Ecological Broadcast Burning “Restoring Wetland Easements” | USDA NRCS OR ACEP 22 NOFO0001183

Opportunity Information: Apply for USDA NRCS OR ACEP 22 NOFO0001183

The U.S. Department of Agriculture, through the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) in Oregon, offered a cooperative agreement funding opportunity called Ecological Broadcast Burning "Restoring Wetland Easements" (NOFO number USDA-NRCS-OR-ACEP-22-NOFO0001183). The work is tied to the Agricultural Conservation Easement Program (ACEP), specifically Wetland Reserve Easements (WRE), and also includes legacy Wetland Reserve Program (WRP) properties. The central idea is to bring prescribed fire back into wetland and wetland-adjacent habitats that historically depended on periodic burning to stay healthy and functional. NRCS notes that when fire is removed for long periods, these systems can degrade, shift away from their historic condition, and lose habitat quality, so the agency is looking for partners who can plan and carry out broadcast burning in a safe, lawful, and ecologically appropriate way.

Geographically, the target areas are prioritized wetland sites across the Willamette Valley and the Oregon High Desert Basins. The planned burn units vary widely in scale, ranging from smaller 25-acre projects up to large burns of roughly 2,000 acres. Rather than committing to a single fixed set of sites up front, NRCS indicated it would work with the selected partner over time to choose which easements to burn each year. Those annual decisions would be influenced by the partner's proposed cost per acre (which applicants were asked to estimate using Oregon geography categories referenced in the NOFO exhibits/appendices), the location of the work, and the number of burns that could realistically be completed in a given year. In other words, this was set up as an ongoing implementation partnership where NRCS and the awardee coordinate annually to hit priority acres efficiently.

Funding was structured as a fixed-amount cooperative agreement with a performance period of up to five years. Individual awards were expected to fall between a federal funding floor of $250,000 and a ceiling of $600,000 (these figures refer to the total federal share for the full agreement, not a single year). NRCS anticipated making about two awards. The notice also flagged that it was released prior to final FY 2022 appropriations/apportionment, meaning actual availability and levels of funding could be affected by continuing resolutions or an appropriations act. NRCS also left the door open to adding funds later during the agreement period if additional resources were needed and both parties agreed that expanded work was justified.

Eligibility was broad across domestic, non-individual entities, but it excluded individuals and for-profit organizations. Eligible applicant types included state, county, and local governments; special districts; public and private institutions of higher education; federally recognized tribal governments and other tribal organizations; public housing authorities/Indian housing authorities; nonprofits with or without 501(c)(3) status; and small businesses (as listed in the opportunity metadata). Applications had to be submitted through Grants.gov, with a deadline of May 24, 2022 at 11:59 pm Eastern Time. NRCS emphasized that Grants.gov technical help must go through Grants.gov support, not NRCS staff, and that content questions should be limited to clarifying the NOFO itself rather than seeking feedback on proposal strategy or competitiveness.

Because the work involves prescribed fire, applicants were expected to demonstrate that they can operate within all applicable federal, state, and local laws and policies governing burning in the proposed areas. The notice specifically highlights practical compliance issues that applicants needed to think through, including burn boss qualifications, liability considerations, insurance coverage, and how financial responsibility would be handled if contractors were used to perform any portion of the work. NRCS also scheduled an informational listening session with open Q and A on May 5, and projected (as estimates) selections by June 30 with awards executed by August.

Overall, this opportunity was essentially a call for experienced, qualified partners to help NRCS restore and maintain wetland easement habitats in Oregon by reintroducing prescribed broadcast burning as a management tool, using a multi-year cooperative agreement model and selecting annual burn priorities based on cost, geography, and capacity to deliver safe, compliant burns at meaningful scales.

• The Department of Agriculture, Natural Resources Conservation Service in the agriculture, natural resources sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Ecological Broadcast Burning “Restoring Wetland Easements”" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 10.931.
• This funding opportunity was created on Apr 21, 2022.
• Applicants must submit their applications by May 24, 2022. (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 $600,000.00 in funding.
• The number of recipients for this funding is limited to 2 candidate(s).
• Eligible applicants include: State governments, County governments, City or township governments, Special district governments, Independent school districts, Public and State controlled institutions of higher education, Native American tribal governments (Federally recognized), Public housing authorities/Indian housing authorities, 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, Small businesses.

Apply for USDA NRCS OR ACEP 22 NOFO0001183

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