Multistate Conservation Grant

This program provides funding for sport fish and wildlife restoration projects and recruitment, retention and reactivation (R3) projects that address regional or national priority needs of State fish and wildlife agencies and their partners that are beyond the scale, scope, and capabilities of a single State. The priority needs, also known as Strategic Priorities, are identified annually by the Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies (AFWA) with input from State fish and wildlife agencies and their partners. Recipients awarded Traditional Multistate Conservation Grants (T-MSCG) may use the funds for wildlife or sport fish projects involving research, restoration, conservation and management of wild birds, wild mammals, sport fish, and their habitats. These funds may also be used for projects providing for public use and benefit from these resources, including hunter safety education, aquatic education, angler R3 projects and other purposes consistent with the enabling legislation. Recipients awarded R3 Multistate Conservation Grants (R3-MSCG) may use the funds for hunting and shooting sports R3 projects that promote a national hunting and shooting sport recruitment program, including related communication and outreach activities. Multistate Conservation Grants are awarded by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service), and the Service and AFWA work cooperatively to manage the program.

Eligibility is limited to: 1) Agencies with lead management responsibility for fish and wildlife resources in each of the 50 States, the District of Columbia, Commonwealths of Puerto Rico and the Northern Mariana Islands, and the territories of American Samoa, Guam, and the U.S. Virgin Islands, or a group of these agencies; 2) The Service, only for the purpose of carrying out the National Survey; or 3) Non-governmental organizations (NGOs). NGOs including educational institutions that are invited to submit full proposals must submit a certification that their organization will not use grant funds to fund, in whole or in part, any activity that promotes or encourages opposition to the regulated hunting or trapping of wildlife or the regulated taking of fish in their application. Proposed projects must address traditional sport fish or wildlife restoration projects or recruitment, retention and reactivation (R3) projects that address regional or national priority needs of State fish and wildlife agencies and their partners that are beyond the scale, scope, and capabilities of a single State. The priority needs, also known as Strategic Priorities, are identified annually by AFWA with input from State fish and wildlife agencies and their partners. Only projects that propose benefits to sport fish, wild birds and/or wild mammals are eligible. Proposed projects must also benefit:...

Proposals will be reviewed and evaluated to ensure stated needs are consistent with the enabling legislation and address one or more of AFWA’s Strategic Priorities; the stated purpose and objective(s) support the need; proposed methods follow sound practices that can be accomplished within the proposed time frames; the budget is cost effective; and the outcomes are feasible and sustainable. Specific review criteria and the associated point system will be published in the NOFO.

This program has no statutory formula. Matching requirements are not applicable to this assistance listing. MOE requirements are not applicable to this assistance listing.

Fiscal Year2025: The University of Wyoming was awarded T-MSCG funds for a project titled, Designing an Automated Machine Learning Method for Large Scale Aerial Pronghorn Monitoring. Pronghorn are an iconic ungulate species endemic to western North America. Low-altitude aerial surveys are commonly used by management agencies to monitor pronghorn populations, but have disadvantages regarding safety, cost, and reliability. Low-altitude slow-speed flights leave little margin for pilot error and have resulted in injuries and even death of agency staff. A safer, more cost-effective, and verifiable monitoring method is needed. Pairing plane mounted high resolution cameras with machine learning driven automated computer vision tools has proven effective in other contexts for detecting and counting animals in natural landscapes and is well suited to the task of pronghorn monitoring. This approach would allow managers to stay out of planes and provides a verifiable visual record of detected animals. It is a challenge, however, to successfully implement such a cutting-edge method while also ensuring that it is practical for managers. Our uniquely qualified interdisciplinary team from the...