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Grants to USA nonprofit organizations, state government agencies, local and municipal governments, Indian tribes, and educational institutions for projects that restore hardwood forests and wetlands in eligible regions. Funding is intended to improve the wildlife, water quality, and water connectivity of the Lower Mississippi Alluvial Valley region.

The general priorities for this program are:

• Enhancing existing bottomland hardwood forests to improve habitat for Louisiana black bear, Kentucky warbler, Swainson’s warbler, American green-winged teal, wood duck, mallard and other waterfowl, songbirds and forest-dependent species
• Restoring and enhancing wetland forest and floodplain hydrology to improve wildlife habitat and water quality
• Establish new bottomland hardwood forests that contribute to landscape-scale habitat connectivity to benefit wildlife

The strategic priorities for this grant program are as follows:

• Bottomland Hardwood Forest Enhancement and Maintenance: Promote and implement the management and enhancement of existing bottomland hardwood forests to improve forest habitat structure and understory condition, and wildlife habitat^​1  and water quality. 
• Restore, Wetland and Floodplain Hydrology and improve Water Quality: Improve hydrological connectivity of wetland and floodplain habitats to improve water quality and wildlife habitat. 
• Bottomland Hardwood Forest Restoration: Restore bottomland hardwood forests in targeted areas that expand upon core blocks of existing bottomland hardwood forest and create corridors between existing blocks of bottomland hardwood forest to promote wildlife dispersal and expansion.
• Target Outreach, Education and Assistance to Private Landowners, Forest Practitioners and Other Key Constituencies: Throughout the focal geographies and the larger LMAV landscape, NFWF will invest in strategies to expand engagement with willing landowners and knowledgeable practitioners, increase landowner adoption of conservation practices, including, but not limited to enrollment in Farm Bill programs, and address barriers to re
• Bottomland Hardwood Forest Habitat Conservation: Funding is available for capacity and transaction costs to facilitate conservation easement projects that protect existing, high quality bottomland hardwood habitat, or key sites targeted for bottomland hardwood restoration and/or enhancement that are part of a broader restoration proposal.
• Improve Aquatic Connectivity: Restore or retrofit barriers, such as dikes and levees, to improve flows between rivers and side channels to increase habitat connectivity for fish and other aquatic species.
• Restoration Response Monitoring: Develop monitoring protocols to measure Louisiana black bear, swamp rabbit, forest bird, waterfowl and freshwater fish response to habitat restoration and enhancement.