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Watershed Planning Assistance Grants

DNRC - Conservation Districts Bureau

FY 2008

Watershed Planning Assistance Grant Application Form Word Format PDF Format

Background Information/Criteria

The Watershed Planning Assistance Grant Program was authorized by the 1997 Montana Legislature to assist Conservation Districts with expenses associated with watershed planning.  Funds will be available for the 2008 fiscal year beginning July 1, 2008. 

  1. Applications will be taken quarterly.  Applications for the first round are due at DNRC by the end of business on Thursday, May 15, 2008. Late applications will not be accepted.
  2. Conservation Districts must be the applicant.  A hard copy cover letter with a supervisor’s signature must be provided.
  3. There is a $10,000 limit per request.  A conservation district may submit additional requests provided they are associated with separate watershed planning efforts within their district.
    1. Use the provided application form and follow the format.  The applications should:
      - be a maximum of three pages excluding attachments. 
      - provided electronically; if not hard copies will suffice.
      - Additional documents may be provided as attachments.  The application is designed to use existing documentation as much as possible.
  4. Types of Groups Funded. Funding is available only for locally driven watershed planning activities.  The program is intended to support:
    1. New watershed planning efforts with start-up expenses.
    2. On-going watershed planning efforts with definable tasks or products, outlined in a current Watershed Plan or Plan of Work.  The application should clearly demonstrate how the proposed activities relate to the attached plan. 

The WPAG recognizes that new watershed groups are in the formative stages.  For these groups the activities will be more process driven and will be judged accordingly.  They should be striving to develop into a more organized watershed approach.

On-going groups should have clearly defined goals and objectives including a watershed plan. 

  1. Types of Assistance Activities.  Watershed assistance activities usually fall under three categories; coordination, assessment, and education.  Guidelines for filling out your application will be provided in the “Applications Guidelines Section”

This program is not an appropriate source of funding for:

 

Selection Criteria:

Selection of projects will be based upon:

  1. groups should be inclusive and allow for public participation.
  2. CD involvement
  3. local commitment
  4. need, and the importance of the activity in getting a new watershed planning effort started or to help further the goals/objectives of a locally led watershed group;
  5. on how clearly you state your goals and tasks and the ability of your group to make progress towards them. 

Award Process. 

The DNRC staff will review these requests after they are received from the sponsoring conservation district.  A decision on the request will be made within 30 days.  If approved, the final contracting takes approximately two weeks to execute after all the details have been worked out.

The contract with the district takes effect upon final signature from DNRC.  No payments can be made for work previous to final signing and until all subcontracts necessary by the district are in place.

 

Application Guidelines

WPAGs can be used for a broad range of assistance activities.  The following Guidelines should help you fill out your application form.  The five components listed below correspond to the application form.

Not all of the guidelines apply to your group or activities.  Carefully choose the ones that do and insert them in your application.

Insert Link to word app and pdf

1) SHORT DESCRIPTION

Provide a two to three sentence overview that succinctly describes your project.  (Details will be provided in section 3)

Example.  Provide 12 months of coordination funds including coordinator’s salary to conduct monthly meetings, coordinate steering committee meetings, and identified implement work plan items.  Grant will also be used for room rental and postage.

 

2) LOCAL COMMITMENT - Outline the level of commitment and participation by the applicant and members of the community.

  1. Describe the role of the conservation district in the watershed effort.  CDs are strongly encouraged to have at least one elected CD Supervisor and/or an appointed Associate Supervisor actively engaged in each watershed group in their District. A preference will be given to applications that demonstrate this close working relationship.
  2. Other local commitment.  Who are the stakeholders that are actively involved in the group and what is their role? 
  3. Submit a copy of current by-laws as an attachment if you have them.

 

  1. New groups should attach a detailed narrative that explains the task(s) and/or product(s) that will be completed, how they will be accomplished, who will do the work, and how this activity fits into the overall watershed planning effort. 

or

  1. On-going groups should attach a current Watershed Plan and/or Plan of Work for existing watershed planning efforts.  The application should clearly demonstrate how the proposed activities relate to the attached plan. Some of the information for this application may exist in your current plan.

Watershed Plans – Watershed or current work plans are an important component of any successful watershed effort.  The plans should clearly describe what the group will be accomplishing during the course of this grant.  Since there is no standard format for a watershed plan, each group must write a plan that meets its needs and personality.  Dynamic plans should be reviewed and revised approximately once a year.  Plans are usually written from the general to the specific, sometimes in the form of goals/objectives/tasks. 

Please be as specific as possible.  Information should be both qualitative and/or quantitative depending on the task.  Wherever possible quantify the results by providing numbers, such as number of meetings or workshops that will be conducted.  For process related items describe the process and the expected outcome.  For the purpose of the WPAG application, the level of detail provided in your plan is important.  Activities should be described to the major objective or task level.  Broad-based plans are not fundable.

We have tried to design the application process so that your group can use existing documents to easily fill out the application.  Sometimes a good test for a watershed plan is that it can be readily understood on general level from outside your watershed. 

Activities Funded  

The following 3 activities are funded under the WPAG:

Coordination activities eligible for funding include:

  1. facilitation and/or coordination of public meetings.
  2. development and implementation of a watershed plan.
  3. incidental costs (supplies, postage, photocopies, meeting room, etc.).
  4. provide temporary staffing or private consultant services tied to a specific task or product.

Assessment activities relate to the collection of baseline resource information to serve as a foundation for local watershed groups to make decisions.   

Assessment related efforts should be reflected in your overall work plan.  Attach a copy of your assessment plan to the application.  Information in the application should include the:

  1. Purpose of your assessment,
  2. Types of information to be collected,
  3. Method used; and
  4. How that information will be used in the decision-making process. 
  5. Broad-based information collection without clear resource objectives are not funded.

Educational activities include:

  1. planning and carrying out educational activities such as workshops, tours, or producing and distributing educational materials.

Your application should identify your message, target audience, your delivery mechanism, and the expected outcome.

4)  TIMEFRAME for accomplishing the activity. Provide a definite starting and ending date.  The timeframe should be broken out according to the work plan described above providing deadlines for major work items as necessary.

5)  Itemized Budget   Funding is competitive and is based on need.  Budget information provided should clearly show the use of the WPAG funds and how WPAG funds fit into the overall budget.    Provide:

  1. Detailed itemization on how WPAG grant funds would be used broken down for the assistance requested in item 3, Proposed Activities.  This includes demonstrating the overall need or urgency of the WPAG funds to your effort.
  2. List any WPA Grants that your group has open or WPA Grants that you have had within the past calendar year. For each grant list the grant #, the amount, and the expiration date.
  3. DNRC coordinates its funding both internally and with other grantors.  Please help us by, providing information on other existing, pending, and/or past contributions (grants, loans, in-kind services) that pertain to the funds requested with grant.  For each grant include the grantor, the amount, and expiration date.  If the WPAG is providing partial funding show the entire budget and how WPAG fits into the overall picture.
  4. If you have an annual operating budget provide it as an attachment (On-going groups).

There are no match requirements, but identifying local contributions and other state/federal/private program involvement is important.

Attachments
Attachments can be an important part of your application.  The bulk of your information should be addressed in the application itself.    Make sure that you reference the attachment in your application. 

_________________________________________________

Submit Requests to:

David Martin
DNRC-CARDD
1625 11th Ave.
PO Box 201601
Helena , MT 59620-1601
Phone: 406-444-4253
e-mail: damartin@mt.gov