A LIP ranking committee generally composed of the Wyoming Game and Fish Department’s Terrestrial Habitat Program Manager, Terrestrial Non-Game Wildlife Coordinator, Aquatic Habitat Program Manager, Aquatic Assessment Supervisor, and Federal Assistance Coordinator will evaluate project proposals annually during the formal process outlined in the LIP Timeline and as needed if time-sensitive and high-priority projects are proposed.  To recommend LIP program funding in accordance with WGFD objectives, the committee will use the criteria shown in Table 1 to evaluate and rank terrestrial grassland and sagebrush ecosystem projects, and the decision tree exhibited by Figure 1 to evaluate aquatic ecosystem project proposals.  

Table 1. Grassland and sagebrush project ranking criteria. 

Evaluation Criteria	Maximum Points Possiblea
The proposed project is located in one of the habitat focal areas identified by the WGFD’s Strategic Habitat Plan	5
The project’s benefit to LIP focus species	20
The number of additional NSS1-4 species that the project will benefit	10
The potential wildlife benefit of the fifteen-year grazing management plan approved by WGFD personnel	10
The potential risk or threat of habitat/species loss in the project area	10
The project area is adjacent to lands that are managed in a manner that benefit LIP focus species	10
The project contains a well defined and easily accomplished monitoring program	5
The project has potential to serve as a model to neighbors having similar high-priority habitats with species of greatest conservation need	5
Project readiness	5
The cost-effectiveness of the project	5
The availability of non-federal matching funds over the 50% required match (% of LIP funds to Total funds)	10
The size of the project area (larger projects will receive a higher priority)	5

^aPoints will be awarded on a scale of 0 to the maximum allowed for each criterion.

Figure 1. Decision tree used to rank Aquatic LIP projects