2024 Non-Motorized Trails and Land and Water Conservation Fund grant cycles are now open
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Land and Water Conservation Fund Grants
The LWCF is designed to strengthen the health and vitality of local communities through generous funding for outdoor recreation land acquisition and development projects. LWCF grants are available to local, state, county, or tribal government agencies with fee-simple ownership of the land where the project is situated. Grants ranging from $100,000 to $1,250,000 are available but must be matched 1:1.
Non-Motorized Trail Grants
Eligible projects fall under one of the following non-motorized trails grant categories:
- Construction: Maximum Award of $250,000 – New trail or trailhead construction, including the installation or creation of new facilities where none currently exist.
- Maintenance: Maximum Award of $250,000 - Maintenance, reroute, or reconstruction of existing trails or trailheads.
- Planning: Maximum Award of $45,000 – Trail layout, design, engineering, feasibility studies, inventory, use studies, and analysis of existing and proposed trails.
- Support: Maximum Award of $45,000 – Building and enhancement of volunteer organizations, increasing volunteer capacity, and implementing trail training and education.
- Trail Stewardship Crews: Maximum Awards of $75,000 to $150,000 depending on crew size - Supporting stewardship crews to complete work on existing trail systems.
Pre-application Submission
To help address potential wildlife impacts in their applications, all potential LWCF and Non-Motorized Trails applicants must submit a project scope that includes a high level overview of the project and a site map that outlines where work will be performed by Tuesday, September 5.
LWCF applicants are also required to submit a United States Fish and Wildlife Service Information Planning and Consultation (IPaC) Report. This information will be shared with the appropriate CPW Area Wildlife Manager for a pre-application review to discuss potential concerns with the applicant. Applicants must email the basic project scope and site map to [email protected] by September 5 to be eligible for full application submission in October. Guidance on addressing wildlife impacts for trail projects can be found here.
Learn more and apply
Application documents and program guidelines are available on the LWCF and Non-Motorized Trails webpages.
To help navigate the application process, CPW staff will host webinars for each program to cover application requirements and commonly asked questions for both programs. Register at the links below:
- Thursday, August 10
- LWCF Grant Cycle Overview - 2 p.m.
- Non-Motorized Trails Grant Cycle Overview - 2:30 p.m.
- Monday, August 14
- LWCF Grant Cycle Overview - 10 a.m.
- Non-Motorized Trails Grant Cycle Overview - 10:30 a.m.
- Tuesday, September 5: Pre-application submission due by email to [email protected]
- Tuesday, October 3: Full applications due by email to [email protected]
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Colorado Parks and Wildlife (CPW) is an enterprise agency, relying primarily on license sales, state parks fees and registration fees to support its operations, including: 43 state parks and more than 350 wildlife areas covering approximately 900,000 acres, management of fishing and hunting, wildlife watching, camping, motorized and non-motorized trails, boating and outdoor education. CPW's work contributes approximately $6 billion in total economic impact annually throughout Colorado.