F24AS00445 Highlands Conservation Act - Competitive Grant Round | F24AS00445

Opportunity Information: Apply for F24AS00445

The F24AS00445 Highlands Conservation Act (HCA) Competitive Grant Round is a discretionary grant opportunity run by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service under CFDA 15.667 that supports permanent land conservation in the federally designated Highlands Region across Connecticut, New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania. The central purpose is to help protect land and natural resources with high conservation value by funding projects where a public entity acquires land or a legally enforceable interest in land (such as a conservation easement) from a willing seller. In practice, these projects are meant to safeguard the Highlands landscape and the natural systems it supports, including source waters, forests, habitat connectivity, and other priority conservation resources.

Funding under the HCA is structured so that, when Congress appropriates funds, the Governors of the four Highlands States can submit proposals to cover up to 50 percent of the total project cost. That 50 percent structure effectively creates a matching requirement, meaning the non-federal share must cover the remainder through eligible state, county, municipal, or other allowable sources. While projects are implemented on the ground by state, county, or municipal partners, the only eligible applicants that can submit an application to this Notice of Funding Opportunity are the Lead State Agencies designated by each Governor. If a Governor has designated more than one Lead State Agency, those agencies must coordinate and submit a unified, coordinated request rather than competing or duplicating efforts.

This specific notice is for the Competitive funding category. The program usually splits appropriations into two tracks: Base and Competitive, and the Service issues separate notices for each. For this cycle, the Service is also piloting a third, separate notice focused on land protection projects in under-resourced and under-served communities within the Highlands Region. A key rule is that the same project cannot be submitted across multiple HCA funding opportunities in the same year, so applicants must choose the most appropriate track and keep proposals distinct.

The opportunity also notes that Highlands States may request that the Service add municipalities from the identified Expanded Opportunity Area for the Highlands Landscape into the Highlands Region, which can broaden eligibility geography over time if approved. For prospective project partners like counties or municipalities, the practical takeaway is that participation typically happens through coordination with the appropriate Lead State Agency, which can receive the federal award and then pass funds along through subawards to eligible local governments within the Highlands Region, or to another state conservation agency as needed to carry out the project.

Administrative details in the notice include that the awarding agency is the Fish and Wildlife Service, the funding instrument is a grant, the activity category is Natural Resources, and the eligible applicant type listed is state governments (reflecting the Lead State Agency requirement). The posting lists an award ceiling of $4,316,457 and an original closing date of 2024-12-31. The Service also scheduled an online overview of the notice for Friday, September 27 at 11:00 AM Eastern, with attendance handled by invitation via email to the Service contact identified in the notice.

The current designated Lead State Agencies and points of contact are: Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (Matt Starr, matthew.starr@ct.gov), New York State Office of Parks, Recreation, and Historic Preservation (Lynn Kovach, lynn.kovach@parks.ny.gov), New Jersey Highlands Water Protection and Planning Council (Liz Ward, elizabeth.ward@highlands.nj.gov), and Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources (Dan Pierce, danipierce@pa.gov). These contacts are the primary entry points for counties and municipalities interested in developing or advancing an HCA-eligible land acquisition or easement project for the Competitive round.

• The Fish and Wildlife Service in the natural resources sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "F24AS00445 Highlands Conservation Act - Competitive Grant Round" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 15.667.
• This funding opportunity was created on 2024-08-29.
• Applicants must submit their applications by 2024-12-31. (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 $4,316,457.00 in funding.
• Eligible applicants include: State governments.

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