Land and Water Conservation Fund

The Land and Water Conservation Fund, or LWCF, has supported outdoor recreation and conservation projects since 1965. According to the Florida Department of Environmental Protection program information, the LWCF has provided more than $5.2 billion through more than 44,000 grants for projects including parks, sports and playfields, swimming and boating areas, trails, campgrounds, and similar outdoor recreational facilities. In Florida, the state is responsible for administering the grant competition and selecting projects, after which project applications are submitted to the National Park Service for review and the final award decision. Grant awards remain contingent upon appropriation by the federal government. The program supports both development and acquisition projects associated with outdoor recreation. The maximum grant request for a development project is $1.5 million, and the maximum grant request for an acquisition project is also $1.5 million. The Florida Department of Environmental Protection may revise an applicant's requested grant funding based on the availability of program funds. The supplied information does not state an overall amount available for the FY2025-2026 competition or the number of awards expected to be made. LWCF assistance is provided on a 50:50 Program-to-Grantee matching basis. Accordingly, applicants are required to provide a matching share in conjunction with program grant funding. Eligible applicants in Florida include county governments, incorporated municipalities, and other legally constituted local governmental entities that have legal responsibility for providing outdoor recreational sites and facilities for the use and benefit of the general public. The supplied material does not identify private nonprofit organizations, businesses, individuals, state agencies, institutions of higher education, or school districts as independently eligible applicants. Applicants must submit proposals through postal mail using Form DRP-121, the LWCF Grant Application Package. The FY2025-2026 application materials identified by the Florida Department of Environmental Protection include Application Instructions, an Application Form, the Statewide Comprehensive Outdoor Recreation Plan, NPS Form 10-904 Application and Review Form, OMB No. 4040-0019 Project Abstract Summary, Standard Form 424A Budget Information - Non-Construction Programs for acquisition projects, and Standard Form 424C Budget Information - Construction Programs for development projects. Administrative Rule 62D-5 and the Land and Water Conservation Fund Manual are also identified as program resources. No separate letter of intent, concept paper, pre-proposal, or other pre-application gating requirement is stated in the supplied source. For the FY2025-2026 submission cycle, the stated Grant Submission Cycle was November 15 through December 15, 2025. Because that deadline has passed as of August 24, 2026, the cited cycle is no longer accepting applications. The source shows repeated fiscal-year application webinars and recommended applicant priority lists covering multiple consecutive years, supporting treatment of the program as recurring. Using the November opening month of the documented FY2025-2026 cycle to project the next cycle under the required recurrence methodology results in an anticipated next cycle of November 2026. This is a calculated recurrence expectation rather than an explicitly announced FY2026-2027 opening date. Florida is responsible for administering the competition and selecting projects before forwarding applications to the National Park Service for review and final award decisions. The supplied material provides recommended applicant priority lists for the 2019-2020 through 2024-2025 program years, but it does not state a specific scoring methodology, award notification date, or project performance period for the FY2025-2026 cycle. The general Florida Department of Environmental Protection contact information supplied with the program page is Public.Services@FloridaDEP.gov and 850-245-2118, at 3900 Commonwealth Boulevard, Tallahassee, Florida 32399-3000. No individual program contact is named in the supplied information.

Use the appropriate acquisition or development budget form; account for the required 50:50 Program:Grantee match; keep the grant request at or below $1.5 million; submit the proposal through postal mail as required.