Federal grant programs / Department of Agriculture

Forest Legacy Program (10.676)

• Awarded, FY 2021 to 2025$407 million
• Grant awards260
• Typical award$100,000
• Awarded in FY 2025$109 million
• Size rank419 of 1824
• Type of assistanceProject grants

Key findings

• Annual funding rose from $67.0 million in fiscal 2021 to $109 million in fiscal 2025.
• It is the 419th largest of 1,824 federal grant programs by five-year awards.
• The 20 largest recipients received 91% of the money.
• Awards went to recipients in 42 states and territories.

What the program funds

To effectively identify and protect environmentally important forest areas threatened by conversion to non-forest uses, through the use of conservation easements or fee simple purchase. The Forest Legacy Program (FLP) is a voluntary private land conservation partnership between the Forest Service, participating States, land trusts, private landowners, and others. The Program works with State partners and operates on a willing seller and willing buyer basis and is completely nonregulatory in its approach. No eminent domain authority or adverse condemnation is authorized for this Program.

From the federal Assistance Listing. Read the full listing on SAM.gov.

Open opportunities

No opportunity under this program is open or forecast on Grants.gov right now. Programs often post once a year, so the funding history below shows what to expect.

Rules from the program listing

What the money can and cannot pay for

Funds are used to purchase lands and pay for acquisition-related expenses.

Matching requirements

This program has no statutory formula. Other Federal Contribution cannot exceed 75 percent of total project costs, and at least a 25 percent non-Federal cost share is required. The non-Federal cost share may consist of: funds, donations, land or interests in land, in-kind contributions, direct costs, indirect costs, and others as determined by the Forest Service. Funds will be provided to the States on a per-project basis, as determined by the annual appropriations. The non-Federal cost share can occur at any phase of the project within the legal grant period, including planning, developing future projects, acquisition, or administrative activities.MOE requirements are not applicable to this assistance listing.

Deadlines

Contact the headquarters or regional location, as appropriate for application deadlines

Examples of funded projects

Fiscal Year2025: Tennessee’s Wolf River State Forest, 40 minutes from Memphis, was acquired by Tennessee Division of Forestry with FLP funds. The project spans 5,477 acres of quality hardwood forest, opens new recreational opportunities (hunting, hiking, paddling), and contributes to the 188,000 outdoor recreation-related jobs in the State. It also safeguards decades of forestry research by the University of Tennessee.

Quoted from the program's federal Assistance Listing. The notice of funding opportunity is the official source for each competition's rules.

Who usually wins

State and local governments received 95% of the money, businesses 2.4% and colleges and universities 1.2%.

By state

31 states have a page for this program: those that received at least $1 million or 10 awards.

Award amounts are federal obligations reported to USAspending.gov for fiscal 2021 to 2025; see how our data works.