Qualified Cultivator Funding Opportunity

The California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) is seeking high-quality grant proposals to assist qualified cannabis cultivators and enhance CDFW's mission to manage California's diverse fish, wildlife, and plant resources. The grant program aims to support projects that alleviate direct and indirect environmental impacts of cannabis cultivation and enhance environmental stewardship. Eligible applicants include nonprofit organizations, public agencies, and tribal governments. The grant program will prioritize projects that benefit qualified cultivators, particularly those with ownership and/or financial interest in no more than 10,000 square feet of total canopy. • Eligible project types include transition from provisional license to annual license and sustainable cannabis cultivation practices. • Eligible activities include cleanup, remediation, and restoration, professional services, consulting, and infrastructure related to cleanup, remediation, and restoration. • Eligible costs include compliance costs, meeting the avoidance, minimization, or mitigation requirements approved in the project's CEQA document, and county permitting requirements. • Proposals with higher proportions of secured cost share will receive higher scores during the evaluation process. • The grant program may have up to $20,000,000 available in grant funding.