Surface Water Grant Program

The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources administers the Surface Water Grant Program to support surface water management from education and assessment through planning, protection, restoration, and aquatic invasive species management. The program provides more than $6 million annually for eligible projects. Funding comes from the Water Resources Account of the Conservation Fund, including boat gas tax revenues, and is divided among lake, river, and aquatic invasive species appropriations. Education and planning projects help communities understand surface water conditions, establish management goals, collect information, and develop strategic management plans. Management projects protect or improve water quality and aquatic habitat and prevent, contain, or control aquatic invasive species. The program contains multiple project types with different funding caps and conditions. These include Surface Water Education, lake, river and AIS planning, comprehensive management planning, county lake projects, Healthy Lakes and Rivers, surface water restoration, management plan implementation, ordinance development, Clean Boats Clean Waters, AIS prevention, Lake Monitoring and Protection Network activities, AIS early detection and response, AIS population management, AIS research and demonstration, and land acquisition or conservation easements. Funding caps generally range from smaller awards of up to $4,000 for certain AIS prevention activities and $5,000 for Surface Water Education to as much as $500,000 annually for AIS Research and Demonstration. Most education and planning grants provide a 67 percent DNR cost share and require at least a 33 percent grantee match, while most management grants provide a 75 percent DNR cost share and require at least a 25 percent grantee match. Certain programs, including specified wetland incentives and Lake Monitoring and Protection Network allocations, may receive 100 percent funding. Automatically eligible applicants include counties, municipalities, natural resource agencies, tribal governing bodies, other local units of government, inland lake protection and rehabilitation districts, town sanitary districts, and accredited colleges, universities, and technical schools. Qualified lake associations, nonprofit conservation organizations, qualified school districts, qualified surface water management organizations, qualified river management organizations, and qualified producer-led groups must establish organizational eligibility. Organizations that have not received written confirmation of eligibility within the past 10 years, or that have changed their bylaws, must submit an organizational eligibility application before the final application deadline. Certain AIS control programs also allow individual landholders to apply for projects addressing prohibited species. Project-specific requirements may include minimum public boating access, an approved management-plan recommendation, property control or land-use agreements, or other prerequisites. Applicants should construct budgets using only reasonable and necessary eligible costs incurred during the grant period. Direct administrative costs generally may not exceed 10 percent of the state share, and no more than 20 percent of a planning project's total costs may support education activities. Cost-containment procedures are generally required when an individual project expense exceeds $10,000, subject to program-specific exceptions. A Professional Service Agreement or substantially similar agreement is required before work begins when applicable third-party professional service costs exceed $5,000. Application preparation and fundraising costs are not reimbursable. Other restrictions vary by project type, and activities required solely to satisfy regulatory actions or certain maintenance, nuisance-relief, or otherwise ineligible activities cannot be supported. For the standard annual grant cycle, current guidance and forms are published July 1. Most applicants submit a pre-application by September 15 so DNR technical and financial staff can review the concept and provide feedback. The pre-application is a preliminary version of the contact, budget, and project narrative portions of the final application and is not used in final ranking. AIS Research and Demonstration applicants submit a pre-proposal instead, while certain returning Clean Boats Clean Waters and Lake Monitoring and Protection Network applicants have modified pre-application requirements. Final Surface Water Grant applications generally use Form 8700-284, while Clean Boats Clean Waters uses Form 8700-337. Required materials can include an authorizing resolution, a project-location and public-access map, laboratory cost forms when applicable, letters of commitment or support, land-use documentation, project design plans, and specialized land-acquisition documents. Applications may be submitted to DNRSurfaceWaterGrants@wisconsin.gov or by the specified mail option. For the 2026 cycle, the September 15 pre-application deadline remains in effect, and because November 15 falls on a Sunday, final applications will be accepted through 11:59 p.m. on Monday, November 16, 2026. Applications are first reviewed for completeness, eligibility, prerequisites, and allowable project expenses. Eligible applications are then scored by at least two anonymous experts using the ranking form applicable to the grant subprogram, with final scores based on the average of ranking-team scores. Projects are placed on a funding-priority list and funded in ranking order until available funds are exhausted. DNR emphasizes projects that are specific, well designed, aligned with program priorities, and clearly explain who will perform the work, what will be done, when and where it will occur, how it will be accomplished, and why it will benefit surface water. Awards are expected to be announced approximately February 15, with most grant periods beginning March 15. Questions may be directed to local environmental grant specialists, local lake, stream, or AIS biologists, or the program inbox at DNRSurfaceWaterGrants@wisconsin.gov.

Review the applicable ranking sheet before finalizing the application; align activities with program and funding priorities; use specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time-oriented goals; clearly explain who, what, when, where, how and why; be detailed but concise; identify program-approved methods and protocols where required; include all anticipated cash and in-kind costs in the application budget; do not assume anonymous rankers already know the project, waterbody or prior work.