Federal grant programs / Department of the Interior

Plant Conservation and Restoration Management (15.245)

• Awarded, FY 2021 to 2025$53.3 million
• Grant awards195
• Typical award$115,008
• Awarded in FY 2025$9.2 million
• Size rank1017 of 1824
• Type of assistanceCooperative agreements (discretionary grants), training

Key findings

• Annual funding rose from $2.0 million in fiscal 2021 to $9.2 million in fiscal 2025.
• It is the 1017th largest of 1,824 federal grant programs by five-year awards.
• The 20 largest recipients received 72% of the money.
• Awards went to recipients in 20 states and territories.

What the program funds

This Program was created in response to large-scale wildfires in the Western US. Due to lack of native seed in 2001 Congress directed the BLM to establish a native plant material program recommending that federal and non-federal partners coordinate efforts through the Plant Conservation Alliance established in 1994. BLM provides leadership in identifying, maintaining, and restoring Western native plant communities on public lands. Public lands contain a diversity of native plant communities comprised of over 50 ecoregions across public lands. In the future, BLM will continue to work with partners to focus on increasing the diversity of locally adapted forbs and grasses for restoration of wildlife habitat and rehabilitation after wildfires.

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

Projects are primarily conducted on lands administered by the BLM but may also be conducted on other public or private lands. Most of these lands are located in the Western United States and Alaska. Assistance can be used to help protect, restore, and enhance native plant communities and rare plants, and to provide related public contact/education opportunities.

Matching requirements

This program has no statutory formula. Matching requirements are not applicable to this assistance listing. MOE requirements are not applicable to this assistance listing.

Award range and average, in the agency's words

Past partnership projects have ranged from $25,000 to $1,200,000. Average amounts run about $100,000 or less.

Examples of funded projects

Fiscal Year2025: Multistate enhancement of restoration potential through native seed cleaning, testing, storage and field trials; Planning and products to support BLM in optimizing elements of the native seed supply chain.Fiscal Year2026: Program has not yet selected projects for funding. Program anticipates funding projects that focus on increasing the diversity of locally adapted native seed for restoration of wildlife habitat and rehabilitation after wildfire. This includes partnerships that increase the supply of locally adapted native seed and help to advance key administration and departmental priorities, including wildlife stewardship and wildfire resilience (E.O. 14313, 14308, S.O. 3356, 3362, 3371), maintaining multiple use opportunities for future development (E.O. 14192, 14153, 14241, 14225), strengthening rural economies (S.O. 3419), and applying best available science (E.O. 14303).

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

Nonprofits received 55% of the money, colleges and universities 33% and state and local governments 6.2%.

By state

11 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.