Tribal Wildlife Grants

Goals of the Program: Provide Federal funds to Federally recognized Tribal governments to develop and implement programs for the benefit of wildlife and their habitat, including species of Native American cultural or traditional importance and species that are not hunted or fished.

Tribal Wildlife Grants:

Federally recognized Tribes in all parts of the United States are eligible to receive grants under the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s Tribal Wildlife Grants program. These grants are used to provide technical and financial assistance to Tribes for the development and implementation of programs that benefit fish and wildlife resources and their habitat. Activities may include, but are not limited to, planning for wildlife and habitat conservation, fish and wildlife conservation and management actions, fish and wildlife related laboratory and field research, natural history studies, habitat mapping, field surveys and population monitoring, habitat preservation, conservation easements, and public education that is relevant to the project. The funds may be used for salaries, equipment, consultant services, subcontracts, acquisitions and travel.

Grant recipients are selected through a nationally competitive process. Proposals are evaluated according to resource benefit, performance measures, work plan, budget, capacity building and their partnerships and contributions. 

An example of projects funded through the State and Tribal Wildlife Grants program include:

Iowa Tribe of Oklahoma

Federal funds: $250,000
Nonfederal match: $50,000
Eagle Aviary and Rehabilitation Program

In January of 2006, the Iowa Tribe of Oklahoma honored two years of work made possible by a Tribal Wildlife Grant, the opening of the Bah Kho-je Xla Chi (Grey Snow Eagle House), an eagle aviary with a twofold purpose—nurse sick or injured eagles and provides sanctuary for eagles that cannot return to the wild. The Tribes benefit from the ability to use the birds’ molted feathers for ceremonial purposes. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is establishing an effective government-to-government relationship while assisting in religious freedoms and practices of Tribes. The project is scheduled for two years and into the sustainable future of the facility. 

2008 Program Performance

The program continued its efforts to strengthen the capabilities of Native American Tribes to manage fish and wildlife and their habitats. In FY 2007, External Affairs funded 36 project proposals to effectively zero out all available funds ($6,376,593) for Tribal Wildlife Grants (TWG) and leverage an additional $1,774,213 in matching nonfederal funds. Over the lifetime of the program, it has provided over $52 million for 175 natural resource projects for 133 distinct Federally recognized Tribes. Projects under this program addressed a diversity of conservation priorities such as establishment of baseline population studies, research, sustainable harvest studies, habitat restoration, listed species, and control of invasive species and development of tribal management capacity. In 2006, the program completed site visits and surveys to each of our Regions for an internal administrative review of TWG.

Previously funded Tribal Wildlife Grant projects range from comprehensive surveys of plants, fish and wildlife, to habitat and fish restoration, to development of new resource management plans and techniques. The Tribal Wildlife Grants program began in 2003 and has provided over $50 million to date for building the capacity of Tribes to manage fish and wildlife resources. A comprehensive report on projects awarded between 2003 and 2006 is now available online .

Latest News - Request for Proposals, 2009 Tribal Wildlife Grants

On May 1, 2008, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service issued a request for grant proposals for the 2009 Tribal Wildlife Grants program, which funds projects on a competitive basis that benefit habitat, fish and wildlife, including species that are not hunted or fished.

Proposals and grant applications must be postmarked by September 2, 2008. The maximum award for any one project under this program is $200,000. Tribal representatives interested in applying for a Tribal Wildlife Grant are strongly encouraged to download and read the application toolkit below.

DOWNLOAD 2009 TRIBAL WILDLIFE GRANT APPLICATION TOOLKIT

A Tribal Wildlife Grant project proposal includes a cover letter, program summary, program narrative, budget narrative/table, resolution of support, and one federal form - Standard Form 424 Application for Federal Assistance (SF-424). This form is a fillable PDF.

In order to facilitate the scoring of proposals, we recommend this format (in Microsoft Word .doc):

Attachment 1 - Format Recommendations for TWG Proposals

TWG and TLIP Scoring Process

Questions about applying?
Contact the Southwest Region Native American Liaison, Joe Early at 505-248-6602; the National Native American Liaison, Pat Durham at 703.358.1728 or find the Regional Contacts for your area of the country. Tribal representatives in California or Nevada should contact the Region 8 Tribal Partnerships Specialist, David Wooten, at 916.414.6576.