Applications are now open for the 2026 Wild Resource Conservation Program (WRCP), which offers grants to support research and conservation projects that protect Pennsylvania’s native wildlife, plants, and ecosystems. The program, which is overseen by the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources (DCNR), will invest more than $500,000 in projects across the Commonwealth.
The WRCP provides critical support for conserving non-game animals, native plants and fungi, and invertebrates such as insects — species often left out of traditional conservation programs but vital to the Commonwealth’s ecosystems.
“This program is key to ensuring science-driven, hands-on conservation work is done to protect Pennsylvania’s most vulnerable wildlife and plant species,” said DCNR Secretary Cindy Adams Dunn. “The Shapiro Administration remains committed to ensuring the state’s rich biodiversity is maintained for future generations — and we are grateful to the organizations that help protect our ecosystems through this program.”
This year’s WRCP grant priorities include:
- Mammal priorities: surveys to focus on least shrew to address knowledge gaps and prairie deer mouse.
- Bird priorities: building on previous surveys to revisit canopy gap treatment study sites in central Pennsylvania
- Plant priorities: genetic research into bittersweet hybridization; conservation assessment of one of several selected plant genera; and other research into the inventory, ecological study, or conservation of rare plants.
- Aquatic invertebrate priorities: Aquatic invertebrate priorities: round hickorynut reproduction study; salamander mussel surveys in Allegheny and Beaver River tributaries; and continued study on rare amphipod, Gammarus;
- Orphan taxa priorities: surveys for lichen or other fungi using DNA barcoding or soil eDNA and fungal type specimen analysis; frosted elfin recovery plan and surveys to assess data-deficient terrestrial invertebrates.
- Project ideas outside of priorities that support the Pennsylvania State Wildlife Action Plan, agency’s species management plan, or other need is welcomed.
“The 2026 grant round is focused on filling data gaps for Pennsylvania’s rare, threatened, and endangered species,” said Rebecca Bowen, DCNR’s chief of Conservation Science and Ecological Resources. “Pennsylvanians can directly support the protection of non-game wildlife and native plants through the Wild Resource Conservation Program.”
