Futures Analysis of Landscape Conservation and Greater Sage Grouse, Their Habitats, and Anthropogenic Influences from Energy Development | Apply Online

Opportunity Summary:

This grant opportunity, offered by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) under Funding Opportunity Number F13AS00260, supports a research-driven futures analysis focused on how energy development may influence greater sage-grouse habitats across large portions of the species range. The central goal is to build a practical, spatially explicit risk assessment framework that helps resource managers anticipate where and how projected oil, gas, and wind development could affect sage-grouse habitat condition and, ultimately, expected occupancy or use by the species. The work is designed to directly inform landscape conservation and adaptive management decisions on federal lands by translating planning and leasing information into quantitative, map-based risk outputs that can be updated and used alongside other management datasets.

A major part of the project involves defining a broad study area that emphasizes federal lands and/or federal mineral estates, particularly within sage-grouse Management Zones I, II, and IV. In practice, this means focusing on areas where the greater sage-grouse range overlaps with substantial or anticipated energy activity. The selected recipient is expected to coordinate closely with FWS to identify the most relevant federal land units and to set the geographic bounds where the risk assessment model will be developed and applied. This early scoping step matters because it determines what planning documents, leasing layers, and ecological data will be integrated, and it ensures the analysis aligns with current FWS management priorities.

The proposed work then moves into intensive data compilation and spatial analysis. The recipient is expected to gather and assemble relevant spatial datasets drawn from federal resource management plans and related sources. Those datasets would typically include items such as leasing and development projections, land use allocations, infrastructure footprints, and other planning designations that can be represented spatially. After assembling these layers, the project calls for an analysis that produces a forward-looking, quantitative description of energy development parameters across the study area. In other words, the deliverable is not just a snapshot of current conditions, but an analytically defensible depiction of likely future anthropogenic pressure associated with energy development, expressed in measurable spatial terms.

A key technical deliverable is the construction of a habitat risk model using locations where both projected leasing information and real, on-the-ground development data are available. By linking what was planned to what actually occurred in comparable places, the study is expected to estimate risk to sage-grouse habitat across the broader study area. The announcement indicates that risk results should be represented using thresholds that demarcate expected levels of habitat use or occupancy by sage-grouse. This suggests the model should produce interpretable categories or breakpoints that managers can use to distinguish lower-risk from higher-risk conditions in a way that supports decision-making, rather than only producing abstract statistical outputs.

Because the end use is operational and spatial, the project also includes explicit requirements for database and GIS integration. The recipient must work with FWS database managers to connect the model results to spatial analysis workflows and to attribute habitat maps with the resulting risk assessment values. A related requirement is to ensure that lease and energy-development spatial layers are delivered in standard GIS formats compatible with ESRI ArcGIS, and that they can be used alongside other similarly formatted datasets, including items like population or demographic layers. This emphasis on formatting and interoperability signals that FWS wants products that can be readily adopted into existing agency geospatial systems and combined with other management-relevant information without extensive rework.

Beyond producing the model and maps, the grant expects the recipient to provide recommendations for future work that could improve accuracy, increase confidence in results, and/or support validation. That includes identifying data gaps, methodological limitations, or opportunities to test model predictions against additional empirical observations. Finally, publication and communication are built into the project: the recipient is expected to collaborate with FWS experts and other partners to publish findings, with results described in peer-reviewed scientific publications and presented to resource managers who can apply the outputs to planning and conservation actions.

Administratively, this is a discretionary funding opportunity offered as a cooperative agreement, reflecting an expectation of substantial involvement and collaboration with FWS during the project. It falls under CFDA 15.670 (Adaptive Science) and is associated with the Rocky Mountain Cooperative Ecosystem Studies Unit (CESU). Eligibility is limited to participating partners of the Rocky Mountain CESU, and the agency notes that these university partners bring specialized expertise for range-wide modeling and assessment of sage-grouse habitats. The applicant is expected to demonstrate capability across the full scope of work, including documented experience in avian ecology, spatial analysis, and adaptive resource management. The funding level is relatively modest and targeted: the estimated total funding is about $110,000, with an award floor of $90,000 and a ceiling of $110,000, and the Service indicates a preference for proposals requesting less than $101,000 due to limited funds. Only one award is expected. The opportunity was posted July 22, 2013, with an original (and current) closing date of August 6, 2013, and an archive date of August 23, 2013. The listed project officer contact is Greg Watson (303-236-8155, gregwatson@fws.gov).

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