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Strategic Implementation Area Grants

Background

Strategic Implementation Areas (SIAs) are agricultural areas in small watersheds strategically selected because of their connection with local water quality. SIA initiatives work with local landowners and managers on targeted projects to improve and exceed water quality requirements for fish, wildlife, and drinking water. These efforts are led by the Oregon Department of Agriculture’s (ODA), Agricultural Water Quality Management Program. OWEB and ODA staff collaborate to provide OWEB funding to SIAs through OWEB’s grant system.

SIA Technical Assistance Grants

Supports engagement, technical assistance, planning, design, and monitoring located within SIA locations. ODA generally identifies SIA locations ahead of each biennium and invites targeted local partners to apply. 

Offered every fall for new SIAs identified by ODA.
Opens: TBD - Closes: TBD

Note: this is a non-competitive application process and the applicant must be invited through ODA.

  • ​​Soil and Water Conservation Districts associated with ODA-identified SIAs​

  • Technical Assistance
  • Planning
  • Design
  • Engagement.  
  • Monitoring funding is available by submitting a monitoring proposal after the TA grant is in place with OWEB. Monitoring proposals may be submitted throughout the year

Max Request: $100​,000 (as of 2025)

Match Requirement: ​5%​

Program Guidance (TBD)
Application Guidance (TBD)
ODA's "Things to Know"
TA Evaluation Criteria
Engagement Evaluation Criteria​
Application Template​
Forms (list here TBD)​​

  1. Obtain a login (username and password).
    If your organization already has an OGMS login, skip to step 2.
    2. An OGMS login is required to access the online grant application. Only one login per organization is allowed. If no login exists for an organization, please email ​​ ​Leilani Sullivan to request one. Include the following in your email:
    • Organization name and address
    • Grantee Contact Information: name, title, email address, and phone number for the person who will receive all communication from OWEB and sign any grant agreements.
    • Payee Contact Information: name, email address, and phone number of the person who keeps records and submits payment requests and documentation.
    • FEIN (Federal Employer Identification Number). OWEB may enter into agreements only with legally established entities. OWEB will review potential applicants prior to creating an OGMS login.
    • Per federal guidance, all OWEB grantees must be registered at the System for Award Management (SAM) before receiving a grant agreement. Entities will receive a non-proprietary identifier (called the Unique Entity Identifier (UEI).) This identifier is assigned by SAM (sam.gov​ is a free service) and entities must update their registration annually.
  2. Log in to the Online Application.​
    Select the "Strategic Implementation Area" Application.​ ​​​​An application Template may be found in the top navigation menu. Additional application guidance is provided through the "i" buttons in the application.​​​​

SIA Restoration Grants

Supports restoration within SIA geographies. Applications will be reviewed by an interagency team from OWEB, ODA, Oregon Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ), and Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife (ODFW).

Offered every fall.
Opens: TBD

  • SIA Lead organizations who received an OWEB SIA TA grant from 2017 through the present. 
  • Other organizations can apply if the SIA Lead organizations emails OWEB and ODA granting permission for the other entity to apply for the SIA restoration funds.  ​​

Project Sites

Projects may occur on sites owned by private landowners, not-for-profit institutions, schools, community colleges, state institutions of higher education, independent not-for-profit institutions of higher education, or local, state, or federal agencies.​​​​

​​​Fish Passage​​​​​​​​

  • Remove Irrigation or Push-Up Dams: Install alternatives (e.g., infiltration galleries, point-of-diversion transfers) or convert from gravity diversion to pumps.
  • Remove and/or Replace Culverts (as a condition of funding, such projects require Oregon Department of Fish & Wildlife (ODFW) or Oregon Department of Forestry (ODF) technical review and approval, or tribal government review and approval for projects on Tribal Trust Lands, using a standard OWEB form; and for culverts under state roads, a 50% Oregon Department of Transportation match).
  • Remove or Replace Stream Crossings (as a condition of funding, such projects require ODFW or ODF technical review and approval, or tribal government review and approval for projects on Tribal Trust Lands, using a standard OWEB form).​​

Urban Impact

  • Install Storm Water Runoff Treatments (e.g., create bioswales, pervious surfaces, native plant buffers, green roofs) where vegetation has exceeded its design life;
  • Employ Integrated Pest Management in conjunction with a restoration project.​

Riparian Process and Function

  • Manage Nutrient and Sediment Inputs through managed grazing (e.g., fencing and developing off-channel watering) and plantings.
  • Manage Vegetation: Plant or seed native riparian species, propagate native riparian plants, or control weeds in conjunction with a restoration project.
  • Employ Integrated Pest Management in conjunction with a restoration project.​
  • Restore floodplain reconnection.​

​Wetland Process and Function

  • Manage Nutrient and Sediment Inputs: Fence out livestock or develop alternative watering sites.
  • Manage Vegetation: Control weeds (in conjunction with a restoration project), or plant native wetland species.
  • Restore Wetlands: Excavate or remove fill, or eliminate drainage structures.
  • ​Employ Integrated Pest Management in conjunction with a restoration project.​

​Instream Process and Function

  • Improve Instream Habitat: Place large wood, boulders, or salmon carcasses.
  • Manage Erosion: Bioengineer stream banks, slope stream banks, or develop water gaps, streambank barbs.
  • Eradicate or control exotic aquatic species.​

Private Road Impact Reduction

  • Decommission Roads.
  • Improve Surface Drainage: surface road drainage improvements, gravel surfacing, stream crossings.​

Upland Process and Functi​​on

  • Manage Erosion on Agricultural Lands: terrace land, employ laser leveling, create windbreaks, install sediment basins (WASCBs), develop filter strips/grassed waterways, manage mud (e.g., gravel high-use areas, develop paddocks), seed bare areas (OWEB may require a grazing management plan, if appropriate, prior to release of funds. For post-fire areas, seed only where natural regeneration is unlikely — e.g., on slopes of 30% or more — or where it can be demonstrated that seeding would retard or prevent the spread of noxious weeds), or reduce tillage.
  • Manage Nutrient and Sediment Inputs to Streams through the management of grazing, vegetation cover, or animal waste.
  • Manage Vegetation: prescribed burning, except when conducted as part of a commercial harvest; noncommercial thinning; control/remove juniper (except late seral/old growth); plant or seed (native upland species or native beneficial mixes preferred); or control weeds (in conjunction with a restoration project). Projects for prescribed burning to reduce fuel loads require Oregon Department of Forestry technical review and approval, or tribal government review and approval for projects on Tribal Trust Lands, using a standard OWEB form.
  • Manage Wildlife: install water guzzlers.
  • Employ Integrated Pest Management in conjunction with a restoration project.​

Water Quantity / Irrigation Efficiency​

  • Recharge Groundwater, such as through infiltration galleries, infiltration basins, roof water harvesting, or similar practices;
  • Implement Irrigation Practices (e.g., pipe existing ditch, install the permanent components of drip or sprinkler systems, install automated soil moisture sensors where water and electrical savings can be documented, or recover or eliminate tailwater). Such projects must either not adversely impact the current level of groundwater in a Groundwater Management Area, or must measurably reduce the diversion of water at the point of diversion. As a condition of funding, irrigation efficiency projects require local watermaster technical review and approval, or tribal government review and approval for projects on Tribal Trust Lands, using a standard OWEB form. Landowner agreements with irrigation efficiency projects require affirmation that the landowner and/or irrigation district agree that water conserved with the project shall remain instream. For projects involving the improvement of irrigation practices for the benefit of water quality, the application shall describe how sediment, nutrients, bacteria, or waste is entering a water body along with sediment and nutrient load calculations.​

Ineligible Projects

Please see the ​complete list of ineligible projects in OWEB's administrative rules.​​

Max Request: $20,000

Match Requirement: 25%

Program Guidance
Templates (list and include here)
Forms (list and include here)​

  1. Obtain a login (username and password).
    If your organization already has an OGMS login, skip to step 2.
    2. An OGMS login is required to access the online grant application. Only one login per organization is allowed. If no login exists for an organization, please email ​​ ​Leilani Sullivan to request one. Include the following in your email:
    • Organization name and address
    • Grantee Contact Information: name, title, email address, and phone number for the person who will receive all communication from OWEB and sign any grant agreements.
    • Payee Contact Information: name, email address, and phone number of the person who keeps records and submits payment requests and documentation.
    • FEIN (Federal Employer Identification Number). OWEB may enter into agreements only with legally established entities. OWEB will review potential applicants prior to creating an OGMS login.
    • Per federal guidance, all OWEB grantees must be registered at the System for Award Management (SAM) before receiving a grant agreement. Entities will receive a non-proprietary identifier (called the Unique Entity Identifier (UEI).) This identifier is assigned by SAM (sam.gov​ is a free service) and entities must update their registration annually.
  2. Log in to the Online Application.​
    Select the "Small Grants" Application.​ ​​​​An application Template may be found in the top navigation menu. Additional application guidance is provided through the "i" buttons in the application.​​​​

Contact

For questions about SIA-TA Grants, contact Audrey Hatch, Conservation Outcomes Coordinator, at 971-345-7002.
For questions about SIA-Restoration Grants, contact Heidi Hartman, Federal Programs Specialist, at 971-7074-0226.

Administrative Rules

SIA-TA Grants: TA Evaluation Criteria 695-030-0045 and Engagement Evaluation Criteria: 695-015-0070
SIA-Restoration Grants: this grant program is based on OWEB Small Grant Rules OAR 695-035-0050

Resources

GoBig (Guidance on Budgeting In Grants)
ODA SIA webpage
Statewide SIA Overview
SIA Interactive Map