FY25 Bureau of Land Management Rangeland Resource Management- Bureau wide | L25AS00304

Opportunity Information: Apply for L25AS00304

The FY25 Bureau of Land Management (BLM) Rangeland Resource Management - Bureau wide funding opportunity (L25AS00304) is a discretionary federal grant program offered through cooperative agreements under CFDA 15.237. It is designed to support BLM's national rangeland management priorities by funding projects that collect, analyze, and apply monitoring and assessment information about soil and vegetation conditions, overall land health, and progress toward meeting land health standards. The emphasis is on work that has broad relevance and impact across BLM-managed landscapes, especially efforts that cross state boundaries and address program needs at a national scale rather than a single local site.

The core purpose of the program is to improve and sustain rangeland health and productivity. Projects are expected to contribute to outcomes such as maintaining or achieving land health standards, increasing soil carbon sequestration, and building more resilient landscapes that can better support ecological function and community benefits over the long term. The opportunity highlights several illustrative types of work, including facilitating rangeland restoration, conducting soils mapping and developing ecological site descriptions, and expanding engagement with community members and other stakeholders. That engagement can include mentoring, training, and educational programs that strengthen capacity and shared understanding around rangeland stewardship, monitoring, and adaptive management.

This program is open to a range of non-federal entities that typically partner with BLM, including state, county, and local governments; federally recognized Tribal governments and other eligible Tribal organizations; public and private institutions of higher education; and nonprofit organizations (both 501(c)(3) and non-501(c)(3)). Individuals and for-profit organizations are explicitly ineligible to apply under this Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO). The award instrument is a cooperative agreement, which generally means BLM expects to have substantial involvement in the funded work (for example, coordination, technical input, shared planning, or collaborative implementation), rather than simply issuing a grant with minimal federal participation.

There are also clear limitations related to youth hiring and internship arrangements. This NOFO does not support applicants who want to hire interns or crews under the Public Lands Corps Act of 1993. BLM notes that the Public Lands Corps Act is the sole authority that allows BLM to "hire" interns under that framework, and that eligible Youth Conservation Corps entities should instead pursue projects through a separate funding opportunity, identified as NOFO 15.243, BLM Youth Conservation Opportunities on Public Lands. In practical terms, applicants should avoid building proposals around Public Lands Corps-style crews or internships under this particular announcement, and should route youth-conservation workforce concepts to the correct NOFO.

The announcement also addresses applicants participating in the Cooperative Ecosystem Studies Units (CESU) network. CESUs are partnerships intended to facilitate research, assessments, monitoring, technical assistance, and educational services aligned with federal land management needs. If an award is made to a CESU partner under a formally negotiated Master CESU agreement, and the project is consistent with CESU purposes, then 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 asked to state whether their proposal furthers CESU purposes and, if so, identify which CESU Network should serve as host. This matters for budgeting, because even if an organization has a higher negotiated indirect rate, CESU awards under the master agreement structure may be constrained by that 17.5 percent limitation.

Key administrative details include a posted closing date of July 23, 2025, and an award ceiling of up to $1,000,000 per award. While the posting lists "ExpectedAwards:" without a number, the ceiling indicates BLM is prepared to fund sizable, bureau-relevant efforts, particularly those that deliver scalable tools, methods, datasets, or cross-jurisdictional coordination that BLM can apply across multiple states or regions. Overall, a strong proposal under this NOFO would typically show a clear connection to land health outcomes, a credible technical approach to inventory/assessment/monitoring or restoration planning and implementation, and an explicit rationale for why the work is national in scope or transferable across state boundaries, while also staying within the eligibility rules and the specific restrictions on youth hiring authorities and (where applicable) CESU indirect cost limits.

• The Bureau of Land Management in the natural resources sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "FY25 Bureau of Land Management Rangeland Resource Management- Bureau wide" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 15.237.
• This funding opportunity was created on 2025-06-23.
• Applicants must submit their applications by 2025-07-23. (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 $1,000,000.00 in funding.
• Eligible applicants include: State governments, County governments, City or township governments, 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.

Apply for L25AS00304

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