You may perform the following activities with funding under the Pittman-Robertson Wildlife Restoration Act:
(a) Restore and manage wildlife for the benefit of the public.
(b) Conduct research on the problems of managing wildlife and its habitat if necessary to administer wildlife resources efficiently.
(c) Obtain data to guide and direct the regulation of hunting.
(d) Acquire real property suitable or capable of being made suitable for:
(1) Wildlife habitat; or
(2) Public access for hunting or other wildlife-oriented recreation.
(3) Shooting ranges under the basic and enhanced hunters education programs.
(e) Restore, rehabilitate, improve, or manage areas of lands or waters as wildlife habitat.
(f) Build structures or acquire equipment, goods, and services to:
(1) Restore, rehabilitate, or improve lands or waters as wildlife habitat; or
(2) Provide public access for hunting or other wildlife-oriented recreation.
(g) Operate or maintain:
(1) Projects that the State fish and wildlife agency completed under the Pittman-Robertson Wildlife Restoration Act; or
(2) Facilities that the agency acquired or constructed with funds other than those authorized under the Pittman-Robertson Wildlife Restoration Act if these facilities are necessary to carry out activities authorized by the Pittman-Robertson Wildlife Restoration Act.
(h) Coordinate grants in the Wildlife Restoration program and related programs and subprograms.
(i) Teach the skills, knowledge, and attitudes necessary to be a responsible hunter.
(j) Construct, operate, or maintain firearm and archery ranges for public use.
(k) Enhance programs for hunter education, hunter development, and firearm and archery safety. Hunter-development programs introduce individuals to and recruit them to take part in hunting, bow hunting, target shooting, or archery.
(l) Enhance interstate coordination of hunter-education and firearm- and archery-range programs.
(m) Enhance programs for education, safety, or development of bow hunters, archers, and shooters.
(n) Enhance construction and development of firearm and archery ranges.
(o) Update safety features of firearm and archery ranges.
(p) Pay taxes you are required to pay and payments made to local governments in lieu of taxes which are commensurate with the local government services received.
(q) Establish endowment funds for the ongoing management of real property interests, including the monitoring and legal defense of easements.
(r) Lease equipment. Purchases of equipment are eligible if:
(1) You can justify that it is needed for the equipment’s useful life, or if
(2) Leasing the equipment is not feasible.
(s) Construction of administrative buildings.
(t) Technical guidance projects designed for providing advice to improve environmental conditions for, protect or create habitat for, or manage populations to increase public benefits for eligible wildlife species. Technical guidance projects designed for providing advice to improve environmental conditions for, protect or create habitat for, or manage populations to increase public benefits for eligible sport fish species.
(1) Construction of research facilities.
(u) State central services as long as they do not exceed 3 percent of the funds apportioned annually to your agency under the Acts.
8 Comments
Ryan Oster
Oct 07, 2015This section shows a listing of types of activities, not all inclusive, that may be eligible to fund under the PR Act. It is organized by Program/Subprogram as such:
(a) Wildlife Restoration program - then goes on to list various activities.
(b) Wildlife Restoration - BHE subprogram - then goes on to list various activities.
(c) EHE program - then goes on to list various activities.
Then there are sections (d) - (k) which identifies various activities that may be eligible, but does not place them under the respective programs/subprograms for which they could be eligible. Will this potentially leave the recipient unclear as to what type of funds may/may not be used for these activities??? Could we place sections (d) - (k) under the respective programs/subprograms for which they would be eligible to fund to help clarify to recipients??
This may or may not be worth any modifications (just thinking out loud).
Pete Barlow
Oct 07, 2015I think you're right, the answer is inconsistent, I'll work to fix it. Possibly the following could work:
(d) The following activities are eligible for funding under applicable program(s) funded through the Acts. Eligibility for funding through different financial assistance program(s) depends upon funding announcements and is subject to change.
(1) Payments for taxes you are required to pay and payments made to local governments in lieu of taxes which are commensurate with the local government services received.
(2) Endowment funds for the continued management of easements and other interests in real property.
(3) Equipment leasing. Purchases of equipment are eligible if:
(i) You can justify that it is needed for the equipment’s useful life, or if
(ii) Leasing the equipment is not feasible.
(4) Construction of administrative buildings.
(5) Technical guidance projects designed for providing advice to improve environmental conditions for, protect or create habitat for, or manage populations to increase public benefits for eligible wildlife species.
(6) Construction of research facilities.
(7) State central services as long as they do not exceed 3 percent of the funds apportioned annually to your agency under the Acts.
Tom Barnes
Jan 23, 2016"Eligibility for funding through different financial assistance program(s) depends upon funding announcements and is subject to change."
You need flexibility, but there should be limits or conditions attached to it. This is too wide open. It will lead to inconsistency among the Regions, which will result in the inconsistencies being elevated to the JTF.
Section 80.104 provides enough flexibility, so I'd delete this.
Tom Barnes
Feb 25, 2016The draft section currently reads(e) Endowment funds for the continued management of easements and other interests in real property.
It may be better to reword this as:
(e) Endowment funds for the ongoing management of real property interests, including the monitoring and legal defense of easements.
Tom Barnes
Feb 25, 2016(a), (b), (c), are the names of programs. They are not the equivalent of (d) through (k) for purposes of parallel structure. I would have suggested that you put (d) through (k) under the heading of "Activities eligible in all programs and subprograms under the Pittman-Robertson Wildlife Restoration Act, but (h) and (j), as worded, would not work for the hunter education program and subprograms. some of those activities are program specific.
There is no (I) under 80.100.
Pete Barlow
May 06, 2016Thanks Tom and Ryan, for your suggestions.
Heather Hollis
Apr 28, 2016Question. PILT is eligible under "p" above. Are there any limitations on which lands the State agency may pay for these fees? My specific question is whether it only apply for lands purchased with PR or could it be any agency owned lands that may be managed with PR?
Pete Barlow
Apr 29, 2016PILT is not only an allowable expense on land purchased with Federal financial assistance, but on other land as well. After citing 50 CFR 80.50(a)(7), the April 2015 white paper on the issue of PILT says:
Comment: If payments in lieu of taxes are required by State law, then such payments are part of the cost of operating these lands for their authorized purposes in the Wildlife Restoration program. Notice that operation and maintenance of facilities are eligible for funding under PR and DJ even if the agency acquired or constructed them with funds other than those authorized by the PR-WR Act. A wildlife management area is a “facility” because it was acquired and established to serve a certain purpose, which is part of Webster’s definition of a facility. Therefore, payments in lieu of taxes are eligible for funding for State fish and wildlife agency lands even if they were not acquired under a Wildlife or Sport Fish Restoration award.