Cooperative Endangered Species Conservation Fund: Habitat Conservation Plan (HCP) Planning Assistance | F21AS00171

Opportunity Information: Apply for F21AS00171

The Cooperative Endangered Species Conservation Fund (CESCF) Habitat Conservation Plan (HCP) Planning Assistance grant is a competitive funding opportunity from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service designed to help conserve endangered and threatened species that rely heavily on non-Federal lands. The core idea behind the program is that long-term recovery of many ESA-listed species depends on strong partnerships with States and Territories, because so much important habitat and day-to-day land use activity occurs outside Federal ownership. Through Section 6 of the Endangered Species Act, the Service can provide financial assistance to State wildlife agencies to support conservation planning and related work that benefits listed species, and this particular Notice of Funding Opportunity focuses specifically on helping States pay for the planning steps needed to create, update, or revise Habitat Conservation Plans.

This program is closely tied to the ESA incidental take permitting framework that Congress created in the 1982 amendments to the Act. Before those amendments, non-Federal landowners could face legal risk under ESA section 9 if an otherwise legal activity might "take" a listed species. Section 10(a)(1)(B) introduced a voluntary path where non-Federal entities can seek an incidental take permit, but they must develop an HCP that explains how impacts to the species will be minimized and mitigated and how the plan will meet the ESA's permit issuance standards. In practice, the HCP becomes the blueprint for balancing land use with conservation: the applicant makes binding commitments, and those commitments become part of the permit conditions.

The grant program exists because developing an HCP can be expensive and time-consuming, especially when a plan covers a large area or involves many stakeholders. In some States, HCPs have evolved beyond single-project permits into broader landscape-level planning tools that coordinate conservation actions across communities, industries, and habitats. Another important feature is that HCPs often cover more than just currently listed species. Many plans include candidate species or other at-risk species, which can help stabilize populations before they decline to the point of needing ESA listing. That approach also creates a practical incentive for landowners and developers: if a non-listed species covered by the HCP becomes listed during the permit term, the HCP can allow take authorization to continue without forcing a major permit overhaul, reducing uncertainty while still requiring conservation measures.

Funding under the HCP Planning Assistance program (established in fiscal year 2001) can support the nuts-and-bolts work needed to develop a new HCP or to renew or amend an existing one. The opportunity also supports plans that cover only candidate or at-risk species, even when no species in the plan is currently listed, as long as the plan is being developed so it is ready to function if listing occurs later. Eligible activities include preparing the HCP documents, conducting public outreach and coordination, completing baseline species surveys, performing habitat assessments and inventories, and producing the environmental review and compliance documents that often accompany an HCP process. The notice specifically identifies NEPA and NHPA-related documentation as allowable costs, recognizing that these compliance steps can be a major part of the planning workload.

Eligibility is narrow and is limited to State governments, specifically State agencies that have an active Cooperative Agreement with the Service under ESA Section 6(c) and that have also provided the required information for the annual renewal (reconfirmation) of that agreement. If a State agency has not met both conditions, its application will not be considered. Even though only States can receive awards directly, other partners such as counties, conservation organizations, or similar groups can still participate by working through an eligible State agency as subgrantees when the work is aligned and mutually beneficial.

From the funding details provided, this is a discretionary grant program administered by the Fish and Wildlife Service under CFDA 15.615, using the grant instrument. The funding opportunity number is F21AS00171, and the listed award ceiling is up to $1,000,000 per award. The original closing date shown for the referenced notice was March 9, 2021, with a creation date of January 8, 2021. The notice also emphasizes that the NOFO contains updated eligibility, evaluation, and selection information compared with prior years, and it encourages applicants to coordinate early with the appropriate Service point of contact before investing heavily in project design or application development, given the time and cost involved in building a strong HCP planning proposal.

• The Fish and Wildlife Service in the natural resources sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Cooperative Endangered Species Conservation Fund: Habitat Conservation Plan (HCP) Planning Assistance" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 15.615.
• This funding opportunity was created on 2021-01-08.
• Applicants must submit their applications by 2021-03-09. (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 $1,000,000.00 in funding.
• Eligible applicants include: State governments.

Apply for F21AS00171

[Watch] Creating a grant proposal using the step-by-step wizard inside the applicant portal: