NFWF 2027 Acres for America Request for Proposals

Walmart's national land conservation program, now in its 2027 cycle, funding permanent protection of habitat of national significance with pre-proposals due October 19, 2026.

Acres for America is the land conservation partnership Walmart and NFWF launched in 2005, renewed in November 2024 for another decade. The 2027 Request for Proposals was posted on September 15, 2026. To date the program has funded more than 130 projects in all 50 states and permanently protected over 2.2 million acres. Stated priorities are conserving critical habitat for birds, fish, plants and wildlife; connecting existing protected lands into unified wild places and migration corridors; providing public access to the outdoors; and sustaining local economies that depend on forestry, ranching, and recreation. The program runs as a two-phase application: pre-proposals are due October 19, 2026, and invited full proposals are due December 2, 2026. Every award requires a minimum 1:1 match of cash or contributed goods and services, federal funds may count as match, and larger match ratios from a diversity of partners score better. Applicants are encouraged to talk with NFWF regional staff before submitting. The relevance to H2O is indirect but real: permanent land protection in headwaters is a recognized source water protection strategy, NFWF lists brook trout among the program's related species, and Central Appalachia is one of NFWF's named landscapes. This entry is filed as a draft for Pope's review because the program's stated priorities are wildlife habitat and land acquisition rather than water infrastructure or water quality, and prior scan cycles have deliberately excluded NFWF programs on that basis.