OpportunityTitle: Futures Analysis of Landscape Conservation and Greater Sage Grouse, Their Habitats, and Anthropogenic Influences from Energy Development
AdditionalInformationOnEligibility: This financial assistance opportunity is being issued under a Cooperative Ecosystem Studies Unit (CESU) Program - Rocky Mountain CESU Cooperative and Joint Venture Agreement (#60181AJ402).  CESUs are partnerships that provide research, technical assistance, and education. Eligible recipients must be a participating partner of the Rocky Mountain Cooperative Ecosystems Studies Unit (CESU). The Service anticipates that the successful applicant will possess the expertise and capability to conduct all elements of this work, including documented experience in avian ecology, spatial analysis and adaptive resource management.  All results will be described in peer-reviewed scientific publications and presented to interested resource managers. Due to the limited funds available, preference is given to proposals requesting less than $101,000.00 USD
Description: The Service expects that this study will include: 1. Delineation of a broad study area of Federal lands and/or mineral estates, primarily in Management Zones I, II, and IV, essentially considering all areas of the greater sage-grouse range that coincides with major energy development (oil, gas, and wind). Working closely with the FWS to identify those lands on which to specifically develop the risk assessment model. 2. Gathering and assembly of applicable spatial data sets from Federal resource management plans. 3. Analysis of the data to provide a future quantitative description of energy development (anthropogenic) parameters for the study area. 4. Using data from areas where both projected lease data and actual development data exist, construction a model that assesses the risk to sage-grouse habitat for the study area. It is expected that the risk analysis will be represented by thresholds demarcating expected levels of use/occupancy of the subject species. 5. Working with Service database managers to link the model to a spatial analysis and attribute that spatial habitat map with the risk assessment. 6. Ensuring that lease and energy development spatial data layers are in standard GIS format and can be utilized in ARC GIS with other similarly formatted spatial data, such as population demographics, etc. 7. Making recommendations future work to improve accuracy, confidence, and/or to conduct validation. 8. Collaborating with Service experts and others in the publication of the findings.
GrantorContactEmailDescription: greg_watson@fws.gov
GrantorContactText: Greg Watson, Project Officer, 303 236-8155&lt;br/&gt;greg_watson@fws.gov&lt;br/&gt;
CloseDateExplanation: Rocky Mountain CESU university partners possess the unique expertise to substantially involve and collaborate with the Service in the modeling and assessment of sage grouse habitats across the range of the species.