The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is requesting applications for its 2023 Sportfishing and Boating Safety Act – Boating Infrastructure Grants (BIG) Program Tier 2.
Donor Name: Fish and Wildlife Service
State: All States
County: All Counties
Territory: Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Guam, American Samoa, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands
Type of Grant: Grant
Deadline: 09/22/2022
Size of the Grant: $1,500,000
Details:
Recreational boating is a popular activity; there are approximately 11.8 million registered motor boats in the United States. Of this total, an estimated 584,000 are at least 26 feet long. The Sportfishing and Boating Safety Act of 1998 (Public Law 105-178) established the Boating Infrastructure Grants (BIG) Program (16 U.S.C. 777g-1) to provide funding to the 50 States, the District of Columbia, the Commonwealths of Puerto Rico and the Northern Mariana Islands, and the territories of Guam, American Samoa, and the U.S. Virgin Islands (States) for the construction, renovation and maintenance of boating infrastructure facilities for transient recreational vessels at least 26 feet long that are operated, leased, rented, or chartered primarily for pleasure. The Act amended the Dingell-Johnson Sport Fish Restoration Act (16 U.S.C. 777). Subsequent reauthorizations of the Act allow expenditures from the Sport Fish Restoration and Boating Trust Fund and the continuation of the BIG Program. Boating infrastructure means the structures, equipment, accessories, and services that are necessary or desirable for a facility to accommodate eligible vessels. Transient vessels are those passing through or by a place, staying up to 15 days. Projects completed using BIG funds must provide public access, but may be publicly or privately owned. This package is the Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) for Fiscal Year (FY) 2022 BIG Tier 2 National grants.
Boating infrastructure means the structures, equipment, accessories, and services that are necessary or desirable for a facility to accommodate eligible vessels. Transient vessels are those passing through or by a place, staying up to 15 days. Projects completed using BIG funds must provide public access, but may be publicly or privately owned. Some examples of potentially eligible activities include but are not limited to the following:
- Boat slips, piers, mooring buoys, dinghy or courtesy docks, day docks, and gangways;
- Fuel stations, restrooms, showers, utilities, laundry facilities, and similar amenities;
- Lighting, communications, buoys, beacons, signals, markers, signs, security features;
- Floating or fixed breakwaters, wave attenuators, sea walls, and other improvements that provide a harbor of safe refuge;
- Planning, permitting, engineering, cultural, historic, and environmental studies or assessments necessary to construct boating infrastructure;
- Equipment and structures for collecting, disposing of, or recycling liquid or solid waste from eligible vessels or for eligible users;
- Retaining walls, bulkheads, pilings, and living shorelines;
- Debris deflection structures or water hazard removal;
- Dredging necessary to fulfill the purpose and objectives of the project;
- Maintenance of facilities during the project period;
- Repair or restoration of roads, parking lots, walkways, or other surface areas damaged as a direct result of BIG-funded construction; Information and education materials specific to BIG or a BIG-funded project that credits BIG as a source of funding;
- Recording the Federal interest in BIG-funded real property; and
- Administration, coordination, and monitoring of BIG awards.
Funding Information
Maximum Award: $1,500,000
Eligibility Criteria
Eligible applicants are the Governor-designated State agencies in the United States, the Commonwealths of Puerto Rico and the Northern Mariana Islands, and the territories of Guam, American Samoa, the United States Virgin Islands and the Mayor-designated agency in the District of Columbia. You may not apply directly if you are not one of these entities.
For more information, visit Grants.gov.
