Fiscal Year 2023 Pollinator-Friendly Practices on Roadsides and Highway Rights-of-Way Program
Agency: DOT Federal Highway Administration 
Posted: 2024-04-08 | Closing date: 2024-06-18
Estimated total program funding: 3000000
Award ceiling: 150000
Award floor: 0
Cost sharing or matching requirement: No

Section 11528 of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL), enacted as the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (Pub. L. 117-58, November 15, 2021), established the Pollinator-Friendly Practices on Roadsides and Highway Rights-of-Way Program (Roadside Pollinator Program), codified at 23 U.S.C. 332. This is the first NOFO under this program, and the total amount of funding available in this NOFO is up to $3 million. FHWA will award funding to State DOTs, Indian Tribes, and Federal Land Management Agencies (FLMAs) who are seeking to benefit pollinators on roadsides and highway rights-of-way on routes eligible for Federal-aid.The goals of the Roadside Pollinator Program are to fund the implementation, improvement, or further development of the applicants’ Pollinator Friendly Practices Plan (Plan) on routes eligible for Federal-aid. The United States has an estimated 3.9 million miles of roadway and suitable roadsides and rights-of-way represent a significant area that can be transformed into pollinator habitat through the planting of native plants and wildflowers. Roadsides can provide habitat for a diverse community of pollinators, including opportunities to forage for feeding, nesting and breeding. Roadsides extend across a variety of landscapes and can support ecological connectivity and the dispersal of pollinators by linking fragmented habitats. By acting as refugia for pollinators in otherwise inhospitable landscapes, roadside habitat can contribute to the maintenance of healthy ecosystems and provision of ecological services such as crop pollination services.The Roadside Pollinator Program is a unique program that has some important differences from other FHWA and DOT discretionary grant programs, including the requirement for an applicant to submit a Plan (23 U.S.C. 332(c) and (d)), the requirement for FHWA to fund all satisfactory applications (23 U.S.C. 332(e)(1)), and the requirement for FHWA to base the amount of all awards on the number of PFPs that the applicant has implemented or plans to implement (23 U.S.C. 332(e)(2)(A)). Due to the unique nature of the Roadside Pollinator Program, FHWA is requiring applicants to use an Application Template.The Roadside Pollinator Program may fund the implementation of pollinator-friendly practices (PFPs) included in a Plan or the improvement or further development of a Plan (23 U.S.C. 332(f)). The total activities to be funded by an applicant with a Roadside Pollinator Program award are referred to as the “Roadside Pollinator Project” throughout this NOFO.

Eligibility: State DOTs, Indian tribes, and Federal Land Management Agencies (FLMAs) (23 U.S.C. 332(b))-------For the purposes of the Roadside Pollinator Program, a “State” refers to the 50 States, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico. See 23 U.S.C. 101(a)(28). A State DOT refers to the department of a State responsible for highway construction. For the purposes of defining “Indian Tribe,” this NOFO is using the definition of the term in 23 U.S.C. 171, meaning any Indian or Alaska Native tribe, band, nation, pueblo, village, or community that is recognized as eligible for the special programs and services provided by the United States to Indians because of their status as Indians and also including a Native village and a Native Corporation, as those terms are defined in section 3 of the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act (which is codified at 43 U.S.C. 1602).