[Federal Register Volume 75, Number 33 (Friday, February 19, 2010)]
[Notices]
[Pages 7448-7450]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2010-3276]


-----------------------------------------------------------------------

DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

[Docket No. 100204077-0077-01]
RIN 0648-ZC15


Species Recovery Grants to Tribes Program

AGENCY:  Fisheries Protected Resources Program Office (PRPO), National 
Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), National Oceanic and Atmospheric 
Administration (NOAA), Commerce.

ACTION:  Notice of funding availability.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

SUMMARY:  The National Marine Fisheries Service publishes this notice 
to solicit proposals for the Species Recovery Grants to Tribes Program. 
The principal objective of the Program is to support recovery efforts 
that directly benefit threatened or endangered species, recently de-
listed species, or candidate species. Recovery efforts may involve 
management, research, monitoring, and outreach activities or any 
combination thereof. For FY 2010, NOAA anticipates that approximately 
$1 million will be available for distribution under this program. Only 
federally recognized tribes are eligible to apply under this 
solicitation.

DATES:  Applications must be postmarked, provided to a delivery 
service, or received by www.grants.gov by 11:59 p.m. Eastern Standard 
Time [April 5, 2010]. Use of a delivery service other than U.S. mail 
must be documented with a receipt. Please Note: It may take Grants.gov 
up to two business days to validate or reject an application.

ADDRESSES:  The Federal funding announcement and application 
instructions for this grant program are available via the Grants.gov 
website at http://www.grants.gov. Applicants without internet access 
can obtain application instructions from Lisa Manning, NOAA/NMFS/Office 
of Protected Resources, 1315 East-West Highway, Silver Spring MD 20912, 
(phone) 301-713-1401, (email) [email protected].

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:  If you have any questions regarding 
this proposal solicitation, please contact Lisa Manning or Sean Ledwin 
at the NOAA/NMFS/Office of Protected Resources, Endangered Species 
Division, 1315 East-West Highway, Silver Spring, MD 20910, by phone at 
301-713-1401, or by email ([email protected] or 
[email protected]). You may also contact one of the following people 
in your region for further guidance: Jessica Pruden, Northeast Regional 
Office ([email protected], 978-282-8482); Karla Reece, Southeast 
Regional Office ([email protected], 727-824-5348); Eric Murray, 
Northwest Regional Office ([email protected], 503-231-2378); Susan 
Wang, Southwest Regional Office ([email protected], 562-980-4199); 
Barbara Mahoney, Alaska Regional Office ([email protected], 907-
271-3448).

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Success in recovering protected species 
under National Marine Fisheries Service's (NMFS) jurisdiction depends 
in large part on working cooperatively with other management partners, 
including tribes. NMFS recognizes the importance of many of these 
protected species to tribes and ongoing efforts by tribal nations to 
conserve and protect these species. NMFS is authorized under 16 U.S.C. 
661 et seq. to provide Federal assistance to federally recognized 
tribes to support conservation programs for marine and anadromous 
species under its jurisdiction. This assistance, provided in the form 
of grants, can be used to support conservation of endangered, 
threatened, and candidate or proposed species, as well as post-
delisting monitoring of recovered species.
    Through this notice, NMFS announces the solicitation of proposals 
to support conservation programs for marine and anadromous species 
under its jurisdiction. Funded activities may include development and 
implementation of management plans, scientific research, and public 
education and outreach. Proposals should address priority actions 
identified in an Endangered Species Act (ESA) Recovery Plan where 
applicable.
    Successful applications will be those that demonstrate a direct 
conservation benefit to the species or its habitat. Proposals involving 
management activities should demonstrate a high probability of 
contributing to recovery of the species, especially through mitigation 
of existing threats or factors inhibiting recovery of the species. 
Proposals involving scientific research should demonstrate a high 
probability of providing information that can be used to recover, 
manage, or improve current management strategies for a given species. 
Proposals involving public education and outreach projects should 
demonstrate a high probability of improving or increasing public 
understanding and participation in conservation activities.
    Projects focusing on listed Pacific salmon or steelhead will not be 
considered under this grant program; conservation efforts for these 
species may be supported through the Pacific Coastal Salmon Recovery 
Fund.
    The full text of the Federal funding opportunity announcement for 
this program can be accessed via the Grants.gov web site at http://www.grants.gov. The announcement will also be available by contacting 
the program officials identified under FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT. 
Applications must comply with all requirements contained in the Federal 
funding opportunity announcement.

Statutory Authority

    16 U.S.C. 661 et seq.

CFDA

    11.472, Unallied Science Program

Funding Availability

    NOAA anticipates that approximately $1 million will be available 
for distribution under this program in FY 2010. Awards are expected to 
range between $100,000 and $500,000 in federal funding per year, but 
proposals requesting less than $100,000 will still be considered. The 
exact amount of funds that may be awarded will be determined during 
pre-award negotiations between the applicant and NOAA representatives. 
Publication of

[[Page 7449]]

this notice does not oblige NOAA to award any specific grant proposal 
or to obligate any available funds.
     There is no limit on the number of applications that can be 
submitted by the same Principal Investigator or tribe. Multiple 
applications submitted by the same applicant must, however, clearly 
identify distinct projects.
    If an application for a financial assistance award is selected for 
funding, NOAA has no obligation to provide any additional funding in 
connection with that award in subsequent years. Notwithstanding verbal 
or written assurance that may have been received, pre-award costs are 
not allowed under the award unless approved by the Grants Officer in 
accordance with 2 CFR Part 225.

Eligibility

    Eligible applicants are federally recognized tribes as defined 
under the Federally Recognized Indian Tribe List Act (Public Law 103-
454) or Presidential Executive Order. Tribes may apply for funding to 
conduct work on federally listed species (except Pacific salmon and 
steelhead), recently de-listed species, and any species that has become 
a candidate or a proposed species by the grant application deadline. 
Eligible species are those under NMFS or joint NMFS-U.S. Fish and 
Wildlife Service jurisdiction. Current lists of candidate, proposed, 
and de-listed species are available at http://www.nmfs.noaa.gov/pr/species/esa/other.htm; and a current list of threatened and endangered 
species is available at http://www.nmfs.noaa.gov/pr/pdfs/species/esa_table.pdf.
    Federal agencies or institutions are not eligible to receive 
Federal assistance under this notice. In addition, NOAA and NMFS 
employees shall not provide assistance in writing applications, write 
letters of support for any application, or otherwise confer any unfair 
advantage on a particular application. However, for activities 
involving collaboration with current NMFS programs, NMFS employees can 
write a letter verifying that they are collaborating with the project.

Evaluation and Selection Procedures

    The general evaluation criteria and selection factors are 
summarized below. Further information about the evaluation criteria and 
selection factors can be found in the full funding opportunity 
announcement.

Evaluation Criteria for Projects

    Proposals will be evaluated based on the following criteria (with 
their relative weights):(1) Importance/relevance and applicability of 
the proposal to the program goals (35 percent); (2) technical/ 
scientific merit (30 percent); (3) overall qualifications of the 
applicants (10 percent); (4) project costs (15 percent); and (5) 
outreach and education (10 percent). Detailed descriptions of these 
criteria are provided in the Federal funding opportunity announcement.

Review and Selection Process

    Screening, review, and selection procedures will take place in 
three steps: initial evaluation, merit review, and final selection by 
the Selecting Official (i.e., the Assistant Administrator for NMFS). 
Initial screening and evaluation of applications will be conducted to 
ensure that application packages have all required forms and 
application elements, and meet all of the eligibility criteria.
    Applications meeting the requirements of this solicitation will 
then undergo merit review. Each application will be reviewed by a 
minimum of three reviewers, who will independently evaluate and score 
proposals using the evaluation criteria. Consensus advice will not be 
provided by the merit reviewers. Merit reviewers will be individuals 
with appropriate subject-matter expertise and may be from federal or 
state agencies, academic institutions, or non-profit organizations. The 
reviewers' ratings will be used to produce a rank order of the 
proposals.
    After applications have undergone merit review, the Selecting 
Official will make the final decision regarding which applications will 
be funded based upon the numerical rankings and evaluations of the 
applications by the merit reviewers as well as the selection factors 
set forth in the Federal funding opportunity announcement and 
summarized below.

Selection Factors for Projects

    The merit review ratings shall provide a rank order to the 
Selecting Official for final recommendation to the NOAA Grants Officer. 
The Selecting Official shall award in the rank order of the review 
ratings unless the proposal is justified to be selected out of rank 
order based upon the following factors, where applicable:
    a. Availability of funding;
    b. Balance/distribution of funds;
    i. Geographically;
    ii. By type of institutions;
    iii. By type of partners;
    iv. By research areas;
    v. By project types;
    c. Whether this project duplicates other projects funded or 
considered for funding by NOAA or other Federal agencies;
    d. Program priorities and policy factors as set out in the Program 
Objectives, Program Priorities, and Funding Availability sections of 
the Federal funding opportunity announcement;
    e. Applicant's prior award performance;
    f. Partnerships with and/or participation of targeted groups;
    g. Adequacy of information necessary for NOAA staff to make a NEPA 
determination and draft necessary documentation before recommendations 
for funding are made to the Grants Officer.

Intergovernmental Review

    Applications under this program are not subject to Executive Order 
12372, ``Intergovernmental Review of Federal Programs.''

Limitation of Liability

    In no event will NOAA or the Department of Commerce be responsible 
for proposal preparation costs if these programs fail to receive 
funding or are cancelled because of other agency priorities. 
Publication of this announcement does not oblige NOAA to award any 
specific project or to obligate any available funds.

National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA)

    NOAA must analyze the potential environmental impacts, as required 
by the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), for applicant projects 
or proposals that are seeking NOAA federal funding opportunities. 
Detailed information on NOAA compliance with NEPA can be found at the 
following NOAA NEPA website: http://www.nepa.noaa.gov/, including our 
NOAA Administrative Order 216-6 for NEPA, http://www.nepa.noaa.gov/NAO216_6.pdf, and the Council on Environmental Quality implementation 
regulations, http://ceq.hss.doe.gov/nepa/regs/ceq/toc_ceq.htm. 
Consequently, as part of an applicant's package, and under their 
description of their program activities, applicants are required to 
provide detailed information on the activities to be conducted, 
locations, sites, species and habitat to be affected, possible 
construction activities, and any environmental concerns that may exist 
(e.g., the use and disposal of hazardous or toxic chemicals, 
introduction of non-indigenous species, impacts to endangered and 
threatened species, aquaculture projects, and impacts to coral reef 
systems). In addition to

[[Page 7450]]

providing specific information that will serve as the basis for any 
required impact analyses, applicants will also be required to cooperate 
with NOAA in identifying feasible measures to reduce or avoid any 
identified adverse environmental impacts of their proposed project. The 
failure to do so shall be grounds for not selecting an application. In 
some cases if additional information is required after an application 
is selected, funds can be withheld by the Grants Officer under a 
special award condition requiring the recipient to submit additional 
environmental compliance information sufficient to enable NOAA to make 
an assessment on any impacts that a project may have on the 
environment.

Department of Commerce Pre-Award Notification Requirements

    The Department of Commerce Pre-Award Notification Requirements for 
Grants and Cooperative Agreements contained in the Federal Register on 
February 11, 2008 (73 FR 7696), are applicable to this solicitation.

Paperwork Reduction Act

    This document contains collection-of-information requirements 
subject to the Paperwork Reduction Act (PRA). The use of Standard Forms 
424, 424A, 424B, and SF LLL and CD 346 has been approved by the Office 
of Management and Budget (OMB) under the respective control numbers 
0648-0043, 0648-0044, 0648-0040, and 0648-0046.
    Notwithstanding any other provision of law, no person is required 
to, nor shall a person be subject to a penalty for failure to comply 
with, a collection of information subject to the requirements of the 
PRA unless that collection of information displays a currently valid 
OMB control number.

Executive Order 12866

    This notice has been determined to be not significant for purposes 
of Executive Order 12866.

Executive Order 13132 (Federalism)

    It has been determined that this notice does not contain policies 
with Federalism implications as that term is defined in Executive Order 
13132.

Administrative Procedure Act and Regulatory Flexibility Act

    Prior notice and an opportunity for public comment are not required 
by the Administrative Procedure Act or any other law for rules 
concerning public property, loans, grants, benefits, and contracts (5 
U.S.C. 553(a)(2)). Because notice and opportunity for comment are not 
required pursuant to 5 U.S.C. 553 or any other law, the analytical 
requirements for the Regulatory Flexibility Act (5 U.S.C. 601 et seq.) 
are inapplicable. Therefore, a regulatory flexibility analysis has not 
been prepared.

    Dated: February 12, 2010.
John Oliver,
Deputy Assistant Administrator for Operations, National Marine 
Fisheries Service.
[FR Doc. 2010-3276 Filed 2-18-10; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3510-22-S