Environmental Justice

AmeriCorps improves lives, strengthens communities, and fosters civic engagement through service and volunteering. AmeriCorps brings people together to tackle some of the country’s most pressing challenges through national service and volunteerism. AmeriCorps members serve with organizations dedicated to the improvement of communities and those serving.

AmeriCorps grants are awarded to eligible organizations that engage AmeriCorps members in evidence-based or evidence-informed interventions to strengthen communities. An AmeriCorps member is a person who does community service through AmeriCorps. Members may receive a living allowance and other benefits. After successful completion of their service, members earn a Segal AmeriCorps Education Award they can use to pay for higher education expenses or apply to qualified student loans.

For this funding opportunity, AmeriCorps will prioritize consideration from organizations that:
Serve Communities:
• Serve communities with concentrated poverty, rural communities, tribal communities, and historically underrepresented and underserved individuals. These may include people of color, immigrants, refugees, people with disabilities, LGBTQIA+ individuals, people with arrest or conviction records, religious minorities, etc.;
• Implement programs for or expand access to high-quality youth mental health and substance use recovery services and prepare AmeriCorps members to enter behavioral health careers. These may include individuals with lived experience with substance use and mental health challenges to support youth mental health efforts and continued AmeriCorps work on the opioid epidemic;
• Focus on improving the quality of life for veterans, active-duty members of the Armed Forces, and their families by recruiting veterans, military spouses, and their older children into national service;
• Promote environmental stewardship to help communities (especially underserved households and communities) to be more resilient by reducing greenhouse gas emissions, conserving land and water, increasing renewable energy use and improving at-risk ecosystems;
• Support civic bridgebuilding programs and projects to reduce polarization and community divisions; and providing training in civic bridgebuilding skills and techniques to AmeriCorps members;
Benefit AmeriCorps Members:
• Provide benefits to AmeriCorps members aimed at enhancing member experience and bolstering member recruitment and retention such as paying more than the minimum living allowance, transportation, housing, food, etc.; Create workforce pathways for AmeriCorps members, including deliberate training, certifications, and hiring preferences or support;
• Enhance and expand services to second chance youth and/or engage those youth as AmeriCorps members;
• Develop and train the next generation of diverse public health leaders through service while addressing pressing community health challenges. Review Public Health AmeriCorps Priority in the Mandatory Supplemental Information for eligibility information;
Use Evidence
• Utilize reports from the AmeriCorps Evidence Exchange on programs assessed as having Moderate or Strong evidence to scale, replicate, or adapt the intervention;
Faith-Based
• Organizations that are faith-based; and
American Climate Corps
• Please note that applicants may propose projects to be affiliated with the American Climate Corps (ACC), which is a federal government national service and workforce development initiative focused on training young people for the clean energy and climate resilience workforce. Applicants who are interested must demonstrate that their project funds ACC eligible positions meeting the following criteria:
o The position has verifiable climate or environmental impact.
o The position is temporary (term-limited), and the term length is at least 300 hours.
o The position includes skills-based training as part of the program and provides a pathway to employment.
o The position must receive a living allowance and, in some cases, may receive additional member benefits.

Applicants submitting a workforce development project to qualify for affiliation with the ACC should note that in their application. Successful applicants will be notified if they are part of the ACC and may be subject to additional reporting requirements.

To receive priority consideration, applicants must show the priority area is a significant part of the program focus and intended outcomes. Priority consideration does not guarantee funding.

OVERVIEW
The National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF) is soliciting proposals to strategically protect and enhance essential habitats in Hawaiʻi, from mauka to makai (from the mountain to the ocean), to reduce extinction risk and sustain resilient populations of native species relating to NFWF’s Hawai‘i Conservation Program Business Plan. Species and habitats of interest include palila (finch-billed Hawaiian honeycreeper), kiwikiu (Maui parrotbill), Oʻahu elepaio (monarch flycatcher), ʻuaʻu (Hawaiian petrel), ‘alalā (Hawaiian crow), and conservation objectives on Lānaʻi. The Hawaiʻi Conservation Program anticipates awarding approximately $2.1 million in grants. Major funding partners include the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS), U.S. Forest Service (USFS), Department of Defense’s Readiness and Environmental Protection Integration (REPI) Program, and Pūlama Lānaʻi.

GEOGRAPHIC FOCUS
To be eligible for funding, projects must occur within the areas illustrated in Maps 1-3 below.
Priority geographic locations include those found on the islands of Hawaiʻi Island, Maui, Lānaʻi, and Oʻahu.

PROGRAM PRIORITIES
All proposals must specifically address how projects will directly and measurably contribute to the accomplishment of one or more of the program priorities as identified in the Hawaiʻi Conservation Program Business Plan. Projects that incorporate community outreach, foster community engagement, and pursue collaborative management while elevating traditional knowledge that will lead to measurable conservation benefits are encouraged.

In 2025, the Hawaiʻi Conservation Program will award grants to projects that address the following program priorities.

Bird Conservation: Reduce extinction risk for a suite of endemic bird species by addressing direct threats and improving habitat conditions. Pervasive and ongoing threats for Hawaiian birds include avian malaria, habitat loss and degradation, invasive predators and plants, and climate change. In 2025, NFWF seeks projects that support listed birds on Oʻahu, Maui and Hawaiʻi Island with a primary emphasis on the following priorities:

Landscape-scale mosquito control for endemic forest birds – Support the deployment of the Incompatible Insect Technique (IIT) to suppress populations of the invasive southern house mosquito to reduce or eliminate the occurrence of avian malaria at a landscape-scale to prevent the extinction of endangered forest birds. Project activities may include implementation planning, data collection to inform prioritization of control locations, coordination and planning among Birds, Not Mosquitoes partnership, and community outreach and education on the conservation need and tool(s) available.
Kiwikiu – Support the kiwikiu steering committee’s efforts to address short and long-term conservation needs. Activities may include establishing a captive population or establishing a new population by translocation to reduce extinction risk. Specific actions such as captive rearing or translocation planning and/or assessments, locating and capturing individuals, infrastructure support, and species monitoring, will be considered.
ʻAlalā – Support the establishment of a self-sustaining population of ʻalalā on Maui. Project activities may include implementing a monitoring program to learn about survival, health, and space use of released ʻalalā through data obtained by radio telemetry and monitoring the effectiveness of predator control. The monitoring program will inform adaptive management actions for current and future releases.
Palila – Prevent extinction of palila. Support one of several key activities to insulate palila from continued decline. Project activities may include predator control and fencing with an emphasis on cat control, supplemental feeding during chick rearing, establishing a captive population, fire management including invasive vegetation management, outplanting native plants, maintaining ungulate-proof fences, and removal of ungulates within fenced units.
Oʻahu elepaio – Increase Oʻahu elepaio territorial occupancy. Project activities may include rodent control through trapping, predator surveys, and efficacy monitoring.
Kuahiwi a Kai: Lānaʻi Watershed Conservation Program: Lānaʻi is home to unique natural and cultural resources, stretching from the island’s mountain to its surrounding ocean. However, the landscape faces threats from uncontrolled ungulate populations, sedimentation runoff, invasive plants, and non-native predators. Over the past 150 years, mismanagement of and overgrazing by non-native ungulates, including axis deer and mouflon sheep, has led to unnatural erosion patterns, burying historic cultural sites near the coast, smothering the island’s coral reefs and white sand beaches with sediment, and destroying terrestrial habitats that are home to native fauna. Invasive plants, such as strawberry guava and fire-tolerant grasses, have changed the hydrology of the watershed, increasing soil compaction and flash flooding, and decreasing water infiltration to the island’s aquifers.

The Kuahiwi a Kai Program was launched in 2019 to protect and enhance Lānaʻi’s watershed health, coral reefs, native plants and animals, endangered Hawaiian petrel habitat, and sensitive coastal cultural sites, while fostering coordinated connection between Lānaʻi’s community and the land. In 2025, the Kuahiwi a Kai Program seeks projects in the following program priority areas:

Installation of ungulate-proof fence – Install the second segment of ungulate exclusion fencing, approximately 4.53 miles long, to enclose a core segment of the Kuahiwi a Kai program area. A grant to install the first segment of fencing was awarded through the program’s 2021 RFP and is currently under construction. The purpose of creating mauka to makai fenced management units is to strategically manage invasive ungulate populations, improve watershed conditions, and protect native habitats.
Restoration implementation planning – Develop a comprehensive restoration strategy and implementation plan for the Kuahiwi a Kai Program focusing on priority habitat management for: 1) lowland mesic forest within the completed Hiʻi predator exclusion fence to benefit ʻuaʻu, 2) lowland mixed native and introduced mesic forest across Lānaihale (see ʻuaʻu focal area on Map 2), 3) lowland scrub-shrub and bare earth at mid-latitudes on windward slopes of Kuahiwi a Kai program area, and 4) coastal kiawe (Prosopis pallida) forest and shrub lands. Successful project(s) will:
Engage program partners and stakeholders to create a framework for landscape habitat restoration.
Integrate data and findings from past grants to the U.S. Geological Survey for vegetation and sediment modeling.
Classify and prioritize management sub-units within identified ecosystems. Detail specific restoration actions and plant production goals for each management sub-unit, and include proposed schedules and budgets in alignment with the Kuahiwi a Kai program’s priorities and objectives. Results should clearly state a cost opinion related to each proposed management area and year-over-year cost schedule.
Integrate seed collection and propagation efforts, currently underway by Kuahiwi a Kai grantees, in proposed native plant production schedules.

Include implementation recommendations at a fieldwork-level specification for:
Invasive species management such as herbicide type and concentrations, treatment methods, debris management, equipment, and recommended PPE.
Native plant revegetation including recommended species and densities for each management unit based on verifiable reference ecosystems.

Adaptive management protocols including survey methodology, schedules, and benchmarks for monitoring of implementation areas, thresholds for amended actions, and proposed and projected schedule budgets.

Community engagement – Integrate the community and its cultural history into the priority conservation activities referenced above. Potential project activities may include engaging students and/or community members in educational, hands-on internships and/or volunteer projects focused on invasive plant management, native plant restoration, ungulate monitoring, and ungulate control.

The National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF) is requesting proposals to restore, protect and enhance aquatic and riparian species of conservation concern and their habitats in the headwaters of the Colorado River and Rio Grande watersheds. Up to $1.3 million in funding is expected to be available through support from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS), U.S. Forest Service (USFS), U.S. Department of Agriculture Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), and the Trinchera Blanca Foundation, an affiliate of The Moore Charitable Foundation.

GEOGRAPHIC FOCUS/PROGRAM FUNDING PRIORITIES
This Request for Proposals (RFP) is part of NFWF’s Southwest Rivers Program and will provide funding to projects that produce measurable outcomes for species of conservation concern in the riparian corridors of the headwaters of the Colorado River and Rio Grande. The Rio Grande Headwaters Focal Area includes the mainstem and headwater tributaries of the Rio Grande in Colorado and northern New Mexico, as well as the headwaters of the Rio Chama, Jemez River, and Rio Puerco. The Colorado River Focal Area includes selected tributaries and headwaters of the Colorado River including the Escalante, Gila, Salt, San Juan, Verde and Virgin Rivers (see Figure 1). Projects located in the San Juan River watershed in southwestern Colorado should be submitted to the concurrent RESTORE Colorado 2025 RFP. Applicants are encouraged to consult NFWF's Southwest Rivers Business Plan mapping portal in informing potential geographic focus.

Priority projects will address the leading factors in aquatic and riparian species decline such as loss of natural processes and habitat, environmental change and invasive species. Projects employing process-based methods of wetlands and riparian restoration are highly encouraged. Maintaining healthy headwater wetlands and riparian areas provide security by improving the reliability of late season flows for water users, fish and wildlife downstream. Proposals should strive to contribute to goals detailed in NFWF’s Southwest Rivers Business Plan, and specifically the strategies related to focal species (see below) conservation. Projects benefiting one or more of the following species and their habitats are priorities for funding.

Business Plan focal species in the Rio Grande Headwaters Focal Area include Rio Grande cutthroat trout, North American beaver and southwestern willow flycatcher.
The focal species in the Colorado River Focal Area is North American beaver.
NFWF expects that projects creating potential beaver habitat will benefit a number of other native aquatic species in these focal areas.

PRIORITY ACTIVITIES
Priority restoration activities that address key limiting factors for focal species in the Colorado River and Rio Grande headwaters include:

Process-based wetland, riparian and instream habitat restoration and enhancement – Restore natural fluvial process that increase floodplain connectivity, dynamic channel processes and recruitment of native riparian vegetation. Activities may include beaver mimicry structures, livestock exclusion fencing and riparian vegetation planting, removal of channel stabilizing structures, and science-based design and analysis for process-based restoration projects.

Riparian habitat restoration and enhancement – Restore stream banks to increase floodplain connectivity and recruitment of native riparian vegetation. Activities may include streambank re-contouring and native vegetation planting, and engineering design and analysis for riparian restoration projects.

Instream restoration and enhancement – Restore and enhance stream channels that have suffered from channelization, thereby restoring the natural variety of stream substrate and flow patterns that benefit the life cycles of the focal species. Specific activities may include stream channel engineering and bank re-shaping.

Increase water availability for species and their habitats and/or remove barriers to flow – Make available more water for environmental flows that are necessary to drive process-based restoration and sustain species and their habitats through voluntary leasing or acquisition of water rights in the focal geographies. Remove or improve infrastructure at road crossings, culverts and check dams that act as barriers to the movement of aquatic species or promote natural dynamic processes to ensure habitat connectivity and fluvial development of the whole valley bottom.

Reintroduction and translocation of focal species – Translocation of focal aquatic species to stream reaches with improved habitat and protection from invasive species. Reintroduction of or attraction projects benefitting North American beaver in a manner compatible with ongoing agricultural use and irrigation and land management objectives, and which benefits other focal species dependent on the habitat created by beaver activity.

Protect focal species from invasives – Remove invasive fish that compete with and/or threaten to hybridize with Rio Grande cutthroat trout from streams which are or could be occupied by the native species. Construct barriers to protect established populations from hybridization where appropriate.

Increase Capacity for Low-tech Process-based Restoration implementation in and among conservation organizations working in the southwest region. Here we define increased capacity broadly, from new positions within an organization to funding for contracting with external partners that bring knowledge or manpower to extend the reach of low-tech process-based restoration techniques throughout the southwest.

Increase Capacity for Implementation of NRCS Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) conservation programs

Increase capacity for implementation of priority conservation activities through NRCS partner positions and technical assistance. Capacity grants should address the following priorities:

Increase Farm Bill program participation and conservation practice implementation among agricultural producers, especially farmers and ranchers in the Historically Underserved and Special Emphasis categories.
Grant recipients will provide technical assistance to interested farmers and ranchers to develop management plans, design and implement conservation practices, share their experiences and lessons learned, and participate in Farm Bill programs, especially the Conservation Stewardship Program (CSP) and Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP). A particular emphasis should be placed on promoting, designing, and implementing climate-smart agriculture and forestry (CSAF) conservation practices.
Applications are encouraged which support new full-time or part-time partner positions at applicant organizations such as foresters, wildlife biologists, rangeland specialists, and/or other natural resource professionals that will work in conjunction with NRCS personnel in New Mexico on a daily basis to carry out the provisions of the IRA. Duties of IRA partner positions include, but are not limited to, the following:

Providing technical assistance in the development of conservation plans and checkouts of completed practices.
Preparing and/or monitoring various contract management reports.
Preparing and issuing correspondence to participants such as annual practice reminders, deferral letters, preapproval letters, and eligibility letters.
Providing assistance with the application process such as reviewing documents for completeness, verifying control of land, irrigation history, signature authority, required electronic registrations, and troubleshooting eligibility/vendor issues.
Assisting with contract management by uploading and maintaining documents in electronic systems; removing expired contracts from active contract filing cabinets; and ensuring appropriate signatures on documents.
Assisting with the completion of reviews and audits by compiling documentation needed to support audit samples.

Community-wide Assessment Grants are for communities that are beginning to address their brownfield challenges, as well as for communities that have ongoing efforts to bring sites into productive reuse. This funding opportunity will provide funding for developing inventories of brownfield sites, prioritizing sites, conducting community involvement activities, conducting planning, conducting site assessments, developing site-specific cleanup plans, and developing reuse plans related to brownfield sites. A portion of the assessment grant funding must be used to conduct site assessments.

Assessment Grants provide funding for developing inventories of brownfield sites, prioritizing sites, conducting community involvement activities, conducting planning, conducting site assessments, developing site-specific cleanup plans, and developing reuse plans related to brownfield sites. A portion of the Assessment Grant funding must be used to conduct site assessments. Assessment Grant funds may not be used to conduct cleanup activities.

Community-wide Assessment Grants are appropriate for communities that are beginning to
address their brownfield challenges, as well as for communities that have ongoing efforts to
bring sites into productive reuse.

Applicants may request funding up to $500,000 to address sites contaminated by hazardous
substances (i.e., sites with potential contamination of hazardous substances, pollutants, or
contaminants) and/or petroleum7 (i.e., sites with potential petroleum contamination). For the purposes of this solicitation, the cost of assessment activities carried out at each approved, eligible site may not exceed $200,000 per site.

EPA will determine site eligibility after the award of the grant throughout the project period.

Applicants can only apply for one Community-wide Assessment Grant.

Revolving Loan Funds (RLF) are used to provide no-interest or low-interest loans for eligible brownfield cleanups, subgrants for cleanups, and other eligible programmatic costs necessary to manage the RLF. Applications will be evaluated based on the extent to which the applicant demonstrates: a vision for the cleanup, reuse and redevelopment of brownfield sites and a strategy for leveraging resources to help accomplish the vision; the environmental, social, health and economic needs and benefits of the target area(s); strong community engagement; reasonable costs, eligible tasks, and appropriate use of grant funding; the capacity for managing and successfully implementing the cooperative agreement; and other factors.

Revolving Loan Fund (RLF) Grants provide funding to a grant recipient to capitalize an RLF
program. RLF programs provide loans and subgrants to eligible entities to carry out cleanup
activities at brownfield sites contaminated with hazardous substances and/or petroleum. Site eligibility will be determined by EPA after grant award and prior to expending grant funds at any site. Sites where hazardous substances and petroleum contamination are distinguishable must meet eligibility requirements for both contaminants.
Only eligible entities that do not have, or are not a part of (i.e., a coalition member), an open
cooperative agreement for a Brownfields RLF at the time of application may apply for funding under this solicitation. An “open” cooperative agreement is one in which the Period of performance, as defined in 2 CFR § 200.1, has not yet ended. The period of performance is specified in EPA’s initial or amended “Notice of Award.”

Note for grant recipients that do have an open cooperative agreement for a Brownfields RLF:
Grant recipients with an open cooperative agreement will be given the opportunity to request
additional funding to capitalize their RLF program through the Brownfields Program’s annual,
non-competitive, supplemental funding process. As of Fiscal Year 2022 (FY22), instead of
extending the existing RLF cooperative agreement period of performance when providing
supplemental funding, EPA may choose to award a new RLF Grant. Additional information on the timing, requirements, and procedures for supplemental funding requests will be available on EPA’s Brownfields Program Website (www.epa.gov/brownfields/brownfields-revolving-loanfund-rlf-grants).

Purpose:
Priorities for RMC LLAR Prop 68:

Develop urban recreation projects and habitat protection or restoration projects,Provide workforce development opportunities,Expand access to diverse populations,Secured matching funds

RMC’s LLAR Grants are specific to the Lower LA River corridor, considered within 1.5 miles of the main stem or tributary of the Lower LA River. Projects should be consistent with the Lower LA River Revitalization Plan.

Description:
Lower Los Angeles River:

The Lower Los Angeles River program area encompasses 1.5 miles on each side of the river’s lower 19-miles, from the City of Vernon to the City of Long Beach. The Lower Los Angeles River Revitalization Plan (LLARRP) describes opportunities for improving the environment of the Lower Los Angeles River. The plan was developed through a watershed-based, equitable, community-driven process and it identified 155 potential multi-benefit projects that would improve community economics, health, and equity; the public realm; and water and the environment along and in the vicinity of the river. The Plan has been incorporated into the watershed (LLARRP) describes opportunities for improving the environment of Lower Los Angeles River. The plan was developed through a watershed-based, equitable, community-driven process and it identified 155 potential multi-benefit projects that would improve community economics, health, equity; public realm; water along in vicinity river. Plan has been incorporated into Los Angeles River Master Plan Update. Funding will support projects in line with the LLARRP, immediate drought response, and long-term water resilience.

Funding for the SDAC specific grant program shall support Severely Disadvantaged Communities as defined by the state of California.

Applications:

Applications will be submitted in two phases: a Concept Proposal and a Full Application. Applicants will first submit a Concept Proposal that will be reviewed by RMC staff for consistency with RMC goals, any specific program priorities, and the strength of the proposed project. In addition, RMC staff will look at all Concept Proposals for location, need, project type, readiness, threats, cost, and cost share. RMC staff will offer applicants feedback regarding alignment with priorities, overall merit, and any ineligible costs. RMC staff will select Concept Proposals to move forward and will invite selected applicants to submit Full Applications. Applicants will be provided the Full Application upon RMC invitation. RMC staff are available to work with Applicants during the preparation of the Full Application, as needed. RMC may request Applicants to revise and resubmit Full Applications, as necessary.

It is strongly recommended that prospective applicants contact RMC staff for a consultation prior to submitting a Concept Proposal.

Eligible Applicants:
Nonprofit Public Agency Tribal Government

Eligible Applicants Include:

State agencies

Federal agencies

Tribal entities recognized on the current US Federal Register or the Native American Heritage Commission as a California Native American tribe

Local public agencies, including:

City or county

Water districts

School districts

Certified local conservation corps

Non-profit organizations with a 501(c)(3) designation

Joint Powers Authority (JPA)

Eligible Uses
The following uses are eligible for reimbursement from RMC grant funds:
■ Grant funds may be used for the acquisition, development, rehabilitation, restoration, and
protection of land and water resources.
■ Land acquisition costs may include appraisals, land, improvements, relocation costs, title reports, surveying, and escrow.
■ Land must be acquired from willing selle rs.
■ Facilities development projects must demonstrate a strong relationship and value to natural resource stewardship or environmental education.
■ Rehabilitation and restoration projects must be biologically and technically feasible.
■ Planning and pre- project costs can be included, though shall not exceed 20 percent
of total Grant Funds. (For complicated and extensive projects, this maximum may be increased to 25 percent on an exceptional basis. Please contact RMC with questions.) These costs may include consultant fees, plan documentation, specifications, CEQA/NEPA planning, and direct project management costs.
■ Indirect and Overhead expenses are allowed, though shall not exceed 10 percent
of total Grant Funds. Projects that have lower overhead will be deemed more competitive.

Ineligible Uses
The following uses are not eligible for reimbursement from RMC grant funds:
■ Operations and Maintenance related costs.
■ Projects that are located on school properties and not open to the general public or designed solely for school students, unless part of a multi - use project which allows for access from the general public.
■ Playground equipment and/or infrastructure such as swing sets and skate parks.
■ Facilities that do not have an environmental education focus or theme, such as basketball courts, hockey courts, etc. Multi- use projects may include these elements, but this program will not fund planning or development of such facilities.
■ Projects that cause erosion or contribute to flooding.
■ Projects on land or improved property acquired by condemnation from an unwilling seller.
■ BMP (Best Management Practices) directed projects that lack an improved habitat, low impact public recreation access, or environmental education components.
■ Projects traditionally provided by the private, non- government sector or by concessionaires, such as gift shops, equipment rentals, concession stands, etc., unless it can be shown that no private entrepreneur is willing to provide services, and there is demonstrated need for the Project.
■ Projects that exclusively fulfill other mitigation requirements.