Announcements
Changes to evaluation criteria for 2024
- Watch the April Criteria Changes Webinar
- 2024 Grant Criteria Changes Fact Sheet
- 2024 Project Need Changes and Map to Determine “Project Need-Statewide Priorities” Score
Resources
Outdoor Recreation Inventory: The 2023 Outdoor Recreation Inventory map and dashboard includes information on more than 23,000 outdoor recreation areas, facilities, trails, and water access sites. It is used to understand the quantity and distribution of key outdoor recreation opportunities across the state. The dashboard also includes a service area analysis for outdoor recreation opportunities, such as accessing a local park or trail.
Typical Projects
- Removing bulkheads to restore natural beach functions
- Restoring an estuary
- Replacing a waterfront boardwalk
- Restoring shoreline for salmon habitat
- Developing a waterfront park
Who May Apply?
- Local agencies
- State agencies
- Native American Tribes
The above entities must be authorized legally to acquire and develop public open space, habitat, or recreation facilities.
Funding
Funding generally is awarded every two years.
ALEA is funded almost entirely by revenue generated from aquatic lands and is used to improve those lands or access to them. The Washington State Department of Natural Resources manages the state-owned aquatic lands and generates revenue from activities such as leasing waterfront sites to marinas and selling harvest rights for geoduck clams.
Grant Limits
| Project Type | Grant Limit | Administrative Cost Limit |
| Acquisition | $1 million | 5 percent of the total acquisition costs. |
| Restoration or Improvement | $500,000 | |
| Development | $500,000 | 20 percent of the total project cost 30 percent of the total project cost for Salmon Recovery Funding Board projects |
| Combination (acquisition and development or restoration) | $1 million. Not more than $500,000 may be for development or restoration. |
Match Details
Match may include the following:
- Appropriations or cash
- Bonds
- Donations of cash, land, labor, equipment, and materials
- Federal, state, local, and private grants
- Applicant’s labor, equipment, and materials
Eligible Projects
Acquisition: Buying land, leases, conservation easements, or access easements that will provide reasonable public access.
Restoration: Returning damaged or altered land to a condition that could be reasonably expected to substantially improve ecological conditions. The work is expected to result in a site that is self-sustaining and will not require continual intervention to function as a predominantly natural ecosystem.
Restoration projects must allow or provide public access to aquatic lands. Restoration projects with interpretive or educational elements are strongly encouraged.
Development: Improving, renovating, or providing new structures or facilities that support public access to aquatic lands and waters for water-dependent activities. Educational features are strongly encouraged.
Ineligible Projects
- Concessionaire buildings
- Fish and other wildlife production facilities
- Indoor facilities such as pools, community centers, museums, environmental centers
- Offices, shops, residences, meeting rooms
- Operating, overhead, and incidental costs
- Routine maintenance costs
- Legally mandated clean-up or mitigation costs not associated with the project
What are Navigable Waters?
ALEA projects must be associated with navigable waters of the state as defined by Washington Administrative Code 332-30-106, Revised Code of Washington 79.105, and Article 17 of the State Constitution.
All marine waters are, by definition, navigable, as are portions of rivers influenced by tides. Navigable rivers and lakes are those determined by the judiciary, those bounded by meander lines, or those that could have been used for commerce at the time of statehood.
Known navigable freshwater bodies in eastern Washington include the following:
- Calispell Creek
- Calispell Lake
- Cle Elum Lake
- Columbia River
- Curlew Lake
- Deer Lake
- Diamond Lake
- Eloika Lake
- Fishtrap Lake
- Kachess Lake
- Keechelus Lake
- Lake Chelan
- Liberty Lake
- Loon Lake
- Lost Lake
- Medical Lake
- Methow River (lower)
- Moses Lake
- Newman Lake
- Okanogan River
- Osoyoos Lake
- Pacific Lake
- Palmer Lake
- Pend Oreille River
- Rock Lake
- Snake River
- Spirit Lake
- Spokane River
- Sprague Lake
- Waitts Lake
- Wenatchee Lake
- Wenatchee River
- West Medical Lake
- Yakima River (portions)
Contact the Washington Department of Natural Resources aquatics land manager for your area to see if your project is in navigable waters.
Long-term Commitment
Property acquired, developed, or renovated with ALEA grants must be kept for public outdoor recreation use forever. More information is in Manual 7: Long-term Obligations.