Montana/Dakotas Fuels Management & Community Fire Assistance Program Activities | L20AS00074

Opportunity Information: Apply for L20AS00074

The Montana/Dakotas Fuels Management and Community Fire Assistance Program Activities opportunity (Funding Opportunity Number L20AS00074) is a discretionary Bureau of Land Management (BLM) cooperative agreement from the U.S. Department of the Interior focused on reducing the risk and impacts of catastrophic wildfire in the Montana and Dakotas region. The program is grounded in a risk-based approach aligned with the National Cohesive Wildland Fire Management Strategy, with an emphasis on three connected goals: restoring and maintaining fire-resilient landscapes, helping build fire-adapted communities, and improving the ability to respond effectively to wildfire. In practical terms, the opportunity supports projects that plan and carry out hazardous fuels reduction and related community assistance activities, especially in and around Wildland Urban Interface (WUI) areas where homes, infrastructure, and public safety are most directly threatened.

The grant is designed to fund work that both treats fuels on the ground and strengthens community readiness. Priority activities include planning and implementing strategies that protect communities and critical infrastructure while enhancing, restoring, or maintaining forest and rangeland plant communities, including habitats important to special status species and other high-value resources that are vulnerable to wildfire. It also supports efforts to improve public understanding of wildfire risk and to encourage locally driven solutions through community planning, education, mitigation work, technical assistance, and fuels management on both federal and non-federal lands. A major theme throughout the opportunity is collaboration: applicants are encouraged to build coordination and partnerships among federal, state, tribal, and local governments, nongovernmental organizations, universities, and private entities so that fuels treatments are planned and implemented across broader landscapes rather than in isolated patches.

The program further emphasizes applying fuels treatment strategies that are demonstrably effective at mitigating wildfire impacts and that contribute to safer, more successful wildfire management. This includes coordinating with adjacent landowners and cooperators so treatment areas connect logically across boundaries, and building in the expectation that projects will include monitoring and maintenance so treatments remain effective over time. In addition to wildfire risk reduction, the opportunity explicitly ties projects to economic and community benefits by encouraging expanded local capacity and increased local and small business employment opportunities connected to fuels work, education, and community preparedness activities.

Expected outcomes are framed in five main categories: completing fuels management activities on federal and non-federal land; developing and delivering fire education, training, and community action plans or programs; conducting Community Wildfire Protection assessments and related planning activities; expanding community capability in ways that also support local employment; and developing and implementing both short- and long-term monitoring and maintenance plans. From the BLM perspective, the public benefit is a measurable reduction in hazardous fuels, improved coordination among partners, and better-informed landowners and residents who understand wildfire prevention and mitigation options, ultimately lowering the likelihood that wildfires become destructive to communities and costly to suppress.

This opportunity also references Secretarial Order 3372, which calls for active management of Department of the Interior lands to reduce wildfire risks, better protect people, communities, wildlife habitat, and watersheds, and support the recovery of damaged landscapes. Administrative details included an award ceiling of $250,000, an anticipated three awards, and an open application window from April 6, 2020 through June 4, 2020 (with two round deadlines: May 5, 2020 and June 4, 2020, both at 4:30 PM Eastern). Eligibility was listed as unrestricted, meaning applications were open to a broad range of entity types, subject to any additional eligibility notes in the full announcement.

• The Department of the Interior, Bureau of Land Management in the natural resources sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Montana/Dakotas Fuels Management & Community Fire Assistance Program Activities" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 15.228.
• This funding opportunity was created on Apr 06, 2020.
• Applicants must submit their applications by Jun 04, 2020 Open from April 6, 2020 to June 4, 2020, 430 PM EST Round One Applications are Due May 5, 2020, 430 PM EST Round Two Applications are Due June 4, 2020, 430 PM EST. (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 $250,000.00 in funding.
• The number of recipients for this funding is limited to 3 candidate(s).
• Eligible applicants include: Unrestricted (i.e., open to any type of entity above), subject to any clarification in text field entitled Additional Information on Eligibility.

Apply for L20AS00074

[Watch] Creating a grant proposal using the step-by-step wizard inside the applicant portal: