Healthy waters and abundant fisheries are the foundation of America"s outdoor traditions and give everyone the freedom to fish, boat, and enjoy the benefits of outdoor recreation. Participation in recreational boating and fishing are important to our nation"s economy, generating revenue for local communities and small businesses as well as larger retailers and manufacturers of boating and fishing equipment. State fish and wildlife agencies obtain revenue from the sale of fishing licenses and use these to leverage the Sport Fish Restoration and Boating Trust Fund to accomplish fisheries research...

Eligible applicants are those with experience in addressing one or more of the five primary purposes of the NOCP (see Program Description) and experience with the following: planning and executing local, state, regional, or national marketing campaigns or outreach programs, and identifying and engaging audiences to increase awareness, participation, and behavior change in outdoor recreation, aquatic conservation, or fishing and boating activities. Eligible activities include, but are not limited to, those involving fishing and boating marketing campaigns, marketing and social science research and surveys, influencer and other social media campaigns, information and awareness signage or print materials, web-based or app-based tools, instructional videos, hands-on learning, training workshops and toolkits, and events. Applications may request funding for equipment only to the extent that such equipment is necessary, reasonable and cost-effective for accomplishing project objectives. Equipment is defined under 2 CFR 200.1 as tangible personal property (including information technology systems) having a useful life of more than one year and a per-unit acquisition cost that equals or exceeds the lesser of the capitalization level established by the recipient or subrecipient for financial statement purposes, or $10,000. Ineligible activities include, but may not be limited to, the following: Applications requesting funding for projects involving non-motorized watercraft, such as kayaks and paddle boards, are ineligible unless they are directly associated with fishing activities. Any application proposing the use of unmotorized watercraft must demonstrate a purpose and objectives with a clear connection to fishing activities to be considered for funding. Applications requesting funding for land acquisition or construction or renovation of infrastructure are ineligible for funding. Applications that have a primary purpose or objectives that involve generating revenue from, for example, the sale of fishing licenses or boat registrations, are ineligible for funding. However, numbers of licenses, permits or registrations issued may be used as a surrogate measure of participation. For example, increasing participation of anglers and boaters may be the purpose of a proposed project, and participation may be measured by tracking fishing licenses and motorboat registrations issued over a defined time period. In this case, the purpose of project is not increasing revenue generated by registration fees or license sales. Rather, the purpose of the project is to increase participation in fishing and boating.

Karen Bennett Karen_Bennett@fws.gov