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Thinking of applying for a 2025-26 US Forest Service Grant?

Hannah Hammond

by John Kelley, The Beck Group Consulting


The Beck Group Consulting Logo for a New Blog P

Service Spotlight: Grant Writing Assistance

 

What? We’re talking about Expert Grant Writing Assistance for US Forest Service Wood Products in January?


Yes. And if you’re thinking about applying, there are some things you can do sooner rather than later.


Ah, but you might rejoin: “What? They don’t even announce them for ten months. We don’t even know this year’s awards yet.” It’s true: we won’t know all the grant options and parameters until the USFS announcements in October, and there is not even any assurance that such grants will exist. If they do, we may fairly expect the same schedule: an announcement during Forest Products Week that gives everyone six crazy weeks or so to put everything together.


There is no good answer for that except to plan for a repeat of the previous year, watch the USFS page for news, and be prepared to adjust to change once the announcements come. There is a bad answer to it, which is to do nothing until the announcements and then go into a mad scramble in October.


For those who want to do better than the bad answer, you can and should do most of the hard parts up front.


BECK recommends the following actions, even before the 2024-25 US Forest Service Wood Products grant awards are announced:


Unless you really know your way around USFS grants, choose a partner. While we naturally consider BECK’s consulting team to be as good as partners get, our resources are strong but finite; we can’t prep everyone’s grant application, and at some point we become fully booked. The important thing here is to develop that relationship early—no matter whom it’s with. It’s sad for us at BECK to get calls two weeks before the submission deadline, when we are buried, saying “I want a WIG. Can you help me get it?” Early commitment gets you on the list.


Think about what you want Federal money for, in the process reviewing last year’s USFS limitations and priorities. The USFS generally wants to promote forest restoration on Federal, State, and Tribal lands while helping develop the industry infrastructure needed to complete those activities. You will have an even better story to tell if your project helps stimulate the economy in a rural or disadvantaged community. Do those goals fit with your business goals? If they do, your odds will probably be far better.


USFS slide detailing how grant proposals are evaluated.

Start the support letter process. Once you know what you want to do, begin making a list of business associates who might be willing to write letters of support. Bankers, local business and conservation organizations, vendors, customers, USFS managers, government officials (from town mayors to U.S. Senators), and everyone you’ve done good business with or who would like to see your enterprise grow. All the people you’ve done little kindnesses for? Here’s their chance to show you they appreciate your company. Your partners can probably (and BECK will always) offer you customized templates for letters of support from different sectors, in case your supporters might not be big letter writers.


You don’t need to know exactly which grant you will apply for before you can solicit these letters. Until the announcements come, you can’t know anyway, so you can just refer to it as a USFS Grant in your letter requests. If you do this well in advance, you will not be having to ask for letters while the letter writers are trying to get to Oma’s for Thanksgiving, then Christmas shop for their kids and nieces. Your early preparation will only increase their respect for you and your firm.


Start getting quotes and creating a budget. You want to buy a new stacker? Need engineering help to install a new dressed lumber sorter? Want to branch into cogen? If you start getting quotes from equipment vendors and service providers in spring, you can always check back in fall to see if the pricing changes. Written quotes are essential because the USFS likes to have evidence to back up project budgets, and not without good reason. Your budget spreadsheets can evolve as you gather more data, and can help remind you which pieces might remain to be gathered.


Assemble your team and assign roles. The USFS will want to know who’s going to manage the project, and the bios and résumés won’t write themselves. If you can’t convince the examiners that you have the knowledge and qualifications for success, risking money on you will be a problematic sell. Who’s providing tech know-how? Who’s doing the reporting? Who’s managing the budget? Decide. Meet. Plan.


Talk to your local and regional USFS managers (click here for directory). It’s important to have support for your project from the managers of nearby national, state, and tribal forests. Let them know about your plans. They are generally eager to engage, guide, suggest, and support. Regarding the grant application, the USFS has a team of wood innovation specialists to help grant applicants. They want quality proposals with strong backing and excellent odds of fruitful partnership that helps them be good stewards of our vast tracts of Federal land. Get to know them, reach out; learn what has made or broken past applications. Imagine being in their boots, seeing some of the hastily prepared and weakly supported ideas that sounded great but could never be funded because the applicant didn’t do their homework well enough to present a compelling case. They’re here to help you—so let them!


USDA-FS slide detailing the US Forest Service Regions and Staff

Watch last year’s USFS grant webinars (click here to go to vimeo). They will tell you a great deal about what makes proposals fly or sink.


If you do all these things in spring, come fall, you (and/or your partners) will be in position to deliver a killer proposal that has the best possible odds of success. And if somehow political currents affect the grant program, even if you do not apply, you will have gathered the information necessary to consider going ahead with or without a grant—probably developing valuable info about your operations in the process.


For more information about grant processes, reach out to us at info@beckgroupconsulting.com, or call (503)684-3406. We will route you to a consultant who can give you more specific guidance.

 


United States Forest Service Factsheets from the 2024 WIG, CW, WPIA grants:


 

The Beck Group, Inc.

Forest Products Planning and Consulting Services

Telephone (503) 684-3406


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Beck Group Forest Products Consulting

503-684-3406

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