F24AS00365 Wisconsin Headwaters to Coast Initiative

The Headwaters to Coast Initiative (H2C) is a Great Lakes Restoration Initiative (GLRI) funded project to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS), initiated in 2022 to develop a partner-driven, watershed-wide conservation blueprint for the Lake Superior basin of Wisconsin that covers the four counties of Ashland, Bayfield, Douglas and Iron in northern Wisconsin. H2C is a community-based program that provides technical and financial assistance primarily through cooperative agreements to conservation partners and stakeholders. The mission of the H2C is to bring people together to prioritize and coordinate conservation projects that meet the ecological, social, and cultural needs of current and future generations in Wisconsin’s Lake Superior Basin. The H2C Initiative was designed to address barriers to collaboration across agencies, organizations, and projects to more strategically address the ongoing challenges posed by climate change, habitat fragmentation, and biodiversity loss. H2C provides a framework for collaboration that places conservation challenges, opportunities, and individual projects into a broader conservation context, may provide technical support to small agencies, and enable a partnership to take on larger projects and issues that may be too challenging for one agency working alone. Funding for projects will be considered that are developed or endorsed by multi-partner, collaborative teams which may include the Lake Superior Collaborative. Projects should address one or more of the following six conservation and social priorities identified by partners and fall within the Wisconsin, Lake Superior basin geography; 1) Habitat Connectivity and Functionality, 2) Healthy Habitats and Biodiversity, 3) Water Quality and Hydrologic Integrity, 4) Climate Resiliency, 5) Inclusive Community Engagement and 6) Prepare for and Address Current and emerging Threats or other GLRI priorities identified in the most recent GLRI Action Plan. The number of acres restored and/or the miles of stream restored will be used as the measures of success and must reported. Applicants seeking technical or financial assistance from the H2C Initiative are requested to consult with a local USFWS biologist BEFORE developing or submitting an application (see Agency Contacts at the end of this announcement) The H2C Initiative promotes locally led conservation through partnerships in the Wisconsin Lake Superior basin. This funding opportunity aims to deliver financial assistance in coordination with federal, Tribal, state, and local agencies, non-governmental organizations, and private landowners, on public and private lands, working lands and Tribal lands, and in urban and underserved communities, and strives to achieve the following goals:Habitat Connectivity and Functionality: Integrate projects at a landscape level to improve habitat connectivity and functionality. This priority recognizes that interconnected habitats and migration corridors are vital to fish and wildlife conservation. The work of this initiative can leverage other partnering agency program efforts to preserve function in high-quality habitats and strategically restore highly impacted areas. Healthy Habitats and Biodiversity: Promote and maintain diverse and self-sustaining native plant and animal populations through protection of existing high-quality habitats and/or restoration. Implement habitat projects within priority areas that prevent decline or support recovery of species of greatest conservation concern, including federal listed species, Birds of Conservation Concern, pollinators and interjurisdictional fish and Great Lakes Restoration Initiative (GLRI) priority habitats or species/groups. This priority supports the Service’s conservation mission and our role as stewards of federal trust species with intent to make improvements in select species status.Water Quality and Hydrologic Integrity: Rehabilitate and maintain a diverse, healthy, and self-regulating fish and aquatic community, dominated by indigenous species and supporting sustainable fisheries. This priority recognizes that water quality is important to people, plants, and animals and that projects will need to be resilient to hydrologic extremes, including high precipitation events, drought, and temperature increases.Climate Resiliency: Implement conservation projects that address threats associated with climate change and maximize climate resilience through resistance, adaptation, or redirection (RAD) to advance ecosystem health and benefit communities of fish, wildlife, plants, and people. This priority recognizes that we need to prepare for, recover from, or adapt to the impacts of climate change and prevent those impacts from growing worse.Inclusive Community Engagement: Engagement in conservation related work is inclusive of input from local communities, including underserved and Indigenous populations, which depend on the lands and waters for livelihood, recreation, and add social and cultural value that influence the overall well-being of human lives. Current and Emerging Threats: Prepare for and address current and emerging threats or other GLRI priorities identified in the most recent GLRI Action Plan. This priority recognizes the need to minimize current and emerging environmental threats through strategic conservation such as controlling known non-local beings (invasives species), early-detection, rapid-response, and minimizing the risk of plant and animal diseases.