FY25 IIJA/IRA Bureau of Land Management Oregon/Washington (ORWA) Recreation and Visitor Services | L25AS00079

Opportunity Information: Apply for L25AS00079

The FY25 IIJA/IRA Bureau of Land Management Oregon/Washington (ORWA) Recreation and Visitor Services grant opportunity (Funding Opportunity Number L25AS00079; CFDA 15.225) is a discretionary funding program offered by the Bureau of Land Management to support recreation and visitor services projects on BLM-managed public lands in Oregon and Washington. Funding is provided through cooperative agreements, which generally means awardees should expect substantial involvement from BLM in planning, coordination, or implementation compared to a standard grant. The overall purpose is to deliver and improve outdoor recreation opportunities that benefit the public and nearby communities while also advancing current Department of the Interior and Administration priorities tied to equity, economic strength, and environmental and climate outcomes.

Programmatically, this opportunity is rooted in BLM's Recreation and Visitor Services mission and is explicitly aligned with several major federal initiatives and directives. It emphasizes implementation of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) and the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA), along with related public lands and recreation authorities such as the Great American Outdoors Act and the John D. Dingell, Jr. Conservation, Management, and Recreation Act. It also connects to Executive Order 13985 on advancing racial equity and support for underserved communities, and Executive Order 14008 on tackling the climate crisis. In practical terms, applicants are being encouraged to propose projects that do more than expand recreation; they should also show how they improve fairness in access, strengthen communities and local economies, and reduce environmental impacts while building climate resilience into recreation planning and visitor use.

For fiscal year 2025, BLM states it will prioritize projects that help build healthy communities and economies, advance environmental justice, address the climate crisis, and provide safe and equitable access to outdoor recreation for all Americans. The notice outlines several specific outcomes BLM wants to see. First, projects should connect with youth, Tribes, and underserved communities in ways that foster stewardship of public lands, meaning proposals that include meaningful engagement, co-creation, outreach, education, and community partnerships are a strong fit. Second, projects should enhance access to quality outdoor recreation while promoting climate resiliency, which can include improvements that withstand extreme heat, wildfire impacts, flooding, erosion, or heavy use, and that reduce the carbon footprint of recreation operations where feasible. Third, applicants are encouraged to identify and remove barriers to outdoor recreation and expand opportunities for all, which can include accessibility improvements, culturally relevant outreach and interpretation, transportation and wayfinding solutions, and efforts that make facilities and information usable for people with disabilities or limited access to traditional recreation infrastructure. Fourth, BLM wants a more sustainable and modern visitor experience, including delivering up-to-date and engaging visitor information both online and in person, suggesting strong interest in improved signage, interpretive materials, updated mapping and trip-planning resources, and better digital communication that supports safe and responsible recreation.

Eligibility for this opportunity is limited to public and nonprofit and educational entities, not private individuals or for-profit organizations. Eligible applicants include state, county, and city or township governments; special district governments; public and state-controlled institutions of higher education; private institutions of higher education; federally recognized Tribal governments; other Tribal organizations; and nonprofits with or without 501(c)(3) status. The notice is explicit that individuals and for-profit organizations cannot apply, so projects that depend on a commercial operator serving as the lead applicant would need to be restructured with an eligible entity as the applicant and the for-profit participating in a different role consistent with federal assistance rules.

There are also important program boundaries around youth hiring and internship or crew models. This NOFO does not support entities hiring interns or crews under the Public Lands Corps Act of 1993. BLM notes that the Public Lands Corps Act is the only authority that allows BLM to "hire" interns under that framework, and as a result, eligible Youth Conservation Corps applicants who want to pursue that kind of work are directed to apply under a separate funding opportunity, NOFO 15.243, titled BLM Youth Conservation Opportunities on Public Lands. In other words, if a proposal is primarily designed around youth crews or internship hiring mechanisms tied to Public Lands Corps, it likely does not fit here and should be routed to the youth conservation-specific NOFO instead.

The notice also addresses projects submitted by Cooperative Ecosystem Studies Units (CESU) partners. CESUs are partnerships designed to deliver research, technical assistance, monitoring, and educational services. If a cooperative agreement is awarded to a CESU partner under a formally negotiated Master CESU agreement that matches the CESU purpose, the indirect cost rate is capped at no more than 17.5 percent of the indirect cost base recognized in the partner's federally approved negotiated indirect cost rate agreement (NICRA). Applicants are instructed to state whether their proposal furthers the purpose of the CESU program and, if it does, to indicate which CESU Network should be considered as the host. This matters for budgeting because CESU indirect cost limits can affect how applicants structure project staffing, contracts, and overhead.

Key administrative details include a posted opportunity date of December 4, 2024, with an original closing date of March 10, 2025. The award ceiling is $200,000 per award. The opportunity is categorized under Natural Resources and uses cooperative agreements as the funding instrument. The notice lists "ExpectedAwards:" but does not provide a number in the source text provided, so applicants should not assume a specific quantity of awards and should treat the program as competitive within available funding.

Overall, the strongest proposals for this ORWA Recreation and Visitor Services opportunity are likely to be those that clearly improve recreation access and visitor services on BLM lands while demonstrating measurable benefits in equity and inclusion, community health and local economic vitality, environmental justice, and climate resilience. Successful applications will typically be grounded in real partnerships, especially with Tribes, youth-serving organizations, and underserved communities, and will show how the project removes practical barriers to participation while improving the quality, safety, and sustainability of the visitor experience through modernized information and on-the-ground improvements.

• The Bureau of Land Management in the natural resources sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "FY25 IIJA/IRA Bureau of Land Management Oregon/Washington (ORWA) Recreation and Visitor Services" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 15.225.
• This funding opportunity was created on 2024-12-04.
• Applicants must submit their applications by 2025-03-10. (Agency may still review applications by suitable applicants for the remaining/unused allocated funding in 2026.)
• Each selected applicant is eligible to receive up to $200,000.00 in funding.
• Eligible applicants include: State governments, County governments, City or township governments, Special district governments, Public and State controlled institutions of higher education, Native American tribal governments (Federally recognized), Native American tribal organizations (other than Federally recognized tribal governments), Nonprofits having a 501 (c) (3) status with the IRS, other than institutions of higher education, Nonprofits that do not have a 501 (c) (3) status with the IRS, other than institutions of higher education, Private institutions of higher education.

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