The Fish, Wildlife and Parks’ (FWP) Wildlife Habitat Improvement Program (WHIP) is a federal grant program for conducting noxious weed management to restore wildlife habitat.
Donor Name: Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks
State: Montana
County: All Counties
Type of Grant: Grant
Deadline: 11/27/2024
Size of the Grant: More than $1 million
Grant Duration: 5 Years
Details:
WHIP projects should include:

ecologically important wildlife habitat that is directly threatened by noxious weed invasion;
a landscape or watershed-scale approach;
multiple partners and landownerships;
access for public hunting;
and a plan to maintain or restore native plant communities following weed management activities.

Funding Information
Up to $2M of federal Pittman-Robertson Wildlife Restoration funds are available annually for new WHIP projects and requires a dollar of nonfederal matching funds (cash) for every 3 dollars of federal grant funding. Grants, which are paid in the form of reimbursed expenses, may be up to five years in duration.
Eligible Expenditures

Grant dollar and non-federal cash match eligible expenditures:

Herbicides and additives (supplies and application services)
Biological control agents (supplies)
Reseeding (supplies and application services)
Mechanical weed control
Other weed and soil treatment options and methods recommended by the council to reduce noxious weeds and support native vegetation
Grazing improvements – permanent fencing (materials and installation)
Grant administration, vegetation monitoring, and related administrative costs – up to 10% of total project amount

Non-federal cash match eligible expenditures:

Grazing improvements – additional infrastructure such as stock water tanks, underground water pipelines for stock tanks, and spring developments or wells for livestock (materials and installation)

Project Requirements 

To qualify for a grant, a WHIP project must:

enhance ecologically important wildlife habitats through the management of noxious weeds that directly threaten habitat functions;
have a reasonable probability of treatment effectiveness through appropriate planning and methodology, anticipated native plant community recovery, preservation of non-target plant species, and post-treatment management;
use a landscape or watershed-scale approach;
include a minimum 25% non-federal cash match; and
report on measurable objectives and vegetation monitoring to allow the department to analyze how noxious weed management is enhancing land as wildlife habitat.

In addition to the eligibility requirements, the proposal ranking process will consider projects that:

include funding commitments from multiple partners;
involve effective collaboration across multiple land ownerships (public and private); and
include access for public hunting.

Eligibility Criteria 
Entities that have the capacity to administer grant projects and that are financially able to take on grant expenditures may apply to receive a WHIP grant. This includes:

communities
noxious weed management districts
conservation districts
501(c)(3) nonprofit organizations
state, federal, and tribal agencies
other entities FWP considers appropriate for wildlife habitat improvement grant projects.

For more information, visit MFWP.