OpportunityTitle: BLM Utah Colorado Plateau Native Plant Program Studies, Development and Use Partnership
AdditionalInformationOnEligibility: This financial assistance opportunity is also open to all partners under any Cooperative Ecosystem Studies Unit (CESU) program.  CESUs are partnerships that provide research, technical assistance, and education.  If a cooperative agreement is awarded to a CESU partner under a formally negotiated Master CESU agreement, indirect costs are limited to a rate of no more than 17.5% of the indirect cost base recognized in the partner&apos;s Federal Agency-approved Negotiated Indirect Cost Rate Agreement (NICRA).
Description: Background: The Colorado Plateau Native Plant Program (CPNPP; http://www.blm.gov/ut/st/en/prog/more/CPNPP.html) is a multistakeholder partnership coordinated by the BLM. The CPNPP works to support healthy landscapes and ecosystems with a focus on plant materials for restoration and reclamation on public lands. Using a mix of research and development and practical application, the CPNPP supports all aspects of native plant materials development and use including the following: wildland seed (and/or other propagules for vascular plants and soil organisms) collection, banking, selecting, testing, transfer zone development, increase, release to industry, research trials and effectiveness monitoring, as well as molecular and scenario modeling analyses. This Program is only possible with the participation of partners who can provide technical expertise and capacity above and beyond that of BLM staff, yet who work closely with the BLM and other agencies. The CPNPP is a regional program that supports national policies and initiatives including the National Seed and Pollinator Protection Strategies, efforts to mitigate invasive species and wildland fire impacts, and efforts to adapt to global change impacts. Partners may thus collaborate with national or other regional programs, as well as state- and local-scale efforts. Objectives: Recipient of this cooperative agreement will provide scientific and technical assistance in pursuit of CPNPP Program goals: Goal 1: Native Seed Collection in Support of Evaluation and DevelopmentGoal 2: Evaluation and DevelopmentGoal 3: Field EstablishmentGoal 4: Seed Production by Private GrowersGoal 5: Seed StorageGoal 6: Restore Native Plant CommunitiesGoal 7: Monitor Restoration ActivitiesGoal 8: Communication with Partners and the PublicRecipient may propose projects that support any of these goals. Topics of current interest include: scenario modeling to inform collection, development and increase priorities; economic analyses including that of biodiversity and other non-market values; data management and administration including online applications and tools; information synthesis and communication (can include education and outreach); field studies including common garden experiments, propagation and storage research. Recipient is expected to publish in scientific work in peer-reviewed journals, to demonstrate project quality assurance/ quality control and management plan/s, to participate in annual meetings as well as occasional conference calls, and to respond in a timely fashion to inquiries about progress or in support of outreach efforts. Public Benefit: This cooperative agreement will benefit the public by proactively improving and increasing the materials available to restore and reclaim public lands; by improving the scientific rigor of studies and information synthesized and used to inform strategic plant material development efforts, as well as the practical use and evaluation of those materials in reclamation and restoration; by recording and communicating the information used in and resulting from these efforts so as to educate and inform other practitioners, researchers, and stakeholders; and by facilitating improved management of public natural resources, and thus the ecosystem services and ecological processes, upon which humans rely for survival.
GrantorContactEmailDescription: mbeckstead@blm.gov
GrantorContactText: Grants Management Specialist Melanie Beckstead (801) 539-4169 &lt;br/&gt;mbeckstead@blm.gov &lt;br/&gt;