NRCS’s Wetland Mitigation Banking Program for Federal Fiscal Year 2022 | USDA NRCS NHQ WMBP 22 NOFO0001217

Opportunity Information: Apply for USDA NRCS NHQ WMBP 22 NOFO0001217

The U.S. Department of Agriculture's Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) announced a competitive grant opportunity for Federal Fiscal Year 2022 under its Wetland Mitigation Banking Program (WMBP). The program makes up to $5 million available to support the development and establishment of wetland mitigation banks and other wetland mitigation banking opportunities that are intended solely for agricultural producers. The focus is specifically on producers who have wetlands that fall under the wetland conservation compliance provisions of the Food Security Act of 1985, as amended. In practical terms, the funding is meant to help create mitigation banking options that agricultural producers can use to address wetland compliance needs connected to farming activities, by supporting the creation of bank sites and the broader banking framework needed to generate mitigation credits.

This is a discretionary grant program (CFDA/Assistance Listing 10.933) and NRCS expected to make about 10 awards. Individual awards could be as large as $1,000,000, indicating that NRCS was looking for projects with enough scale and readiness to produce functioning banks or meaningful banking opportunities rather than small, isolated efforts. The opportunity was released under Funding Opportunity Number USDA NRCS NHQ WMBP 22 NOFO0001217, with a creation date of August 11, 2022, and an application deadline of October 10, 2022.

Eligibility was broad and included a wide range of public, private, and nonprofit applicants. Eligible applicants included federally recognized Native American tribal governments, other Native American tribal organizations, state governments, county governments, city or township governments, special district governments, nonprofit organizations with or without 501(c)(3) status (excluding institutions of higher education when applying as nonprofits), for-profit organizations (including small businesses), as well as private institutions of higher education and public or state-controlled institutions of higher education. While many entity types could apply, the program purpose remains centered on building mitigation banking options for agricultural producers subject to wetland compliance requirements, so proposals would need to align clearly with that narrow end-user and compliance-driven intent.

Geographically, NRCS accepted applications from anywhere in the United States and several U.S. territories and freely associated areas covered by federal programs. This included all 50 states and the District of Columbia, as well as the Caribbean territories of Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands, and the Pacific Islands areas of Guam, American Samoa, and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands. Even with this broad eligibility footprint, NRCS stated that priority would be given to mitigation banks located in states where the agency's data indicated particularly high numbers of individual wetlands, wetland acreage, and conservation compliance requests. The priority states named were Georgia, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Nebraska, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and the Prairie Pothole Region states of Iowa, Minnesota, North Dakota, and South Dakota. This priority framing signals that NRCS wanted to concentrate resources where demand for compliance-related wetland mitigation is likely to be highest and where new banks could reduce bottlenecks for producers.

Applications had to be submitted electronically through Grants.gov by 11:59 pm Eastern time on October 10, 2022. NRCS emphasized that technical help for Grants.gov issues would come from Grants.gov Applicant Support rather than from awarding agency staff, and provided the Grants.gov support phone number (1-800-518-4726) and email (support@grants.gov). The notice also flagged that new users of Grants.gov should plan ahead for the registration and setup steps required to submit, a common issue for applicants because those prerequisites can take time and can affect the ability to meet the deadline.

• The Department of Agriculture, Natural Resources Conservation Service in the agriculture sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "NRCS’s Wetland Mitigation Banking Program for Federal Fiscal Year 2022" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 10.933.
• This funding opportunity was created on Aug 11, 2022.
• Applicants must submit their applications by Oct 10, 2022 Applications must be received by 1159 pm Eastern Standard Time.. (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.
• The number of recipients for this funding is limited to 10 candidate(s).
• 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, For profit organizations other than small businesses, Small businesses.

Apply for USDA NRCS NHQ WMBP 22 NOFO0001217

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