitat and species will be documented. All transactions will be required to have Tier 1 and Tier 2 monitoring unless otherwise approved by CBWTP staff.
- Based on final award and grant funding decisions, some awardees may also be asked to report additional summary project information through NFWF’s web-based Water Calculator tool. NFWF staff will work with those awardees to minimize duplicate data collection and reporting across FRAF and Water Calculator requirements.
- Watershed context: The proposal should describe collaborative efforts with other entities and document how opportunities for cost-sharing, data sharing and collaboration were considered and developed.
- Organizational Breadth: Applicants must show that their organization has experience building trust with landowners and implementing water transactions in the identified watersheds. In addition, they must be able to provide and input the requisite water transactions information and metrics into the program database. Finally, they should have the sophistication of providing financial and programmatic reporting required for the program.
- Community Impact and Engagement: Projects that incorporate outreach to communities, foster community engagement, and pursue collaborative management leading to measurable conservation benefits are encouraged. When possible, projects should be developed through community input and co-design processes ensuring traditional knowledge elevation. Additionally, projects should engage community-level partners (e.g., municipalities, NGOs, community organizations, community leaders) to help design, implement, and maintain projects to secure maximum benefits for communities, maintenance, and sustainability post-grant award.
Funding Information
- The CBWTP will award approximately $1.8 million for Qualified Local Entity programmatic grants for the period of October 1, 2022 to September 30, 2023. See the below timeline for more details on when to expect an award.
Eligibility Criteria
- Eligible applicants include non-profit 501(c) organizations, U.S. Federal government agencies, state government agencies, local governments, municipal governments, tribal governments and organizations, educational institutions, conservation districts, watershed councils, and other local agencies.
- Ineligible applicants include businesses, unincorporated individuals, and international organizations.
For more information, visit NFWF.
