(a) Some examples of Wildlife Restoration projects that are ineligible for funding are:
(1) Public relations activities that promote organizations or agencies and that do not apply to educational, technical assistance, or outreach activities specifically related to accomplishment of Federal Aid grants or programs.
(2) Activities whose purpose is producing revenue. This includes all processes and procedures directly related to the printing, distribution, issuance, or sale of licenses, permits, etc., imposed by law or regulation. It also includes the acquisition of real or personal property for the purpose of rental, lease, sale, or other commercial purposes.
(3) The activities and associated costs of the development and maintenance of an automated licensing system are eligible for Federal Aid funding to the degree that it supports development of databases for storing State management information, or that would improve the States' license certification process. In such cases, the grant proposal must contain an allocation of costs between eligible and ineligible activities.
(4) The production of income that results from otherwise eligible activities, incidental to these activities, is not prohibited. Examples are sale of surplus commodities, collection of user fees, etc.
(5) Providing services or property of material value to individuals or groups for commercial purposes or to benefit such individuals or groups. This does not prohibit providing technical assistance to a private landowner or operator where a public benefit will be served.
(6) Enforcement of game and fish laws and regulations. This includes routine patrol, investigations, and law enforcement training. This does not prohibit activities necessary to accomplish Federal Aid grant purposes, or to protect Federal Aid assets, such as control of public entry. Nor does it prohibit activities to ensure public health and safety on Federal Aid areas.
(7) Establishment, publication, and dissemination of regulations issued by a State pertaining to the protection and utilization of fish and wildlife resources. Includes laws, orders, seasonal regulations, bag limits, creel limits, license fees, etc. This does not prohibit the scientific collection of information needed to support management recommendations.
(8) Stocking of game animals for the purpose of providing hunting of the animals stocked without objectives for restoration or establishment of self-sustaining populations.
(9) Furnishing public facilities, equipment, or services in excess of the minimum required to meet grant purposes or health and safety standards.
(10) Wildlife damage management activities, including removal or control of predatory, nuisance, or depredating animals; purchase or application of repellants or toxicants; installation of control pipes, culverts, fences, or other barrier or exclusion structures; or compensation for damage caused by predatory or depredating animals, if when any of the following conditions apply:
(i) State prohibits or restricts conservation measures, such as hunting and trapping, for the species causing damage to a level that compromises the ability of the State fish and wildlife agency to reasonably attain its wildlife management objectives (excepting circumstances where firearms, archery, or trapping restrictions for valid public safety reasons as verified by the agency preclude hunting or trapping, or the restrictions are the result of Federal primary legal authority).
(ii) State has specifically delegated management authority for the animals in question to an agency or entity other than the State fish and wildlife agency.
(iii) State fish and wildlife agency does not have control and expenditure authority over use of license fees for wildlife damage management.
(iv) The primary purpose of the wildlife damage management activity is not an eligible activity in the Wildlife Restoration Program.
(b) Examples of projects that are ineligible for funding under the Recreational Boating Access subprogram are:
(1) Conducting activities that do not directly provide safe or improved access, or associated facilities or services, primarily for the benefit of recreational boaters unless the State prorates costs equitably based on the relative uses or benefits given.
(2) Acquiring, constructing, or maintaining enclosed dry-land boat storage or seasonal mooring.
(3) Providing personal services or private conveniences above what is needed for public purposes, such as private telephones or television cable connections, boat painting, or mechanical repairs.
(4) Conducting activities designed exclusively to benefit private or commercial uses.
(5) Activities that promote the State fish and wildlife agency, other State administrative units, or the State.
(6) Activities for the primary purpose of producing income. G. Enforcing fish, wildlife, or boating regulations.
20 Comments
Ryan Oster
Oct 07, 2015(10) Wildlife damage management activities.This is covered in (11).(6) Activities for the primary purpose of producing income.
G. Enforcing fish, wildlife, or boating regulations.Tom Barnes
Jan 23, 2016(a)(1) I'd end the sentence after "agencies" unless you develop tighter wording for the end of the sentence.
Public relations should be discussed somewhere in this proposed rule in more detail. Apparently we're not going to get a Solicitor's Opinion on this subject, so consider laying out the do's and dont's in a separate Q&A. The proposed rule has to be approved by the Solicitor's Office, so once approved and published, it will settle the issue for WSFR.
Tom Barnes
Jan 23, 2016Why do you have ineligible activities for only one program and subprogram? Many of the items listed for WR would apply to the other programs.
Tom Barnes
Jan 23, 2016You use "etc." in at least three places There are better ways to indicate that what you've just listed are examples. Try "such as" at the beginning of the sequence. You could also say "Examples are... without an etc. at the end, but with an "and" before the last item in the sequence.
Tom Barnes
Jan 23, 2016"Federal Aid" is used in more than one place. We don't use that term any more.
Tom Barnes
Jan 23, 2016I assume that (b)(3) is there because of a real-life problem. It seems like a no brainer. In any case, personal services and private conveniences would not meet the "necessary" criterion of the Cost Principles.
Tom Barnes
Jan 23, 2016See the end of (b)(6). You must have meant the statement following G to be the next entry, i.e., (7).
Tom Barnes
Jan 23, 2016Delete the first "activity" in (a)(10)(iv).
Tom Barnes
Jan 23, 2016The sentence at (a)(10)(i) is too long.
Tom Barnes
Jan 23, 2016(a)(10(ii) Do you need the word "specifically"?
Tom Barnes
Jan 23, 2016(a)(9) Replace "in excess of" with "above."
Tom Barnes
Jan 23, 2016(7) Establishment, publication, and dissemination of regulations issued by a State pertaining to the protection and utilization of fish and wildlife resources. Includes laws, orders, seasonal regulations, bag limits, creel limits, license fees, etc. This does not prohibit the scientific collection of information needed to support management recommendations.
Change to: (7) Establishment, publication, and dissemination of rules for the protection and use of wildlife. Rules may include information on laws, regulations, orders, seasons, bag limits, and license fees. This does not prohibit the scientific collection of information to support management recommendations.
I left out "creel limits," but you may want to include it any parallel section applicable to Sport Fish Restoration.
Tom Barnes
Jan 23, 2016(a)(5) Change the passive construction "will be served." to "will result."
Paul Hayduk
Jan 23, 2016There are many typographical errors, changes in font, misspellings, and incomplete sentences to be distracting. The document will need to be cleaned up before HQ sends it to the Federal Register.
Section 80.103 – Ineligible expenses. Item (a)(10) indicates that wildlife damage management is ineligible. Delete (a)(11) i-v. Or re-write it to clarify what is excepted from (a)(10). In addition, items (a)(3) and (a)(4) seem to be eligible activities. Should they be in this section?
Section 80.118 – addresses pre-award costs. I think we should add a statement that pre-award costs must be approved by the Service/WSFR.
Section 80.147 – identifies what needs to be in a project statement. Unfortunately, it is an exact duplicate of that is in section 80.146(c)(1-13). Perhaps it could be deleted from one section?
Section 80.150 – addresses changes. It is unclear to me how this differs from amendments so am wondering if there should be something about amendments here? Sections 80.280 and 281 address amendments but the information seems scant.
Paul Hayduk
Jan 23, 2016Re write the Project Narrative Page to Reflect SMART objectives (TRACS)
Tom Barnes
Jan 23, 2016(a)(4) This is an eligible activity, but this is supposed to be a list of ineligible activities. This can be a qualification of an ineligible activity in the list, but not an independent element in the list. Wherever it's stated, the wording should be improved.
Tom Barnes
Jan 23, 2016(a)(3) The first sentence is too long. The Secretary's Office used to have a rule that no sentence should be longer than 40 words.
Some of the words are unnecessary, and the wording should be improved.
Anonymous
Feb 01, 2016The proposed wording in 80.103 (a)(10) was poorly written when it was originally included in the Federal Aid Toolkit, and so adding it as proposed language in CFR is a really bad idea. In particular, item (iv) appears to contradict the entire purpose of the section as it circles the reader back to the question of "what is eligible". Using a double-negative checklist is simply a bad way to address such an important and problematic topic. The FWS should be proactive in writing clear, concise instruction in this section so that game & fish agencies (and their respective legislatures) can make sound determinations as to whether game damage activities are eligible under the Act or not. If the intent is that they are under most circumstances, then include wording to that affect in 80.100.
Tom Barnes
Feb 09, 2016Consider the possibility of creating a table of eligible and ineligible activities for all programs and subprograms similar to the design of the table on how to count license holders. If it's too complex for a single table maybe it could be broken up into 2 or 3 tables.
user-a92e4
Feb 24, 2016Is it the intent of the USFWS that wildlife damage activities as described in (a)(10) are ineligible under the Wildlife Restoration Act? If so, then delete the last 8 words in (10) and replace the comma following "animals" with a period. Then delete parts (i) - (iv) under that section.
If; however, it is the intent of the USFWS that wildlife damage activities are eligible for funding under the Act, then delete part (a)(10) from this section entirely and include wording to that affect (with any caveats) under eligible activities in 80.100.