Endangered Species Conservation - Wolf Livestock Loss Compensation and Prevention Grants | F21AS00180

Opportunity Information: Apply for F21AS00180

The Endangered Species Conservation - Wolf Livestock Loss Compensation and Prevention Grants opportunity (Funding Opportunity Number F21AS00180) is a competitive federal grant program run by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service under CFDA 15.666. It was authorized by Subtitle C of the Omnibus Public Lands Management Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-11) as the Wolf Livestock Loss Demonstration Project. The program is built around a straightforward idea: reduce conflict between wolves and livestock producers by funding practical prevention steps and, when losses still occur, helping reimburse producers for confirmed wolf-related livestock deaths.

The grant has two equal purposes that Congress directed the program to support in balance. The first is Depredation Prevention, which funds proactive, nonlethal tools meant to lower the chance of wolf predation before it happens. Examples specifically highlighted include fencing, livestock guard dogs, and range riders who patrol grazing areas where livestock may be vulnerable. The second is Depredation Compensation, which helps reimburse livestock producers for livestock losses when predation by wolves is confirmed. Eligible livestock for compensation includes common production animals such as cattle, swine, sheep, and goats, as well as horses and mules, and even livestock guard animals.

Only state governments and federally recognized tribal governments can apply directly for these grants. The funding is intended to support state and tribal programs, meaning the state or tribe acts as the grantee and administrator, then sets up its own process to accept requests from private parties that ultimately benefit from the funds. That includes individual ranchers as well as for-profit and non-profit organizations. In practice, producers do not apply to the federal government for this money; they work through the state wildlife management agency, animal damage control program, or the tribal government process that the grantee establishes.

Applicants can choose to pursue funding for prevention activities, compensation for losses, or both. If a single proposal includes both prevention and compensation components, the two parts are evaluated, ranked, and considered separately, reflecting the program structure that treats them as distinct tracks even when managed together.

The grant can support activities occurring across a wide range of land ownership types, including federal, state, private, and tribal lands (including land owned by or held in trust for the benefit of a tribe). That flexibility is important because wolf-livestock interactions often occur across mixed land jurisdictions, and the program is designed to fit real-world grazing and wildlife management conditions.

To be eligible for an award under Public Law 111-11, a state or tribe must show it has the basic administrative and accountability structure in place. That includes designating an appropriate agency to run the program, establishing one or more accounts to receive and manage grant funds, maintaining files for all claims with supporting documentation, and providing annual reporting to the appropriate Service Program Coordinator. Those annual reports must summarize claims and expenditures and describe what actions were taken on claims, and the grantee must also provide any additional reports the Secretary may request to evaluate how effective the program is. The state or tribe must also promulgate rules for reimbursing livestock producers, which essentially means having formal, transparent policies for how compensation is determined and paid.

The notice also emphasizes an additional eligibility condition tied to program performance and timeliness: to ensure the funding produces immediate conservation benefits, applicants must have fully expended program grant funds from fiscal year 2017 and prior years. This requirement is meant to prioritize applicants that have demonstrated they can put funds to use rather than carry large unspent balances.

Beyond those baseline requirements, there are extra expectations depending on which track an applicant seeks. For Depredation Compensation funding, the state or tribe must be prepared to document losses properly, retain receipts, and track matching funds that are spent. They must also have the ability to protect depredation evidence and coordinate investigations with USDA APHIS-Wildlife Services field representatives (or another authorized official) who will coordinate the investigation. Finally, they must document compensation payments in a way that supports fair-market value, helping ensure payments are consistent, defensible, and equitable. For Depredation Prevention funding, the applicant similarly needs strong documentation and tracking, but it must also require or ensure a good-faith effort by participants to avoid conflicts and must be able to demonstrate the effectiveness of the nonlethal measures being funded, reinforcing that prevention dollars should go to approaches that can show results.

Key administrative details in the posting include that it is a discretionary grant program, with an award ceiling listed at 450,000, and an original closing date of March 5, 2021. The overall purpose is to help states and tribes reduce wolf-livestock conflict using proven, nonlethal deterrence and to provide structured reimbursement for verified losses, while maintaining clear documentation, investigative coordination, and reporting so the federal government can assess outcomes and ensure the funds are used as intended.

• The Fish and Wildlife Service in the natural resources sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Endangered Species Conservation - Wolf Livestock Loss Compensation and Prevention Grants" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 15.666.
• This funding opportunity was created on 2020-12-07.
• Applicants must submit their applications by 2021-03-05. (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 $450,000.00 in funding.
• Eligible applicants include: State governments, Native American tribal governments (Federally recognized).

Apply for F21AS00180

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