FY25 IIJA/IRA Bureau of Land Management Idaho (ID) Forest and Woodlands Resource Management | L25AS00073

Opportunity Information: Apply for L25AS00073

The FY25 IIJA/IRA Bureau of Land Management Idaho (ID) Forest and Woodlands Resource Management opportunity (Funding Opportunity Number L25AS00073) is a discretionary BLM funding program that will issue awards through cooperative agreements to support on-the-ground forest and woodland work on public lands in Idaho. The main purpose is to fund high-priority activities that improve forest and woodland health and promote sustainable management, with a strong emphasis on increasing resilience to wildfire and addressing impacts from insects, disease, drought, and past fires. The program also supports efforts that connect vegetation management with habitat conservation needs and, where appropriate, biomass utilization for bioenergy as part of broader restoration and fuels reduction strategies.

Projects funded under this announcement can cover a wide range of forest and woodland restoration and management actions. Examples listed in the notice include tree planting; pre-commercial and commercial thinning; salvage and sanitation treatments (for example, removing hazard trees or treating stands affected by insects and disease); controlling competing vegetation; fuels reduction work to reduce wildfire risk and improve fire resiliency; and riparian or upland restoration. In addition to field implementation, the program can fund the practical steps needed to get work ready and legally cleared, such as project development and layout, planning analyses, and preparation of documentation tied to compliance processes like NEPA, the Endangered Species Act, and cultural resource clearances. It also explicitly includes data collection and monitoring, which are often required to support adaptive management and to document treatment outcomes.

BLM highlights four priority activity groupings. First is project preparation work, which can include site surveys, environmental clearances, NEPA preparation, project layout, timber cruising, timber marking, boundary designation, and other tasks that directly enable later treatment implementation. Second is project administration work, such as subcontracting and procurement-related steps (advertising for bids, awarding subcontracts or timber sales), and subcontract performance inspection or other oversight functions needed to ensure projects are completed correctly and safely. Third is implementation that directly achieves Land Management Goals (as defined in BLM stewardship guidance) and results in measurable accomplishments such as acres treated or units of forest or woodland treatments completed. Fourth is the implementation of science-based restoration projects designed to improve forest health and increase resilience to wildfires, insects, disease, and drought, signaling that proposals should be grounded in established forestry and ecological restoration practices rather than purely experimental approaches without a management rationale.

Eligibility is limited to public and nonprofit or educational entities. Eligible applicants include state, county, and city or township governments; special district governments; independent school districts; public and state-controlled institutions of higher education; private institutions of higher education; federally recognized tribal governments; other tribal organizations; and nonprofits with or without 501(c)(3) status. Individuals and for-profit organizations are not eligible under this notice. The NOFO also makes clear that it does not support hiring interns or crews under the Public Lands Corps Act of 1993 through this funding stream. Youth Conservation Corps-type applicants are directed instead to the separate BLM Youth Conservation Opportunities on Public Lands program (CFDA 15.243), which is the appropriate authority for those kinds of youth/intern crew hiring arrangements.

Funding details provided in the source data indicate an award ceiling of $50,000 per award. The opportunity lists an original closing date of February 3, 2025, and the posting (creation) date is November 13, 2024. The assistance listing (CFDA) associated with this opportunity is 15.233, and the activity category is Natural Resources. Because the instrument is a cooperative agreement, applicants should expect BLM to have substantial involvement in the project (for example, coordination on technical direction, planning, compliance alignment, or monitoring expectations), which is typical for cooperative agreements compared to more hands-off grant structures.

The notice also includes an important condition for applicants working through the Cooperative Ecosystem Studies Units (CESU) network. CESUs are intended to support research, studies, assessments, monitoring, technical assistance, and education services in partnership with federal agencies. If an award is made to a CESU partner under a formally negotiated Master CESU agreement that fits the CESU purpose, indirect costs are capped at no more than 17.5 percent of the indirect cost base recognized in the partner’s federally approved Negotiated Indirect Cost Rate Agreement (NICRA). Applicants are expected to state whether their proposal advances CESU purposes and, if it does, identify which CESU Network should serve as the host.

Overall, this opportunity is geared toward practical, high-priority forestry and woodland projects that either (1) get priority treatments ready to implement by completing surveys, layout, and compliance documentation, (2) administer and oversee contracted treatment work, or (3) carry out science-based treatments and restoration that deliver measurable improvements in forest condition and resilience on BLM-managed public lands in Idaho, while staying within the eligibility limits and the program’s restrictions on youth/intern hiring authorities.

• The Bureau of Land Management in the natural resources sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "FY25 IIJA/IRA Bureau of Land Management Idaho (ID) Forest and Woodlands Resource Management" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 15.233.
• This funding opportunity was created on 2024-11-13.
• Applicants must submit their applications by 2025-02-03. (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 $50,000.00 in funding.
• Eligible applicants include: State governments, County governments, City or township governments, Special district governments, Independent school districts, Public and State controlled institutions of higher education, Native American tribal governments (Federally recognized), Native American tribal organizations (other than Federally recognized tribal governments), Nonprofits having a 501 (c) (3) status with the IRS, other than institutions of higher education, Nonprofits that do not have a 501 (c) (3) status with the IRS, other than institutions of higher education, Private institutions of higher education.

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