Federal grant programs / Environmental Protection Agency

Regional Wetland Program Development Grants (66.461)

Also known as Regional/Tribal WPDGs

• Awarded, FY 2021 to 2025$43.3 million
• Grant awards165
• Typical award$250,000
• Awarded in FY 2025$2.1 million
• Size rank1,079 of 1,823
• Type of assistanceCooperative agreements

Key findings

• Annual funding fell from $7.9 million in fiscal 2021 to $2.1 million in fiscal 2025.
• It is the 1079th largest of 1,823 federal grant programs by five-year awards.
• The 20 largest recipients received 49% of the money.
• Awards went to recipients in 44 states and territories.

What the program funds

To assist state, territory, tribal, and/or local government agencies in building programs which protect, manage, and restore wetlands. The primary focus of the grants is to build state, territory, and Tribal wetland programs. A secondary focus is to build local (e.g., county or municipal) programs. Under the Regional Wetland Program Development Grant (WPDG) competition, EPA has identified the following four Core Elements for improving state/Tribe/territory/local governments' ability to protect, manage, and restore their wetlands: (1) Monitoring and Assessment; (2) Voluntary Restoration and Protection; (3) Regulatory Approaches Including CWA 401 Certification; and (4) Wetland-Specific Water Quality Standards. EPA will include a website in each Regional Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) where potential applicants can find a list of actions and activities under each Core Element that will develop or refine a state, Tribal, territory, or local government’s wetlands program. EPA has identified two funding Tracks. Track One is for states, Tribes and territories that propose to develop a Wetlands Program Plan (WPP) as described at https://www.epa.gov/wetlands/developing-state-or-tribal-wetland-program-plan or carrying out projects from an EPA-approved WPP. WPPs can be found on-line at https://www.epa.gov/wetlands/state-and-tribal-wetland-program-plans#r1. Track Two is for states, Tribes, territories, local governments, interstate agencies, intertribal consortia, and universities that are agencies of a state that submit proposals that are consistent with the Four Core Elements as described above. Regions may add additional Region-specific priorities that are compatible and consistent with the core element(s) and action(s) in the Appendix of development and refinement actions found at https://www.epa.gov/sites/production/files/2016-03/documents/wpdg_cef_appendix.pdf. Under the National Tribal competition EPA has identified the following four Core Elements for improving a Tribe's ability to protect and restore their wetlands: (1) Monitoring and Assessment; (2) Voluntary Restoration and Protection; (3) Regulatory Approaches Including CWA 401 Certification; and (4) Wetland-Specific Water Quality Standards. EPA will include a website in the National Tribal NOFO where potential applicants can find a list of actions and activities under each Core Element that will develop or refine a Tribe's wetlands program. EPA has identified two funding Tracks. Track One is for tribes that propose to develop a WPP as described at https://www.epa.gov/wetlands/developing-state-or-tribal-wetland-program-plan or carrying out projects from an EPA-approved WPP. WPPs can be found on-line at https://www.epa.gov/wetlands/state-and-tribal-wetland-program-plans#r1 . Track Two is for Tribes and intertribal consortia that submit proposals that are consistent with the Four Core Elements as described above.

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

Who can apply

The term "interstate agency" is defined in CWA Section 502 as "an agency of two or more States established by or pursuant to an agreement or compact approved by the Congress, or any other agency of two or more States, having substantial powers or duties pertaining to the control of pollution as determined and approved by the Administrator." Intertribal consortia that meet the requirements of 40 CFR Part 35.504 are eligible for direct funding. Intertribal consortia projects must be broad in scope and encompass more than one state, Tribe, or local government. Universities that are agencies of a state government are eligible to receive funds through these competitions. Universities must include documentation showing that they are chartered as a part of a state government in their proposal. For-profit organizations are not eligible. Non-profit organizations described in Section 501(c)(4) of the Internal Revenue Code that engage in prohibited lobbying activities as defined in Section 3 of the Lobbying Disclosure Act of 1995 are not eligible to apply. For certain competitive funding opportunities under this assistance listing, the Agency may limit eligibility to compete to a number or subset of eligible applicants consistent with the Agency's Assistance Agreement Competition Policy.

Continue reading on SAM.gov

What the money can and cannot pay for

These grants are intended to encourage comprehensive wetlands program development by promoting the coordination and acceleration of research, investigations, experiments, training, demonstrations, surveys, and studies relating to the causes, effects, extent, prevention, reduction, and elimination of water pollution. Projects build the capacity of states, Tribes, territories, and local governments to effectively protect, manage, and restore wetland and riparian resources. Projects funded under this program support the development of a wetland protection, restoration, or management program or support enhancement/refinement of an existing program. Interstate agency and intertribal consortia projects must be broad in scope and encompass more than one state, Tribe, territory or local government. The Regional Office will accept submissions only for projects that affect the states, Tribes, territories and local governments within their Region. Funds cannot be used for day to day running of a state/Tribal/territory/local government wetland program. Funds cannot be used for the purchase of land or conservation easements. Funds cannot be used for implementation of individual CWA 404 permits, mitigation projects, mitigation banks, or in-lieu-fee mitigation programs. Additional uses and restrictions on funds will be described in detail in the competitive announcements.

Continue reading on SAM.gov

Matching requirements

This program has no statutory formula. The applicant must provide a minimum of 25 percent of the total cost of the work plan to the extent allowed by 2 CFR 200 and 1500 as applicable, 40 CFR 35.385, and 35.615. To determine if the minimum match is met, EPA will use the following formula: amount (in dollars) of federal funds requested from EPA divided by 3 = minimum match (in dollars) or Total project costs divided by 4 = minimum match (in dollars). For example, if the applicant requests $75,000 of federal funds or a Total project cost of $100,000 for the three-year project period, it must be able to provide $25,000 in matching funds or services. A reduced match of zero is available for Tribal grantees that place the Wetland Program Development Grant funds in a Performance Partnership Grant. (See regulations at 40 CFR 536(c).) Please contact your EPA Regional contact person listed in Section VII if you have any questions about calculating the match requirement. . Award recipients can meet the match requirement with in-kind or monetary contributions from entities other than themselves. However, other Federal money cannot be used as the match for this grant program unless authorized by the statute governing the award of the other Federal funds. Matching funds are considered grant funds. They must be used for the reasonable and necessary expenses of carrying out the assistance agreement work plan.

Continue reading on SAM.gov

Deadlines

For competitive awards, deadlines will be specified in the NOFO.

Award range and average, in the agency's words

Range: $80,000 to $600,000/fiscal year; Average: $250,000/fiscal year.

Examples of funded projects

Fiscal Year2025: The WPDG database provides project information for grants funded through this program since 2005 (http://iaspub.epa.gov/apex/wdg/f?p=101). Examples of funded projects include: enhancing a Salt Marsh Restoration Assessment Monitoring Program by addressing key scientific information needs identified by resource managers including information on marsh migration mapping and other data needs; complete the first stage of a state’s probabilistic monitoring program (baseline condition) and launch the second stage (change detection); collect statewide field data for several stream metrics and develop regional curves with the collected data for use in determining stream impacts and mitigation under CWA Section 404; update remaining USGS quad maps using the latest available GIS technology; and developing an updated wetlands quality assurance project plan (QAPP) that includes QA/QC procedures for data entry and management. Eight projects were selected for funding under the Tribal FY2024-2025 competition.

Continue reading on SAM.gov

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 68% of the money, colleges and universities 19% and tribes 12%.

By state

17 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.