Land & Water Conservation Fund Grants

Overview

The Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF) Program is a federal program authorized by Congress for the purpose of acquiring federal lands and assisting states and local governments with funds to acquire lands and develop and renovate outdoor recreation facilities. LWCF funds are appropriated by Congress to the U. S. Department of the Interior, National Parks Service (NPS), and NPS allocates the funds through state agencies as a grant program to state and local governments. Grantees must match the grant award dollar for dollar.

The LWCF Program, first authorized in 1965, has resulted in Georgia receiving over $120 million in matching grant funds. The program was reauthorized and received permanent funding in fiscal years 2019 and 2020 respectively. With the permanent funding, it is anticipated that Georgia will receive $5-7 million annually.

In order to efficiently administer the grant funds, LWCF moved to a bi-annual grant cycle. With two years of allocations to award, an estimate of $12 million will be available to local governments during the 2024-2025 grant cycle.

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2024-2025 Funding Announcement

The Georgia Department of Natural Resources (DNR) is pleased to announce the 2024-2025 funding cycle for the Land and Water Conservation Fund Program

2024 LWCF Grant Cycle Selected Projects

The Georgia Department of Natural Resources conducts biannual grant application cycles for the LWCF grant. This year 31 cities and counties submitted outdoor recreation proposals requesting over $9.5 million. Of the submitted projects, 19 have been selected to move forward in the approval process. The selected applicants are invited to submit formal application proposals which will be presented to the National Park Service for final approval. Pending approval from NPS, approximately $7.5 million can be awarded. Grantees are required to match the grant award; however, some have pledged a larger match. The anticipated total project impact on Georgia’s parks and outdoor recreation areas is almost $18.4 million.