Section 6 Competitive ("Nontraditional") Grants

The Section 6 Competitive (Nontraditional) Grants program, administered by the Texas Parks and Wildlife Foundation, supports habitat conservation through three grant types: Planning Assistance, Land Acquisition under Habitat Conservation Plans, and Recovery Land Acquisition. Since 2004, over $110 million has been allocated to more than 225 projects, benefiting 450 species. The program also funds 6 to 9 Traditional grants annually and 0 to 4 Nontraditional grants, with varying request for proposals each year.

Nontraditional grants now consist of three types:
Habitat Conservation Planning Assistance grants, to facilitate development of Habitat Conservation Plans (HCP)Habitat Conservation Plan Land Acquisition grants, to fund acquisition of preserve lands under a permitted HCPRecovery Land Acquisition grants, to fund acquisition of lands containing high priority or critical habitat to protect federally listed taxa
Competition is held at the national level (among all states) for HCP Planning and HCP Land Acquisition proposals, whereas competition for Recovery Land Acquisition proposals is held at the Regional (USFWS) level. Awards allocated since 2004 under CESCF for all states can be viewed at CESCF Grants.
To date, Section 6 grants to TPWD have totaled over $110,000,000 in federal share (~$150,000,000 total cost) and have supported over 225 projects addressing high priority habitat protection and conservation needs for some 450 species of rare, threatened and endangered species. Additionally, approximately 50,000 acres of private land in Texas have been successfully involved in conservation efforts, half of which have been secured with fee simple acquisition or conservation easements. Annually, this program funds 6 to 9 Traditional grants (median federal share = $83K), and 0 to 4 Nontraditional grants (median federal share = ~ $4M). RFPs for Nontraditional grants originate at the federal level and dates vary each year.