Landscape Conservation Design for the Lower St. Louis River | F18AS00339

Opportunity Information: Apply for F18AS00339

The Landscape Conservation Design for the Lower St. Louis River grant opportunity (Funding Opportunity Number F18AS00339) is a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS), Department of the Interior initiative to build a coordinated, long-term land and resource planning framework for the Western Lake Superior region, starting with the Lower St. Louis River. The project centers on creating a Landscape Conservation Design (LCD), which is essentially a shared decision-making structure that helps communities and resource-managing partners agree on priorities, coordinate actions, and measure results over time. The LCD is meant to help local communities work side by side with tribal governments and state and federal agencies to balance how land and natural resources are used and conserved in a way that is practical, transparent, and consistent across jurisdictions.

At its core, the opportunity is about aligning conservation with human needs and regional development goals, rather than treating them as separate tracks. The LCD approach is intended to connect and strengthen complementary land-based themes that matter in the region: community health, economic development, and ecological integrity. In practice, that means the framework should help partners identify where conservation or restoration will most benefit fish and wildlife, where protection strategies can be most effective, and how land use decisions can also support resilient communities and sustainable economic outcomes. The overall conservation emphasis is on supporting the long-term health of fish and wildlife resources associated with the Lower St. Louis River and the broader Western Lake Superior landscape, an area described as "where the Great Lakes begin."

The planned effort is structured as a 3-year project with several major deliverables and work components. First, it will establish the LCD framework itself, including the governance or organizational structure that allows diverse partners to participate and make coordinated decisions. Second, it will coordinate and facilitate representative working groups, meaning the project will bring together the relevant voices across local communities, tribes, agencies, and other stakeholders who influence land use decisions. Third, it will evaluate existing spatially based land use and conservation plans, which implies reviewing current maps, regional plans, habitat and watershed strategies, and other geospatial planning products to understand what already exists, where plans align, and where gaps or conflicts occur. Fourth, it will develop land use decision-support tools and associated metrics, which is a key practical output: tools that partners can use to compare scenarios, prioritize areas for protection or restoration, and apply consistent indicators to track progress. Finally, it will recommend additional data and information collection needed to properly assess outcomes tied to the three themes of community health, economic development, and ecological integrity, recognizing that effective measurement depends on having the right baseline data and monitoring approach.

From an administrative and funding standpoint, this opportunity is a discretionary cooperative agreement under CFDA 15.662, with an award ceiling of $328,000 and an expectation of a single award. The listing states there is no application process because it is a notice of intent to make a single-source award to the Minnesota Land Trust (MLT) in Duluth, Minnesota. The USFWS explains that competition is not practical under the cited justification (505 DM 2.14.B.4) because MLT has specialized, locally grounded expertise in coordinating and facilitating partnerships in the Lower St. Louis River area. That local facilitation capability is positioned as essential to the project because the LCD depends heavily on relationship-building, convening diverse interests, and maintaining coordinated participation over multiple years, not just producing a technical plan.

In summary, this grant opportunity funds the development of a regional, collaborative planning and decision framework for land use and conservation in the Lower St. Louis River and Western Lake Superior area. The work is designed to bring partners into a shared vision, integrate and evaluate existing geospatial plans, create usable decision-support tools and common metrics, and identify data needs so progress can be tracked over time. It is also explicitly structured as a single-source cooperative agreement to the Minnesota Land Trust, reflecting the agency view that successful LCD development in this landscape requires an organization with deep experience convening local and regional partners and translating shared priorities into implementable land protection and management strategies.

• The Department of the Interior, Fish and Wildlife Service in the environment, natural resources, science and technology and other research and development sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Landscape Conservation Design for the Lower St. Louis River" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 15.662.
• This funding opportunity was created on Sep 07, 2018.
• Applicants must submit their applications by Sep 14, 2018 There is not an application process for this funding opportunity. This is a notice of intent to award a single source Cooperative Agreement to the Minnesota Land Trust, Duluth, MN under justification 505DM 2.14.B.4.. (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 $328,000.00 in funding.
• The number of recipients for this funding is limited to 1 candidate(s).
• Eligible applicants include: Others (see text field entitled Additional Information on Eligibility for clarification).

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