The deadline looms for applicants seeking Heritage Fund grants for projects that tie into wildlife habitat and environmental education.
Grants are awarded by Arizona Game and Fish Department. Applications must be in by 5 p.m. Nov. 30.
Game and Fish receives up to $10 million a year in Heritage Funds from the Arizona Lottery for wildlife studies and habitat preservation. Up to 10 percent is set aside for projects proposed by outside governmental agencies, said Robyn Beck, Game and Fish Heritage grants coordinator.
Eligible applicants include federal agencies, Indian tribes, other state agencies, counties, cities and schools.
For the upcoming year, $552,000 will be awarded to projects in five Heritage Fund categories — environmental education, schoolyard grants, wildlife and habitat studies, public access and trails, and urban wildlife.
The largest single portion will go to wildlife projects under the wordy category “identify, inventory, acquisition, protection and management” — or IIAPM. More than $300,000 will be awarded in this category.
Ms. Beck said the projects are competitive and awarded based on a point system. Grant winners will be announced in May, she said. Money becomes available July 1.
The past year’s awards included $31,900 to the University of Arizona for monitoring desert tortoises, more than $9,900 to Northern Arizona University in an outreach program to involve Native Americans in wildlife projects, and $87,500 for a UofA study of bobcats in and around Tucson. Nearly two-dozen grants were awarded in all.
Entries must be at the department’s Phoenix office on Greenway Road before closing time Nov. 30. They cannot be faxed or e-mailed. Mailed applications will be accepted only if received by the deadline, regardless of the postmark date.
Applications are available online at www.agfd.gov or at the Arizona Game Fish Department, 2221 W. Greenway Road in Phoenix, room 206.
For information call Robyn Beck, Heritage Grants coordinator, at (602) 789-3530 or e-mail her at rbeck@azgfd.gov.