The California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (CAL FIRE) is seeking applications for its Forest Legacy Program to protect environmentally important forest land threatened with conversion to non-forest uses.
Donor Name: California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (CAL FIRE)
State: California
County: All Counties
Type of Grant: Grant
Deadline: 07/16/2023
Size of the Grant: Up to $20 million
Details:
Protection of California’s forests through this program ensures they continue to provide such benefits as sustainable timber production, wildlife habitat, recreation opportunities, watershed protection and open space. Intact forests also contribute significantly to the storage and sequestration of carbon.
Under this competitive grant program, CAL FIRE will provide funding for purchases of conservation easements or fee title of productive forest lands to encourage their longterm conservation. For conservation easement projects, organizations must find an eligible entity that is willing to hold the conservation easement and perform the monitoring and protection of the easement. For fee title purchases of property, the Grantee shall record a Notice of Unrecorded Grant Agreement at close of escrow that will serve to hold the owners of the property accountable for maintenance of the property’s conservation values intact, to not subdivide or materially alter the natural landscape of the property. Management of the forest for commercial and noncommercial uses will be allowed, as will public access.
Funding Information
Fiscal Year 2022/2023, up to $20 million may be available for award to eligible applicants through CAL FIRE’s Forest Legacy Program for CURRENT acquisition projects, OR for due diligence for FUTURE Legacy projects.
Eligible Activities
Eligible activities include:
- Current Projects
- Transactional Costs – Funding for purchase or donation of conservation easements (CE) or fee title of productive forest lands threatened with conversion to non-forest uses, such as subdivision for residential or commercial development, intensive agriculture or other converting action.
- Funding for State granted due diligence costs- These costs generally include the expenditures related to preparing the various documents needed to bring the State funded project to a close, once selected for grant funding. This category is meant to be combined with a request for funding for transaction costs for purchase of fee title or conservation easement. Funds requested under this category shall not be used for preparing these documents for a project that has not already been selected for transactional costs. These can include costs for preparing the following:
- Timber appraisal and report.
- Directly related real estate transaction costs for tracts funded by project grants. § Property wide valuation appraisal and report. NOTE – this is not applicable for any potential FUTURE federal project as their appraisal requirements follow a different process
- Preliminary title report and any associated documents listed in that report (deed, easements, MOUs), as well as the costs to remove exceptions.
- Minerals Remoteness Report or statement
- Land survey with acreage and Description verification
- Mapping products / GIS
- Detail of related Carbon Offset pending agreements or issued credits, if any.
- Development and negotiation of Conservation Easement (CE) Deed (if not acquiring in fee)
- CE Baseline Document (if not acquiring in fee)
- Phase 1 Environmental Assessment
- Forest Management Plan, Agricultural Management Plan and/or Grazing Management Plan
- Soliciting and developing potential FLP projects.
- Organizational staff time associated with preparation of the above mentioned documents or general work towards completion of the project.
- Salaries, fringe benefits, travel and supplies that directly support the FLP.
- Facilitating the donation of lands or interests of lands into the FLP
- Funding for State granted due diligence costs- These costs generally include the expenditures related to preparing the various documents needed to bring the State funded project to a close, once selected for grant funding. This category is meant to be combined with a request for funding for transaction costs for purchase of fee title or conservation easement. Funds requested under this category shall not be used for preparing these documents for a project that has not already been selected for transactional costs. These can include costs for preparing the following:
- Transactional Costs – Funding for purchase or donation of conservation easements (CE) or fee title of productive forest lands threatened with conversion to non-forest uses, such as subdivision for residential or commercial development, intensive agriculture or other converting action.
- Future Projects
- Funding for Forest Legacy Grant Due Diligence – Separate Federal funds can be requested to prepare and develop projects for completion under a Federal OR State Grant.
- This is a separately scored and ranked application focusing solely on potential FUTURE projects, however the pre-application / application process and scoring criteria are the same as for CURRENT Projects described above. These funds can include all of the same elements listed above, however these funds are only for preparation of due diligence items. The actual transactions for these FUTURE projects will need to be prepared and submitted for Federal or State Forest Legacy Funding at a future date, for either Forest Legacy solicitations, or solicitations to other federal or state conservation programs. Applications under this eligibility item may not be selected immediately due to timing of when the Federal grant funds become available. Project applicants will need to explain the specifics of the target property being proposed for development and ultimate grant funding. Projects receiving funding under this grant line item are not guaranteed Federal or State Forest Legacy funding for projects in the future.
- Funding for Forest Legacy Grant Due Diligence – Separate Federal funds can be requested to prepare and develop projects for completion under a Federal OR State Grant.
Eligibility Criteria
These can include, but are not limited to; nonprofits, land trusts, and conservation organizations. Funding may be provided to these public trust entities to either purchase and/or hold conservation easements and fee title to property. This program will not grant funding to a private person, business or other private entity to hold ownership of these interests (fee title or CE) using State funds. Any applicant not eligible to hold a Land Conservation Easement shall specify the intended Land Conservation Easement organization within the application
Landowners
- As per state statute and regulations for the Forest Legacy Program, eligible landowners are as follows: “Landowner” means an individual, partnership, private, public, or municipal corporation, Indian tribe, state agency, county, or local government entity, educational institution, or association of individuals of whatever nature that own private forest lands or woodlands.
Eligible Lands are
- Land that can support 10-percent native tree cover of any species, including hardwoods, under natural conditions, and has a minimum of 75 percent forestland or a documented plan that includes sufficient landowner capacity to reforest to at least 75 percent forestland. The land should allow for management of one or more forest resources, including timber, grazing, aesthetics, fish and wildlife, biodiversity, water quality, recreation, and other public benefits.
Necessary Eligible Land Characteristics
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- Eligible Lands must contain the following characteristics for inclusion in Forest Legacy Program:
- Be threatened by potential conversion.
- Be owned by landowners who are willing and interested in selling or donating lands or interests in lands.
- Be forested with at least 10-percent canopy cover by conifer or hardwood species, or be capable of being so forested under natural conditions. This 10% cover must occur on 75% of the project area.
- Possession of one or more environmental values of great concern to the public and the state:
- Important fish and wildlife habitat.
- Areas that can help maintain habitat connectivity across landscapes.
- Rare plants.
- Biodiversity.
- Riparian habitats.
- Oak woodlands.
- Ecological old growth forests.
- Other key forest types and seral stages that are poorly represented across California.
- Lands that directly affect water quality and other watershed values.
- Provision for continuity of one or more traditional forest uses, such as timber harvesting and rangeland livestock production which is utilized for economic purposes, or habitat maintenance and restoration that addresses fire hazard, mortality from pests and disease, carbon storage, restocking of underutilized forests, and reduction of nonnative invasive species.
- Possession of environmental values that can be protected and managed effectively through conservation easements at reasonable costs.
- Be at least partially within or adjacent to a Forest Legacy Area.
- Be available for future timber harvesting, grazing or recreation (e.g. hunting, fishing, hiking and other similar uses) and not be prohibited from these activities by any statute, previous conservation easement, or other regulatory requirements.
- Eligible Lands must contain the following characteristics for inclusion in Forest Legacy Program:
For more information, visit CAL FIRE.
