Special Wildlife Funds - State Pheasant Fund (FY26)- NOFO Grant

The Special Wildlife Funds - State Pheasant Fund provides competitive grants to non-profit and governmental organizations aimed at conserving wild pheasant habitats in Illinois. Funded through Illinois Habitat Stamps, projects should align with the state's Wildlife Action Plan and improve habitat quality and connectivity. Eligible activities include preserving, acquiring, and managing high-quality habitats, ensuring public access, and meeting feasible costs. Compliance with administrative rules is essential for grant administration.

Description
The State pheasant Fund provides grants to appropriate not-for-profit organizations and to governmental entities for projects for the purpose of wild pheasant conservation. This Fund is part of the Special Wildlife Funds Grant Program. Grants through the State Pheasant Fund are competitive and are evaluated for their merit.
These funds are provided through the purchase of Illinois Habitat Stamps. Projects that help meet the targeted goals of the Forest and Woodland, Farmland and Prairie, or Wetland Campaigns delineated in the Illinois Wildlife Action Plan Implementation Guide, that offer reasonable costs, that list methods that are feasible and appropriate, and offer public access tend to receive higher scores.
Grant funding through this Fund supports activities and programs undertaken to preserve, protect, acquire, manage, and maintain high quality habitat for wild pheasant conservation. Goals include improving habitat quality and connectivity. High quality habitat can be characterized by such parameters as type, native diversity, size, structure, scarcity and location. Connectivity is defined as linkage with neighboring habitat, whether existing or potential. Illinois’ habitat includes all wetlands, bodies of water, woodlands, grasslands and agricultural lands, natural or altered, that support or have the potential to support populations of wild pheasant in any or all phases of their life cycles. See 520 ILCS 5/1.31 for full text of the Pheasant Fund Act.
These Funds are governed by Administrative Rule set forth in 17 Ill. Adm. Code 3060. The Grantee agrees and understands that the grant shall be administered pursuant to the Administrative Rule and shall comply with these terms and conditions.