For more information, please follow this link: https://www.nfwf.org/programs/five-star-and-urban-waters-restoration-grant-program/five-star-and-urban-waters-restoration-grant-program-2022-request-proposals

FUNDING AVAILABILITY AND MATCH

Approximately $2,650,000 is available nationwide for projects meeting program priorities. There is one round of full proposals annually for this program. Awards range from $20,000 to $50,000 with an average size of $35,000 and about 50 grants awarded per year. Grants should span 12 to 18 months with a start date in late summer/early fall 2022.

There is one application submitted to NFWF for all sources of funding.

This detailed list of funders is provided to identify areas of the country where additional funds are available and provide information on any funder-specific recommendations that applicants should include in proposals.

U.S. EPA Five Star Restoration Training Program 

Funding Available: 
Approximately $225,000 is available nationwide from EPA to fund projects. These funds are available nationwide, in any size community.

Urban Waters Federal Partnership, U.S. EPA and U.S.D.A. Forest Service 

Funding Available:
Approximately $360,000 is available from U.S. Forest Service and EPA, through the Urban Waters Federal Partnership, to improve urban water quality, restore riparian habitat and community forests, increase public access to urban waterways and make linkages to municipal flood mitigation and stormwater programs in developed watersheds throughout the United States. Funds are available nationwide for urban areas.

Special consideration will be made for projects which directly advance priorities of the 20 Urban Waters Federal Partnership designated locations and/or engage with or support the local Urban Waters Federal Partnership. Applicants are strongly encouraged to note in the abstract and narrative in which Urban Waters Federal Partnership designated location the project will be located, and/or how the local UWFP partnership will be engaged in the project. For more information on locations, click here: https://www.epa.gov/urbanwaterspartners/20-designated-urban-waters-locations

U.S. FWS Urban Programs

Funding Available: 
Approximately $430,000 is available from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service) to fund projects that engage urban neighbors and foster a sense of stewardship where there are Service lands or offices nearby (within approximately 25+/- miles).

• $180,000 of these funds comes from the National Wildlife Refuge System to engage communities in conservation on easily-accessible lands that the Service does not own. Priority will go to projects that improve habitat or access for outdoor recreational experiences, including hunting and fishing. Proposals should demonstrate how the project will meet at least one of the Urban Standards of Excellence for Urban Wildlife Refuges and Partnerships (located at https://www.fws.gov/urban/soe.php).
• $250,000 these funds come from the Urban Bird Treaty program and projects should have an emphasis on protecting, restoring, and enhancing urban habitats for birds, reducing urban hazards to birds while engaging people, especially in diverse, underserved communities, in bird conservation, education, recreation and science activities.
  • Priority project activities include restoration of migratory bird stopover habitat, build-friendly building retrofitting and design and Lights Out efforts, pesticide and hazardous trash reduction, and engaging diverse communities in birdwatching and bird trip leader training programs. Projects supported with this funding do not have to be located in an existing Urban Bird Treaty city, but active UBT and Urban Wildlife Refuge Partnership cities receive priority for funding. For more information about Urban Bird Treaty Cities, visit https://www.fws.gov/birds/grants/urban-bird-treaty.php

Southern Company Five Star Restoration Program 

Funding Available: 
Approximately $250,000 is available from Southern Company and its affiliates to support on-the-ground wetland, riparian, in-stream or coastal habitat conservation and restoration projects in key areas served by its subsidiaries. Priority given to projects that address at-risk species and habitats; address watershed and federal recovery or state wildlife action plans and coordinate with those plan coordinators; and, engage the public – particularly youth – in hands-on, outdoor conservation experiences that build awareness of the importance of protecting and recovering priority species and habitats. In Georgia, projects that take actions to help remove streams from the 303(d) impaired streams in the Atlanta area will be given priority.
Geographic Priorities: 
Southern Company will support high-quality projects in the following states:

• Alabama (excluding Lauderdale, Colbert, Lawrence, Limestone, Madison, Marshall, Morgan, Jackson and DeKalb counties)
• Georgia (excluding Union, Fannin and Towns counties)
• Illinois Will, Kendall, DuPage and Kane counties
• Kansas Lyon and Osage counties
• Mississippi Leake, Neshoba, Kemper, Scott, Newton, Lauderdale, Smith, Jasper, Clarke, Jefferson Davis, Covington, Jones, Wayne, Marion, Lamar, Forrest, Perry, Greene, George, Stone, Pearl River, Hancock, Harrison and Jackson counties
• Oklahoma Grant and Kay counties
• Texas Concho, Crosby, Donley, Floyd and Gray counties
• Virginia Chesapeake, Hampton City, Newport News, Norfolk, Portsmouth City, Suffolk and Virginia Beach
• West Virginia Greenbrier County
• Washington Lewis and Thurston Counties

FedEx

Funding Available:
Approximately $400,000 is available from FedEx to support projects in the metropolitan areas listed below. All proposals in these areas must propose a volunteer event for up to 100 local FedEx employees in the project narrative to be considered for funding under this funding source.

Geographic Priorities: 
These funds will support projects in any of the following metropolitan areas:

Additional funding

Up to $1,000,000 is available from a private funder to support urban green infrastructure that focuses on urban forests and tree planting, especially in underserved communities. Applicants should identify the tools and partnerships they will use to identify native trees and site projects.

OVERVIEW

The National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF) and the Wildlife Habitat Council (WHC), in cooperation with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), USDA Forest Service (USFS), U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS), FedEx and Southern Company are pleased to solicit applications for the 2022 Five Star and Urban Waters Restoration program. This program will award approximately $2.6 million in grants nationwide.

The Five Star and Urban Waters Restoration grant program seeks to develop community capacity to sustain local natural resources for future generations by providing modest financial assistance to diverse local partnerships focused on improving water quality, watersheds and the species and habitats they support.

Projects include a variety of ecological improvements along with targeted community outreach, education and stewardship. Ecological improvements may include one or more of the following: wetland, riparian, forest and coastal habitat restoration; wildlife conservation, community tree canopy enhancement, water quality monitoring and green infrastructure best management practices for managing run-off.

Projects should increase access to the benefits of nature, reduce the impact of environmental hazards and engage local communities, particularly underserved communities, in project planning, outreach and implementation. This program expects that applicants will represent a mixture of urban and rural communities. NFWF may use a mix of public and private funding sources to support any grant made through this program and we expect that more than half of projects awarded will support underserved communities.