National Fish and Wildlife Foundation Five Star Restoration program

Posted by on December 21, 2009

Five Star Restoration Program Announces 2010 Request for Proposals
Deadline: February 11, 2010

Administered by the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, the Five Star Restoration program seeks to develop community capacity to sustain local natural resources for future generations by providing modest financial assistance to diverse local partnerships for wetland, riparian, and coastal habitat restoration.

Funding is available throughout the country from the United States Environmental Protection Agency and NFWF’s corporate sponsors in several Southeast states, and most of northern and central California, and seven major metropolitan areas.

In 2010, NFWF anticipates that the following will be available:

Approximately $225,000 rom the EPA to support projects across the United States in each of the agency’s ten geographic regions.

Approximately $200,000 from Southern Company and its operating companies (Georgia Power, Alabama Power, Gulf Power, and Mississippi Power) to support projects in the Southern Company service area, which includes: Georgia (excluding Union, Fannin, and Towns counties); Alabama (excluding Lauderdale, Colbert, Lawrence, Limestone, Madison, Marshall, Morgan, Jackson, DeKalb, Cherokee, and Cullman counties); the Florida Panhandle (west of the Apalachicola River); and southeast Mississippi (twenty-three counties, from Meridian to the coast, with the west boundary running from Pearl River County to Union County).

More than $260,000 from Pacific Gas and Electric Company’s Nature Restoration Trust program to support projects located in the PG&E service area.

And at least $200,000 to support urban conservation and restoration in the following metropolitan areas: Boston, Dallas-Fort Worth, Memphis, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Los Angeles, and San Francisco. To be eligible for this urban conservation and restoration funding, projects must include a spring community service day in which funding partners can participate in a restoration project (e.g., planting trees or native plants, pulling invasive plants, removing trash from urban waterways, installing rain gardens, etc.).

Elements of a Five Star project include on-the-ground restoration, environmental education, partnerships (at least five community partners), and measurable results.

The program is open to any public or private entity, but grants funded by PG&E’s Nature Restoration Trust are restricted to nonprofit community-based organizations, conservation organizations, local governments, and school districts. Requests must be for $10,000 to $40,000 each. Projects that can leverage the amount of funds requested with significant cash and/or in-kind contributions from project partners will be much more competitive.

http://www.nfwf.org/AM/Template.cfm?Section=Charter_Programs_List&Template=/TaggedPage/TaggedPageDisplay.cfm&TPLID=30&ContentID=14123