The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is soliciting proposals for its Sportfishing and Boating Safety Act Program (BIG Tier 1).
Donor Name: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
State: All States
County: All Counties
U.S. Territory: American Samoa, Guam, Commonwealths of Puerto Rico, Northern Mariana Islands, and U.S Virgin Islands
Type of Grant: Grant
Deadline: 09/20/2023
Size of the Grant: $30,000 – $300,000
Grant Duration: 12 months
Details:
Recreational boating is a popular activity; there are approximately 11 million registered motorized recreational vessels in the United States. Of this total, an estimated 596,000 are at least 26 feet long. The Sportfishing and Boating Safety Act of 1998 established the Boating Infrastructure Grants (BIG) Program 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 United States Virgin Islands 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. This Act amended the Dingell-Johnson Sport Fish Restoration Act. 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. Some examples of potentially eligible activities include but are not limited to the following:
- Boat slips, piers, mooring buoys, dinghy or coutesty 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 of the Federal interest in BIG-funded real property; and
- Administration, coordination, and monitoring of BIG awards.
The BIG Program aligns with WSFR’s mission, vision, and guiding principles, and supports the Administration’s priorities and incorporates them where appropriate and consistent with authorizing statutes and regulations. Focused on water-based infrastructure, the BIG grant program specifically includes elements that recognize and account for the effects of climate change including scoring criteria in the Tier 2 subprogram that reflect resiliency, innovation and reduction in the carbon footprint of the BIG-funded facility.
Funding Information
It expect awards to range from $30,000 – $300,000 with an average of approximately $200,000 per award. Funding approvals are expected to occur during March or April 2024 with grants being awarded as compliance and permitting efforts are completed over the following 12 months.
Eligible Applicants
State governments
For more information, visit Grants.gov.
