BLM OR FY2018 Good Neighbor Forest and Rangeland Restoration and Monitoring | L18AS00021

Opportunity Information: Apply for L18AS00021

The BLM OR FY2018 Good Neighbor Forest and Rangeland Restoration and Monitoring opportunity was a Bureau of Land Management (BLM) discretionary grant aimed at improving the condition and resilience of public forests and rangelands across Oregon. The program was built around the idea that many landscapes on public lands have drifted away from historic, healthier conditions due to long-term fire suppression, limited active management, and certain past management practices. As a result, many areas now have overly dense tree stands, growing infestations of invasive weeds, and declining overall forest stand and rangeland health. These shifts have also led to heavy buildups of surface fuels and ladder fuels, increasing fuel continuity and creating conditions that are more likely to support large, high-severity, stand-replacing wildfires that occur more often than they did historically.

A major motivation behind the funding was risk reduction for both ecosystems and people. Dense, fuel-loaded forests and degraded rangelands are typically less structurally and biologically diverse, which weakens their ability to withstand stressors and recover after disturbance. The opportunity specifically notes that these conditions can reduce resilience to damage from forest pathogens, meaning that insects and diseases can spread or intensify more easily in stressed, overcrowded stands. Beyond ecological impacts, the program also highlights serious operational and community concerns, including increased danger to firefighters working in hazardous fuel conditions and elevated risks to public safety and private property when fires become larger and more severe.

The core purpose of the grant was to support forest and rangeland restoration treatments, along with the assessments and monitoring needed to plan, implement, and track the effectiveness of those actions across multiple watersheds in Oregon. In practical terms, this emphasis points to projects that would help move landscapes toward more resilient conditions, reduce hazardous fuels, address invasive species pressures, and improve watershed and habitat function. At the same time, the BLM linked restoration to broader land management objectives, including supporting sustainable timber harvest on BLM-administered lands, which often pairs with restoration-focused thinning and other treatments designed to improve stand structure and reduce wildfire risk.

A defining feature of this opportunity was its reliance on the Good Neighbor Authority (GNA) framework. Under GNA, the BLM can partner with state agencies to carry out restoration work on federal lands, allowing work to be planned and implemented across jurisdictional boundaries where collaboration can reduce duplication, improve efficiency, and produce more consistent watershed-scale outcomes. The grant funding was intended to support cooperative agreements that enable this kind of joint implementation, reflecting an approach where federal and state entities coordinate restoration across landscapes rather than treating land ownership boundaries as barriers to effective management.

Administratively, the opportunity was posted as Funding Opportunity Number L18AS00021 under the Department of the Interior, Bureau of Land Management. It used a cooperative agreement funding instrument, indicating that the BLM expected substantial involvement in the project beyond simply providing funds. The activity category was Natural Resources, and it was associated with CFDA number 15.233. Eligibility was limited to state governments, aligning with the GNA focus on federal-state collaboration. The opportunity was created on July 13, 2018, had an original application closing date of September 5, 2018, anticipated making about five awards, and listed an award ceiling of $100,000. Overall, the funding call centered on using federal-state partnerships to carry out targeted restoration, assessment, and monitoring actions that reduce wildfire and pathogen risks, improve ecosystem health and resilience, and advance watershed-scale restoration outcomes on BLM lands in Oregon.

• The Department of the Interior, Bureau of Land Management in the natural resources sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "BLM OR FY2018 Good Neighbor Forest and Rangeland Restoration and Monitoring" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 15.233.
• This funding opportunity was created on Jul 13, 2018.
• Applicants must submit their applications by Sep 05, 2018. (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 $100,000.00 in funding.
• The number of recipients for this funding is limited to 5 candidate(s).
• Eligible applicants include: State governments.

Apply for L18AS00021

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