North American Wetlands Conservation Act NAWCA North American Wetlands Conservation Act

North American Waterfowl Management Plan Found a need for funding to protect and restore wetlands Envisioned a federal funding program Developed a system to bring partners together to access these funds (Joint Ventures) NAWCA – North American Wetland Conservation Act NAWCA, the North American Wetland Conservation Act grew out of the NAWMP. It is important to understand that a projects benefit to waterfowl can be key to your proposal

Establishment Act passed in 1989 Currently authorized up to $75 Million In addition to appropriations, program funding comes sources such as fines, Federal fuel excise taxes (for coastal ecosystem projects) and interest. FY 2008 total funding = $84.4 Million Funds projects in CN, MX and the US

Act Implementation Joint Ventures are the venue through which NAWCA grants are run. NAWCA proposals should be submitted with know-ledge of the JV “responsible” for the project area. JV’s rank multiple projects within same funding cycle. Ranks contribute to funding decisions. You don’t have to contact your Joint Venture staff but JV’s don’t like to be surprised and they often have good tips that you may be able to use for your particular project.

Types of Grants Two types available: Standard – $75,001 to $1 Million funding (3 grants funded in NM) Small – up to $75,000 funding (0 grants funded in NM) Two of the Standard NAWCAs were for the Middle Rio Grande. Both of those have included Bosque del Apache NWR. The first included Partners: Santa Ana Pueblo,the City of Albuquerque, US Bureau of Rec. NM Forestry, and Sierra Club the 2nd included partners: Sandia and Cochiti Pueblos, Valencia Soil and Water District, NMDGF, Rio Grande Agricultural Land Trust and private landowners. The first ever Standard went to the Jicarilla Nation, unsure of what that project entailed. It was funded in 1991. No small grants have ever been funded in the state, although there have been at least four proposals submitted: three of them just this past November, and there has been no funding decision made on those. I know two of the projects in eastern NM were for playa leasing programs in Curry County NM. Partners included TNC-NM, NM Office of the Natural Resource Trustee, NM State Land Office, and the El Llano Estacado RC&D

Standard Grant Requirements 1:1 match required. But best to propose at least a 2 non-federal: 1 federal dollar match. High documented waterfowl use or the ability to show that “they will come” Partners are everything – you’ll need many with several giving 10% of the request in match Location, location, location Putting land under perpetual easement or outright purchase is highly valued by the grantor as are Declining wetland types Documented benefit to other wetland-dependent birds and T&E species The possibility of getting $1 million is highly exciting. But standards take a lot of work. The proposal is complex and cumbersome. The PLJV recommends planning for a proposal will take at least one year, especially for new applicants. Often groups such as Ducks Unlimited, which have extensive practice with these types of proposals, can prepare a proposal in less time but the time it takes to build the partnership will still take a lot of time. Points are assigned for each of seven questions. While the questions are straightforward, there is a considerable latitude within the scoring system for subjective voting by the wetlands Council staff. Talking with your Joint Venture many months before the proposal deadline is always a good idea. The PLJV will actually help you in crafting answers to some questions if desired. I’m unsure of the available help from the IWJV. One note about Location, One question looks at whether your project is located within one of the wetland priority areas of the four bird plans. Eastern NM is located in a priority area for three of the plans, with the middle Rio Grande and the Gila River area is located in one priority each.

Small NAWCAs are often better for areas with isolated, small or linear wetlands $2.5 Million in FY 2008 for Small Grants Program = 33+ grants The total amount available for FY 2009 Small Grants (deadline near the end of this year) is still up in the air. A total of 95 proposals were received for FY 2008 with a total request of over $6 million. 5 requests totalling just over $300,000 came from the PLJV region and 12 requests (totalling just over $794,000) from the IWJV. It should be noted that this is the first time that either JV has submitted this high a request from the small NAWCA program. To my knowledge this is the most competitive that this program has ever been. There is the possibility that $2M more may be added to the Small NAWCA program this year, meaning that a minimum of 26 more proposals could be funded.

Much less writing; 5 pages maximum Fewer overall match dollars needed Fewer requirements: Much less writing; 5 pages maximum Fewer overall match dollars needed More emphasis on habitat than waterfowl Smaller landscapes Fewer partners Works well with riparian areas Overall Small NAWCAs provide much more flexibility and ease. Problems may be in trying to describe the area, project and partners within the required 2 page limits! Budgeting is often the hardest portion of the proposal. The more complex the project, with more partners and more tracts of land on which work will be done the more difficult it becomes. If simply a land purchase or a number of partners working together on one piece of land the easier it becomes. High (i.e. >50,000) waterfowl numbers currently are not as high a priority. Still, being able to document a benefit to waterfowl numbers on the property, adjacent properties or equivalent properties is important. Questions are currently only scored on a High Medium or Low scale so there is a great deal of scoring latitude by the Council staff. Putting together the project and informing your partners will likely take the most time, Once a project is put together and a budget has been produced the writing should not take a lot of time, perhaps 20-25 hours total.

Potential Regulatory requirements after grant receipt: Acquisition support letter Historic Preservation Survey Contaminants Survey NEPA U.S. Federal restrictions on purchases Before you begin…. No one likes surprises in the grant process. You, your partners or the NAWCA staff. If you are unable to deliver what you say you will deliver the potential exists for having the grant retracted. Before you begin on any NAWCA project you should read the US Grant Administration Standards, just to understand some of the US Federal requirements, and what restrictions may be placed on the land that will receive these funds.

JV administrative boundaries Intermountain West Playa Lakes Always check with your Joint Venture staff well in advance of any proposal you may wish to undertake. PLJV has a recommended timeline for the Standard grant program and a short reading lilst of items needed for preparation of a Small proposal. These would be good reading even if you are submitting a proposal under the IWJV Information for each is at the end of this show but also accessed through websites with the initials of the JV and a “dot” org.

How grant funds may be spent equipment expenses that are prorated; material and supply costs; annual payments for conservation agreements of at least 15 years or for the maximum duration allowed by State law; restoration or protection costs; and initial management costs.

Match Requirements Must be at least 1:1 match. More non-federal to federal is better May use non-federal funds or in-kind contributed no earlier than 2 years prior to the date the proposal is submitted or during the 2-year grant agreement period Funds cannot have been used to match any other federal funds Must send letters from all contributors, noting value of contribution, with the application These are pretty liberal requirements for obtaining match. Use them. Always be looking for the possibility of a grant when you read or hear about non-federal dollars being spent. Check your newspapers for announcements about City or county land purchases. I still cringe everytime that I remember the $19 M that NMDGF spent of state funds to purchase Eagle Nest Lake that could have been used to leverage several Standard NAWCAs

Potential Sources for matching funds Bird habitat groups – DU, NWTF, PF, QU, etc. City and County funds Civic or community groups NMDGF other state resource agencies (Forestry, State Parks) Private landowners RC & D’s Soil and Water conservation districts Sportsman’s clubs Tourism groups or boosters TNC, TPL and land trusts– acquisitions or easements Tribal dollars Universities and colleges Volunteer efforts If you are already starting to think about using this program remember that partnerships are key to these grants, both small and standard. Here is a list of potential sources of non-federal dollars. Remember that in order to get a dollar commitment from other partners you may have to work well in advance of their fiscal year. There are a variety of organizations that I haven’t listed here but that could be very helpful. Monitoring of the project, though it cannot be paid for with the grant, can be part of the match and it is always good to show that you care about whether your efforts are actually achieving what you want them to achieve. In particular there are BIA funds that the tribes have which can be “changed” into non-federal funds quickly. I don’t know the process but most pueblos that I’ve talked to about this are well aware of the procedure.

Summary Small NAWCA proposals make sense for our area: 1) relatively sparse populations; few corporations 2) few “easy” non-federal dollars 3) many private landowners 4) scattered or linear wetlands 5) few large concentrations of waterfowl I hope that you’ll consider a Small NAWCA. They can help you to get your feet wet with the whole NAWCA process and given our generally arid landscapes they make a lot of sense.

Talk to JV staff. Playa Lakes www. pljv. org Intermountain West www Talk to JV staff. Playa Lakes www.pljv.org Intermountain West www.iwjv.org Deadline for small grants will be November 28 For further information check out: www.fws.gov/birdhabitat/Grants/NAWCA/Small/index.shtm Contact information for each of the NM Joint ventures And the website for small NAWCAs. You can access the Standard Grant website from the small NAWCA site. Deadlines this year for standard grants are March 7 and August 1.