The Fish, Wildlife and Parks’ (FWP) Wildlife Habitat Improvement Program (WHIP) is a federal grant program for conducting noxious weed management to restore wildlife habitat.
Donor Name: Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks
State: Montana
County: All Counties
Type of Grant: Grant
Deadline: 11/27/2024
Size of the Grant: More than $1 million
Grant Duration: 5 Years
Details:
WHIP projects should include:
- ecologically important wildlife habitat that is directly threatened by noxious weed invasion;
- a landscape or watershed-scale approach;
- multiple partners and landownerships;
- access for public hunting;
- and a plan to maintain or restore native plant communities following weed management activities.
Funding Information
Up to $2M of federal Pittman-Robertson Wildlife Restoration funds are available annually for new WHIP projects and requires a dollar of nonfederal matching funds (cash) for every 3 dollars of federal grant funding. Grants, which are paid in the form of reimbursed expenses, may be up to five years in duration.
Eligible Expenditures
- Grant dollar and non-federal cash match eligible expenditures:
- Herbicides and additives (supplies and application services)
- Biological control agents (supplies)
- Reseeding (supplies and application services)
- Mechanical weed control
- Other weed and soil treatment options and methods recommended by the council to reduce noxious weeds and support native vegetation
- Grazing improvements – permanent fencing (materials and installation)
- Grant administration, vegetation monitoring, and related administrative costs – up to 10% of total project amount
- Non-federal cash match eligible expenditures:
- Grazing improvements – additional infrastructure such as stock water tanks, underground water pipelines for stock tanks, and spring developments or wells for livestock (materials and installation)
Project Requirements
- To qualify for a grant, a WHIP project must:
- enhance ecologically important wildlife habitats through the management of noxious weeds that directly threaten habitat functions;
- have a reasonable probability of treatment effectiveness through appropriate planning and methodology, anticipated native plant community recovery, preservation of non-target plant species, and post-treatment management;
- use a landscape or watershed-scale approach;
- include a minimum 25% non-federal cash match; and
- report on measurable objectives and vegetation monitoring to allow the department to analyze how noxious weed management is enhancing land as wildlife habitat.
- In addition to the eligibility requirements, the proposal ranking process will consider projects that:
- include funding commitments from multiple partners;
- involve effective collaboration across multiple land ownerships (public and private); and
- include access for public hunting.
Eligibility Criteria
Entities that have the capacity to administer grant projects and that are financially able to take on grant expenditures may apply to receive a WHIP grant. This includes:
- communities
- noxious weed management districts
- conservation districts
- 501(c)(3) nonprofit organizations
- state, federal, and tribal agencies
- other entities FWP considers appropriate for wildlife habitat improvement grant projects.
For more information, visit MFWP.
