FY25 IIJA/IRA Bureau of Land Management Wyoming Wildlife Program | L25AS00176

Opportunity Information: Apply for L25AS00176

The FY25 IIJA/IRA Bureau of Land Management Wyoming Wildlife Program (Funding Opportunity Number L25AS00176) is a discretionary federal funding opportunity from the Bureau of Land Management that will be awarded as a cooperative agreement under CFDA 15.247. It is designed to support wildlife and habitat work on, or benefiting, BLM-managed public lands in Wyoming, with an emphasis on partnership-driven projects that align with Department of the Interior priorities. The program is framed around several big-picture goals: responding to the climate crisis, restoring balance on public lands and waters, advancing environmental justice, and supporting a clean energy future, while using the best available science and data to guide decisions. The original application closing date listed for this opportunity is February 17, 2025, and the award ceiling is $350,000.

Program priorities focus on protecting wildlife habitat and migration, improving habitat connectivity to support biodiversity, and increasing resilience to climate change, including through approaches that can deliver natural climate solutions. A major policy target embedded in the program is contributing to the national goal of conserving at least 30 percent of U.S. lands and waters by 2030. The program also emphasizes practical, on-the-ground outcomes that help state partners meet state wildlife population objectives. Just as important, BLM is explicitly looking for work that engages communities that have often been left out of conservation funding and decision-making, including communities of color, low-income families, rural communities, and Indigenous communities, especially where projects can connect wildlife stewardship to local economic opportunities.

The types of projects BLM Wyoming intends to support are broad but clearly centered on habitat conservation, population knowledge, and better decision support. Funded activities may include maintaining or restoring habitat for upland game, waterfowl, big game, pollinators, sensitive species, and watchable wildlife. That can mean direct habitat work in priority vegetation communities, improving or protecting water resources, or enhancing connectivity for migration and movement corridors, as well as actions that reduce threats to species or habitat. The program also highlights strong interest in monitoring and inventory, specifically efforts that produce complete, current, and accurate information on wildlife distribution, abundance, and habitat conditions on BLM lands. Related work can include habitat assessments tied to BLM resource management goals and objectives, and evaluations that measure progress toward land use plan objectives at ecosystem and watershed scales.

A recurring theme in the notice is improving how wildlife data are coordinated and used across programs and partners. Projects that integrate or strengthen coordinated monitoring efforts are encouraged, including use of established frameworks like Integrated Monitoring in Bird Conservation Regions (IMBCR) and the North American Bat Monitoring Program (NaBat). In addition to monitoring, the program supports research and analysis aimed at determining whether habitat and land use plan objectives are being met, and what management approaches are most successful. Education and outreach are also eligible, including citizen science and student-based science projects that build stewardship for species dependent on BLM lands. Beyond hands-on participation, BLM is looking for projects that increase public awareness of wildlife resources and conservation challenges and successes, with a targeted focus on engagement that reaches communities of color, low-income families, and rural and Indigenous communities.

Eligibility is limited to public and nonprofit sectors and higher education, reflecting the cooperative agreement structure and the program focus on public benefit. Eligible applicants include state, county, and city or township governments; special district governments; public and state-controlled institutions of higher education; private institutions of higher education; federally recognized tribal governments; tribal organizations that are not federally recognized tribal governments; and nonprofits both with and without 501(c)(3) status (excluding institutions of higher education in those nonprofit categories). Individuals and for-profit organizations are explicitly ineligible to apply under this notice.

The notice also includes two important administrative boundaries. First, this program does not support applicants proposing to hire interns or crews under the Public Lands Corps Act of 1993; BLM indicates that the Public Lands Corps authority is the only legislative authority that allows BLM to hire interns under that framework, and applicants interested in youth crew or internship-style projects are directed instead to a separate opportunity (NOFO 15.243, BLM Youth Conservation Opportunities on Public Lands). Second, applicants working through Cooperative Ecosystem Studies Units (CESUs) should identify their CESU participation and the host CESU Network in the application, and they should plan budgets accordingly because indirect costs under CESU cooperative agreements are capped at 17.5 percent.

• The Bureau of Land Management in the natural resources sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "FY25 IIJA/IRA Bureau of Land Management Wyoming Wildlife Program" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 15.247.
• This funding opportunity was created on 2024-12-16.
• Applicants must submit their applications by 2025-02-17. (Agency may still review applications by suitable applicants for the remaining/unused allocated funding in 2026.)
• Each selected applicant is eligible to receive up to $350,000.00 in funding.
• Eligible applicants include: State governments, County governments, City or township governments, Special district governments, Public and State controlled institutions of higher education, Native American tribal governments (Federally recognized), Native American tribal organizations (other than Federally recognized tribal governments), Nonprofits having a 501 (c) (3) status with the IRS, other than institutions of higher education, Nonprofits that do not have a 501 (c) (3) status with the IRS, other than institutions of higher education, Private institutions of higher education.

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