Department of Conservation and Recreation
Conserve. Protect. Enjoy.
Department of Conservation and Recreation
The Land and Water Conservation Fund Act of 1965 established a federal reimbursement program for the acquisition and/or development of public outdoor recreation areas. The Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF) is administered in Virginia by the Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR) on behalf of the National Park Service (NPS). The program represents a federal, state and local partnership. A key feature of the program is that all LWCF assisted areas must be maintained and opened, in perpetuity, as public outdoor recreation areas. This requirement ensures their use for future generations.
Virginia has received more than $125 million in assistance since the LWCF began. It has made more than 420 projects possible within the Commonwealth.
The LWCF is a 50-50% matching reimbursement program. The grant recipient must be able to fund 100% of the project while seeking periodic reimbursements.
For further details about NPS LWCF program guidelines and project eligibility, please review the National Park Service LWCF State and Local Assistance Program Manual. Volume 73 is the current NPS LWCF Federal Financial Assistance Manual, as of Oct. 1, 2023. Please see Chapter 3 for project eligibility and Chapter 4 for proposal development and review requirements.
For specific regulatory requirements please refer to Federal Regulations: 2 C.F.R. § 200, 2 C.F.R. § 1402, 36 CFR 59.
The 2025 LWCF State and Local Assistance Program is proposed to open mid-summer 2025.
To be added to our Grants Announcement email list please provide contact and affiliation to RecreationGrants@dcr.virginia.gov.
Entities eligible to compete for LWCF funding
Please refer to Common Ineligible LWCF Costs to determine if your park proposal elements can be considered for LWCF funding.
An informational webinar was held February 21, 2024.
These documents may be modified prior to any future grant rounds. The DCR LWCF 2024 Application Manual contains details about eligibility, match requirements, rules, regulations and application procedures.
The following templates and forms were used for the 2024 LWCF Grant Round. Some of these documents may be modified for the 2025 LWCF Grant Round but most of them will still be required.
Note: In order to view some of the pdfs you will have to download the document to your computer and open in Adobe Acrobat.
Download all files as a zip file.
All projects must go through full NEPA and Section 106 review prior to submission to the National Park Service. NPS has the authority to approve compliance or ask for further information.
Please note that some projects will not be simple Categorical Exclusions. Also, projects may need further Virginia State Review Procedures and local review, as applicable, depending on project scope and design.
The Outdoor Recreation Legacy Partnership Program (ORLP) is a 50-50% matching reimbursement program. The 50-50% matching reimbursement program supports outdoor recreation projects in underserved urban areas.
For ORLP, the park project must be located within an incorporated city or town with a population of at least 25,000 people. Based on the 2020 census, qualifying cities and towns in Virginia are the cities of Charlottesville, Chesapeake, Danville, Fredericksburg, Hampton, Harrisonburg, Lynchburg, Manassas, Newport News, Norfolk, Petersburg, Portsmouth, Salem, Staunton, Richmond, Roanoke, Suffolk, Winchester and Virginia Beach; and Blacksburg and Leesburg towns.
All Federally recognized Indian Tribes are also eligible for the Outdoor Recreation Legacy Program (ORLP) and the project does not have to be within the locations listed above.
Within those cities and towns, the project must also serve disadvantaged communities lacking access to walkable outdoor recreation, in specific census tracts identified as disadvantaged by the federal Climate and Environmental Justice Screening Tool as the park tract itself must serve these communities. Non-profit organizations are not eligible project sponsors, but may be partners in planning the park and coordinating public communication efforts.
Unlike LWCF State and Local Assistance Program grants, ORLP is a national competition and the NPS makes project selections. The minimum award amounts for the grant cycles range from $300,000 to $15 million.
Eligible projects can include acquisition, development, a combination of acquisition and development, or rehabilitation of parks and other outdoor recreation areas. Eligible project sponsors include localities, recreation authorities, tribes, and state agencies.
The NPS Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) posted on Grants.gov (funding opportunity number P25AS00189) details the program requirements. Project sites funded by ORLP must be preserved for public outdoor recreation uses in perpetuity. Please refer to the NOFO for specific merit ranking process. DCR’s role is to forward pre-applications to NPS for their review and selection. This program has specific eligibility requirements.
Refer to the Notice of Funding Opportunity for Merit Review Criteria. ORLP will prioritize the selection of projects that: Empower communities through local public greenspace investment, fostering resilience and sustainable landscape development. They aim to restore ecosystems, protect biodiversity, and provide recreational and economic benefits. These initiatives also enhance public health in underserved areas through active living, land conservation, water resource protection, cultural preservation, native landscape restoration, and disaster mitigation. Also ORLP projects should promote, protect and incorporate the distinctive character of a community and its unique contexts. Geography, natural features, climate, culture, historical resources, and ecology each contribute to the distinctive character of a community’s sense of place, comfort, and belonging. It is important to involve diverse people and opportunities for public input during the planning process for the project.
Each Outdoor Recreation Legacy Program (ORLP) Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) has multi-step procedures for application. As this is a national competition for funds, it is up to the National Park Service (NPS) to score and award ORLP projects.
These resources were used for the 2024 ORLP grant round. These may change in future grant rounds, as determined by NPS.
Download all files as a zip file.
These grant funds are available nationally through the federal National Park Service Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF) combined with the Department of Defense (DOD) Readiness and Environmental Protection Integration (REPI) Program. This grant purpose protects the Nation’s military readiness, enhances relationships with communities, preserves the environment, and improves military installation and community resilience to climate change.
Eligible applicants as sub-recipients include state agencies and local governments only. DCR is the application and pass-through entity. Eligible REPI projects are for acquisition of lands and/or development of new outdoor public recreation facilities that support compatible land uses and avoid incompatible development in areas near a military installation or airspace to serve the general public and military. Projects must occur within a REPI Partnership Opportunity Area. Applicants must have an already developed partnership with the Department of Defense (DOD) military base of potential project location.
In 2024, the minimum grant award was $250,000 with a maximum total project cost of $5 million. All information was included in the prior Notice of Funding Opportunity. The NOFO also contains a list of all required documents and criterion specifics.
The 2025 Notice of Funding Opportunity will be posted here when it is available from the National Park Service. Grant round dates will be determined at that time. DCR staff will submit complete applications to NPS staff directly, NPS has final authority on scoring and selection of projects.
Interested applicants can send contact information to recreationgrants@dcr.virginia.gov.
Questions specifically about REPI can be emailed to Kristal.Mckelvey@dcr.virginia.gov.All parks that have received funding from the LWCF State and Local Assistance Grant Program must maintain public outdoor recreation use in perpetuity. If your locality or agency is proposing or being presented with any non-outdoor recreation development or significant use changes on LWCF protected parks, please email RecreationGrants@DCR.Virginia.gov or mail information to:
DCR-Planning and Recreation Resources Division
600 East Main St. – 17th Fl.
Attn: Recreation Grants Team
Richmond, Virginia 23219-2094
Contact us at RecreationGrants@DCR.Virginia.gov or call Recreation Grants Manager Kristal McKelvey at 804-508-8896.
