FY25 Bureau of Land Management Environmental Quality Protection- Bureau wide | L25AS00303

Opportunity Information: Apply for L25AS00303

The FY25 Bureau of Land Management (BLM) Environmental Quality Protection - Bureau wide opportunity (Funding Opportunity Number L25AS00303) funds partner-driven work that reduces environmental and public safety risks on BLM-administered lands, with a major emphasis on addressing legacy impacts from past extractive industries. The core goal is to inventory, prioritize, and mitigate hazards from abandoned mine lands while also restoring damaged watersheds and improving overall environmental quality so that public lands can be safer and more resilient for recreation, fish and wildlife habitat, domestic animals, and the protection of sensitive ecosystems and cultural or historic resources. BLM notes that historic underground and surface mining has left many sites unrestored, creating ongoing threats to visitors and nearby communities, as well as to soil, surface water, groundwater, sediment, vegetation, wildlife, and broader ecosystem health.

A central focus of the funding is the Abandoned Mine Lands (AML) program, which targets both physical safety hazards and contamination that may pose risks to human health or the environment. BLM estimates there are more than 160,000 abandoned mine features on lands it administers, many of which still require additional assessment and action. Supported work can include identifying and inventorying abandoned hardrock mines, evaluating and prioritizing sites based on risk, and then carrying out mitigation projects at the highest-risk locations. On the safety side, this can involve National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) compliance work and related surveys (including cultural and biological surveys), as well as on-the-ground closure and hazard-reduction techniques such as fencing, warning signs, backfilling, and installing bat-friendly gates or grates. On the environmental side, projects may include removal actions and remedial response activities intended to reduce exposure to hazardous substances and limit ongoing degradation.

The opportunity also ties into watershed-scale restoration through both the AML program and the Natural Resource Damage Assessment and Restoration (NRDAR) program. The approach described is risk-reduction based and often watershed-oriented, meaning projects are expected to prioritize measurable reductions in risk and environmental harm while using partnerships to stretch funding and deliver larger, more connected outcomes. A key expectation is that projects support compliance with applicable soil, water, and air quality standards and align with relevant Federal, State, Tribal, and local laws and regulations. For NRDAR work, and for actions pursued under BLM authority related to the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act (CERCLA), the notice emphasizes that potentially responsible parties must be investigated, which signals that liability and cost-recovery considerations can be part of project planning where contamination or releases are involved.

BLM is explicitly looking to build and strengthen partnerships with States, local governments, Tribal Nations, and voluntary environmental and citizen groups. Awards are made as cooperative agreements, which generally implies substantial involvement by the federal agency in project coordination or execution compared with a more hands-off grant. Through these cooperative agreements, BLM intends to support practical, field-based and planning-oriented efforts that protect water (surface and groundwater), soil, sediment, and air from abandoned mine impacts; address releases of hazardous substances; secure dangerous mine openings and associated features; and restore impacted sites so lands can return to productive uses such as recreation access, wildlife habitat, and conservation of cultural resources.

Eligibility is limited to non-federal entities such as State, county, and city or township governments; federally recognized Tribal governments and other Tribal organizations; public and state-controlled institutions of higher education; private institutions of higher education; and nonprofits (including both 501(c)(3) and non-501(c)(3) organizations). Individuals and for-profit organizations are not eligible. The program also clarifies what it will not fund: it does not support hiring interns or crews under the Public Lands Corps Act of 1993 through this notice. Groups that want to propose youth or crew-based projects under that authority are directed instead to the separate BLM Youth Conservation Opportunities on Public Lands funding opportunity (CFDA 15.243).

The notice includes a specific point for applicants connected to Cooperative Ecosystem Studies Units (CESUs). CESUs are designed to support research, monitoring, assessments, technical assistance, and education aligned with public land management needs. If a cooperative agreement is awarded to a CESU partner under an existing Master CESU agreement and the proposed work fits the CESU purpose, indirect costs are capped at no more than 17.5 percent of the indirect cost base as recognized in the partner’s federally approved NICRA. Applicants are expected to state whether their proposal advances CESU program purposes and, if so, which CESU Network should serve as host.

Key administrative details include: the opportunity is discretionary, uses the cooperative agreement instrument type, falls under the Natural Resources activity category, and is listed under CFDA 15.236. The award ceiling is $1,000,000, the opportunity was created on 2025-06-23, and the original closing date is 2025-07-23.

• The Bureau of Land Management in the natural resources sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "FY25 Bureau of Land Management Environmental Quality Protection- Bureau wide" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 15.236.
• 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.

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