WaterSMART Applied Science Grants for the Southern Rockies Landscape Conservation Cooperative

The summary for the WaterSMART Applied Science Grants for the Southern Rockies Landscape Conservation Cooperative grant is detailed below. This summary states who is eligible for the grant, how much grant money will be awarded, current and past deadlines, Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance (CFDA) numbers, and a sampling of similar government grants. Verify the accuracy of the data FederalGrants.com provides by visiting the webpage noted in the Link to Full Announcement section or by contacting the appropriate person listed as the Grant Announcement Contact. If any section is incomplete, please visit the website for the Bureau of Reclamation Denver Office, which is the U.S. government agency offering this grant.

WaterSMART Applied Science Grants for the Southern Rockies Landscape Conservation Cooperative: Resource managers concerned with conservation of natural and cultural resources are faced with increasing management challenges. Such challenges may include water scarcity, land-use conversion, impacts to traditional or historical resources, sensitive species protection and recovery, invasive species, and a range of other complex issues all of which are amplified by climate change. In response, the Bureau of Reclamation (Reclamation) is participating in the Southern Rockies Landscape Conservation Cooperative (LCC). This effort represents a broader vision of conservation that includes working with partners across landscapes to ensure that science capacity is in place to enable resource managers to successfully address these 21st century conservation challenges. The LCCs are management-science partnerships that inform integrated resource management actions addressing climate change and other stressors within and across landscapes. LCCs bring together science and resource conservation to support and complement adaptation strategies addressing climate change and water conservation. Each LCC functions within a specific landscape, but it also will be a part of a national and, ultimately, international network. LCCs are true cooperatives formed and directed by land, water, wildlife, and cultural resources managers and interested public and private organizations. Reclamation, as a partner within the Southern Rockies LCC, is providing cost-shared funding on a competitive basis for applied science projects within the Southern Rockies LCC in fiscal year (FY) 2013. The projects must be designed for use by resource managers to address natural and cultural resources issues that have a connection to water resources management in a changing climate. If appropriate, projects also should consider Native American ancestral knowledge and frameworks of understanding on cultural landscapes that allow resource managers to integrate cultural and natural resources into landscape conservation. Projects need not be focused solely on water resources and can focus on other natural resources issues that may affect water resources management (e.g., an endangered species issue that may impact water diversions) or be affected by water resources management (e.g., riparian habitat or archeological site that may be impacted by reservoir operations). The process of developing project categories discussed below began with the Southern Rockies LCC Steering Committee establishing key resources of interest to the LCC. The Southern Rockies LCC Science Working Group then worked at developing priority science needs based on these resources. The science needs serve the purpose of guiding and organizing the LCC's science delivery efforts related to priority resource management issues. Recognizing that the LCC is addressing natural and cultural resource issues that do not necessarily connect to water management, not all of the science needs listed below are applicable under this FOA. The full list is provided below to provide the reader with a full perspective of issues the Southern Rockies LCC is looking to address. The types of projects eligible for funding are more fully described below in section III.C. FY 2013 Southern Rockies LCC Priority Science Needs: Science Need 1: Development of models to inform management decisions related to habitat protection/preservation for desired population numbers of riparian obligate and wetland species. Science Need 2: Assessment of the vulnerability of species and habitats to reduction in habitat size. Science Need 3: Assessment of species or population vulnerability through identification of migration and connectivity corridors, and identification of adaptation strategies that mitigate vulnerability. Science Need 4: Identification of changes in source-water runoff, and resultant changes to surface/groundwater interaction, resulting from climate change and other stressors. Science Need 5: Incorporation of climate change projections and ecological flow needs into hydrological models in order to develop water supply scenarios that would inform decisions about water allocation to meet human and ecological needs. Science Need 6: Data cataloging and acquisition of spatial data to aid in identification of LCC focal resources and associated needs. Science Need 7: Identify Tribal information needs related to conservation and management of natural and cultural resources. For further information as well as a geographic map on the Southern Rockies LCC, see: http://www.usbr.gov/WaterSMART/lcc/south.html.