The FY13 funding request by the President for the State and Tribal Wildlife Grants was a matter of not so good news, good news and bad news. The funding level proposed for next fiscal year is $61.3 million, roughly the same level as last year. Although this was not unexpected in these difficult budget times, we had hoped that at least some of the funding lost over the last two years could have been gained back since the overall budget for the US Fish and Wildlife Service increased by 4%. The State and Tribal Wildlife Grants program has lost about 1/3 of its funding since fiscal year 2010. The good news is that the President is proposing that the nonfederal match be set at 65:35 which will help states still recovering from declines in state budgets meet their match requirements. The bad news is that the amount of funding available to states through apportioned funding would be reduced to its lowest level since the inception of the program more than 10 years ago. Most of this reduction is due to a large increase in funding for competitive grants. Although competitive grants play an important role in conservation, every state and territory needs a certain level of base funding for planning and project implementation. Apportioned funding which is distributed using a formula based on population and land area, ensures each state and territory has resources that can be used to implement priority conservation actions identified in the State Wildlife Action Plans that benefit 100’s of at-risk species. Next week advocates and supporters from around the country (as part of the Teaming With Wildlife Fly-in) will descend on Washington DC to inform Congress of the need for State and Tribal Wildlife Grants funding.
