Description
The purpose of this new award is to provide $200,000 in U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) funds to support the Five Star-Urban Waters Restoration grant program managed by the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF). This funding will be used by NFWF to support an Urban Refuge focal area in the competitive Five Star-Urban Waters Restoration grant program. Funding from FWS will be leveraged by funds already committed by U.S. Forest Service (USFS), Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and numerous non-federal corporate and private partners. Through this program, NFWF will solicit projects from state and local governments, non-profit organizations, Tribes, and academic institutions to support the proposed standards of excellence for Urban Wildlife Refuges with an emphasis on urban bird conservation.The grant program, a unique public-private partnership, will invest in urban community-based conservation efforts that result in measurable conservation outcomes, engage the public and provide a better understanding of how fish and wildlife conservation contributes to community well-being. Through the administration of the grant program, NFWF, FWS, FS, EPA, and corporate and private entities will leverage public and private funding to target resources for priority urban watersheds. All projects selected for FWS Urban Refuge funding will be in proximity of FWS lands or offices or in locations where there are existing FWS urban partnerships.The objectives of the program include: Partnerships: Projects proposals should include partner organizations (public and private) with the demonstrated ability or articulated strategy to work with specifically identified urban cultures and communities. Proposals will describe how the partnership with Fish and Wildlife Service (Service) staff can help achieve common goals of connecting people with nature by engaging them in bird-related education and conservation. Measurable Benefits: Projects should result in measurable outcomes that document greater participation in fish and wildlife related activities among diverse urban audiences and a better understanding of how fish and wildlife conservation contributes to community well-being. Sustainability: Projects should reflect a commitment to neighborhood and community strength, and long term capacity to remain engaged as a Service partner beyond the life of the grant. Community Assets: Projects will articulate tangible ways the Service can become an asset to the urban community. Examples of asset building would include providing technical assistance in fish and wildlife issues, providing pathways for youth employment, supporting urban bird conservation, or community education and recreational enjoyment. This is a single source cooperative agreement in the amount of $200,000.00 is awarded to the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF). FWS and NFWF both have a desire to work with urban audiences to promote community-based engagement in conservation activities. As populations continue to grow in urban areas, and as communities become less connected to their natural surroundings, increased efforts need to be taken to reengage these communities in local conservation efforts. The Five Star-Urban Waters program provides an opportunity for FWS to take advantage of the NFWF grant program infrastructure already developed, the additional federal and non-federal partners committed to the program, and the broad selection of national, regional, and local organizations who regularly submit community-based projects through this program. The period of performance for this award is July 1, 2019 through December 31, 2022. Timeline:Listed below is the planned annual schedule for administering the program over the life of the cooperative agreement. This timeline includes outreach activities, Five Star partner and review meetings. October - Begin conducting outreach to potential applicants. November - RFP and Application published on program websites and Wildlife Habitat Council Symposium November/December - Webinars for applicants January 31 - Proposals Due Mid-Feb to Late-March Proposal Review April - Initial Review Committee Meeting (NFWF, FWS and other federal partners); final Review Committee Meeting/Funding Decisions May-mid-July - Final slate approval by all funders; Congressional notification Early August - Press releases developed; award letters sent to grantees September - Negotiation grant agreements with grantees September on Monitor progress, track results of funded projectsIn 2007, NFWF, in consultation with the Five Star Partners, commissioned Oregon State University to complete an evaluation of the program, which concluded in February 2008. The evaluation analyzed applications, interim and final reports from 123 projects funded between 1999 and 2005. The partners used this evaluation to refine overall programmatic evaluative metrics and then incorporated them into the NFWF¿s electronic grants management system. The outcomes evaluated by OSU for Five Star subgrant projects completed between 1999 and 2005, as well as new priorities provided by the Urban Bird and Urban Water partners, serve as the basis for the program.NFWF Five Star-Urban Waters Program staff will continue to work with NFWF's Science and Evaluation staff and agency leads to identify performance measures for the Five Star-Urban Waters Program. These measures effectively gauge progress toward achieving the Program's goals and objectives. On the project level, these evaluation criteria have been incorporated into the RFP, application and the proposal review process. Program partners adapted application materials from NFWF's existing templates to meet specific program needs and streamline evaluation. NFWF requires applicants to identify activities, project outputs and project outcomes, as well as indicators and baseline values to be used to measure change over time. NFWF staff continually evaluates outcomes to ensure that the most effective measures are utilized. These project-level measures track directly to the program-wide measures and the baseline mentioned above. These may include, for example, the number of volunteers engaged in the project. Indicators defined in proposals are tracked in the NFWF's electronic grants management system.Under the conditions of the NFWF's standard grant agreement templates, grantees are required to provide periodic and final programmatic and financial reports at the end of their projects to document their accomplishments and ensure appropriate use of Five Star-Urban Waters funds. This approach allows NFWF staff to monitor the progress of each project (e.g., is the grantee meeting their targets and if not, is corrective action required) while also facilitating efficient and timely payments of grant funds. Programmatic and financial reports are due annually. NFWF requires that all grantees use standard reporting templates and data standards to assist NFWF in in ensuring data compatibility with FWS requirements. NFWF's Compliance Department monitors all federal regulations and agreements to ensure that all regulations are met by NFWF and our subgrantees.Upon completion of each project, grantees are required to provide a project evaluation report summarizing how they satisfied the specific objectives contained in their grant agreement.Grantees also report on the specific activities and targets in terms of outputs, outcomes and environmental results. NFWF similarly evaluates the success of the projects against their applications. NFWF will summarize and report the accomplishments by grantees and analyze the overall program accomplishments in a final report to FWS for the entire cooperative agreement. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service) will be substantially involved in projects under this funding opportunity. In particular, the Service will be responsible for the following: Review and approve the RFP language to ensure that the Services priorities are clearly and accurately represented; review, and/or help coordinate the internal review of, grant applications that meet the criteria related to Urban Bird Treaty goals. Feedback will be provided to NFWF. FWS may meet with NFWF and other Five Star and Urban Waters Restoration Grant Program partners to review and discuss project applications. Ensure proposals selected for funding shall address three or more of the Urban Bird Treaty goals. Approve the final slate of projects.Anticipated period of performance is March 1, 2019 through Authorizing Legislation: Fish and Wildlife Act, 16 U.S.C. §742 et seq.; Fish and Wildlife Coordination Act, 16 U.S.C. §§661-666; Fish and Wildlife Conservation Act, 16 U.S.C. §2901 et seq.; Migratory Bird Treaty Act, 16 U.S.C. §703 et seq.