The U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service is seeking applications for the Landscape Scale Restoration grant program to encourage collaborative, science-based restoration of priority rural forest landscapes.
Donor Name: Forest Service
State: All States
County: All Counties
Territory: Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, Guam, U.S. Virgin Islands, American Samoa, and Commonwealth of Northern Mariana Islands
Type of Grant: Grant
Deadline: 12/15/2023
Size of the Grant: $300,000
Grant Duration: 3 years
Details:
This program supports high impact projects that lead to measurable outcomes on the landscape, leverage public and private resources, and further priorities identified in science-based restoration strategies.
Funding Information
The program offers several tiers of support to accommodate a range of project scales and administrative capacity considerations.
- The minimum funding request per project for all applicants is $50,000 and the maximum is $300,000.
- Cross-boundary projects that span more than one Tribe with corresponding restoration activities on more than one Tribal ownership may be considered for up to $600,000 per project.
Grant Time Frame
Grants or agreements should be completed within 3 years from when the grant is awarded.
Examples of Eligible Project Activities
- Water quality and watershed health improvements, including efforts to improve forest health and resilience, reduce wildfire risk, and restore riparian forests.
- Protecting, maintaining, enhancing, and preserving habitat for wildlife and fish species, including threatened and endangered species.
- Wildfire fuels management including thinning, cultural burning, multi-resource wildfire planning, and invasive species management.
- Cross-boundary fuels management on Tribal lands, adjacent to National Forest System lands.
- Survey, prioritization, and treatment to control invasive plants in a high-priority landscape.
- Restoration of forests following damaging events (e.g., wildfire, hurricanes) to promote desired future conditions.
- Reforestation with trees and seedlings that are suitable for timber and food production, and other benefits associated with growing trees.
- Development and implementation of agroforestry practices such as alley cropping, shelterbelts, riparian forest buffers, and windbreaks that provide nutritional, environmental, educational, cultural, and other benefits.
- Tree seed collection, propagation, and planting to restore native forests on non-Federal land excluding construction and equipment.
Program Requirements
The Landscape Scale Restoration Program supports collaborative, high impact projects that lead to measurable outcomes on the landscape, leverage public and private resources, and further priorities identified in a science-based restoration strategy (for example a Tribal Forest Plan, State Forest Action Plan, or other equivalent restoration strategy). Projects contribute to healthy, climate-resilient, rural forests and communities, supporting Agency objectives listed below.
- Landscape Scale Restoration projects:
- Further a science-based restoration strategy such as a Tribal Forest Plan, State Forest Action Plan, or other equivalent restoration strategy.
- Achieve one or more of the following objectives:
- Reduce the risk of uncharacteristic wildfire.
- Improve fish and wildlife habitats, including for threatened and endangered species.
- Maintain or improve water quality and watershed functions.
- Mitigate invasive species, insect infestation, and disease.
- Improve important forest ecosystems.
- Measure ecological and economic benefits, including air quality and soil quality and productivity.
Eligible Land/Location of Projects
Landscape Scale Restoration projects must be conducted on rural non-industrial private forest land, rural State Forest land, and/or Indian trust lands. USDA Office of General Counsel has determined that Indian trust lands are included within the definition of non-industrial private forest land. Indian trust lands held both by Indian tribes and by individual Indians are eligible for participation in the Landscape Scale Restoration program. Indian forest land held “in fee” is also eligible. Landscape Scale Restoration funding cannot be used for work on Federal lands such as National Forests and Grasslands.
Eligibility Criteria
Native American tribal governments (Federally recognized).
For more information, visit Grants.gov.
