U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Grant: Supporting Sustainable Wildlife Landscape Design in the North Atlantic LCC

Description:

This is a Notice of Intent to award a Cooperative Agreement between the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the University of Massachusetts for the purpose of implementing Providing Science and Tools in Support of the North Atlantic Landscape Conservation Cooperative: Designing Sustainable Landscapes for Wildlife in the North Atlantic Landscape Conservation Cooperative and Evaluating Alternative Approaches for Conservation Design
This Single Source Award is being made in accordance with Department of the Interior Policy 505 DM 2.14 B(4), which allows for award without competition to an applicant who is uniquely qualified to perform the activity based on technical expertise. This project is designed to support the overall goals of the Designing Sustainable Landscapes project and related work under the North Atlantic Landscape Conservation Cooperative (NALCC), which includes the following:
1. Assess the current capability of habitats in the NALCC to support sustainable populations of wildlife;
2. Predict the impacts of landscape-level changes (e.g., from urban growth, conservation programs, climate change, etc.) on the future capability of these habitats to support wildlife populations;
3. Target conservation programs to effectively and efficiently achieve objectives in State Wildlife Action Plans and other conservation plans and evaluate progress under these plans;
4. Enhance coordination among partners during the planning, implementation and evaluation of habitat conservation through conservation design;
5. Evaluate complementary approaches to conservation design including the use of representative species and coarse filter ecological integrity approaches.

Involvement on the part of the Service is anticipated for the successful completion of the objectives to be funded. In particular, the Service will be responsible for the following: participation in the Scientific Advisory Committee and in larger partner committees to guide project; assistance with coordination of project activities among partner agencies, including programs in the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and North Atlantic Landscape Conservation Cooperative partnership; assistance with coordination between the projects in this agreement and related projects through the North Atlantic Landscape Conservation Cooperative, Atlantic Coast Joint Venture, Regional Gap Analysis and other partnerships; and guidance on management needs and development of decision-support tools.