GLNF-CESU: Forest Health Assessment for GLKN | NPS NOIP20AC00367

Opportunity Information: Apply for NPS NOIP20AC00367

The grant opportunity titled "GLNF-CESU: Forest Health Assessment for GLKN" (Funding Opportunity Number NPS NOIP20AC00367) is a discretionary National Park Service cooperative agreement under the Department of the Interior. It is designed as a collaborative effort between the University of Minnesota, led by Dr. Marcella Windmuller-Campione, and the National Park Service Great Lakes Inventory and Monitoring Network. The central idea is to combine applied field monitoring with research analysis so the parks get an updated, science-based picture of forest condition across the Great Lakes region and a clearer sense of how forests are responding to intermediate-term environmental change.

The project focuses on re-measuring long-term monitoring sites to evaluate current forest health and detect change over time. Specifically, funding supports the resampling of 240 permanent forest monitoring plots spread across five national park units in the Great Lakes region. These plots were previously sampled during an earlier monitoring cycle (2011 to 2016), and the new fieldwork is meant to create a comparable dataset that allows direct comparisons between the two sampling periods. That comparison is important because it helps managers separate short-term variability from meaningful trends in forest structure, composition, regeneration, and overall condition.

A major public-purpose element of the award is workforce development through youth employment. The agreement anticipates supporting 16 positions over a five-year period. While the program does not set an age restriction or discriminate by age, it notes that applicants for these types of field positions are commonly between 20 and 25 years old. The intent is to provide practical, career-relevant experience in natural resources work, including field sampling, data collection protocols, and other real-world skills tied to forest monitoring and ecological assessment.

The second public-purpose element is methodological innovation aimed at helping land managers deal with climate-driven uncertainty. The opportunity explicitly frames climate change as a source of surprise and complexity for park management, making it harder to anticipate impacts and choose appropriate responses. In that context, part of the project is to develop and test new or improved ways of analyzing trends in forest change, using the repeated-measures monitoring data as a foundation. A University of Minnesota graduate student or research technician will receive temporary support to analyze the dataset and explore novel approaches for detecting, interpreting, and communicating forest change in ways that are useful for management decisions.

The intended outputs are both practical and scholarly. On the applied side, the work is expected to produce updated assessments of forest condition in the participating parks and translate those findings into management recommendations tailored to Great Lakes forests as climate pressures continue. On the research side, the collaboration is expected to result in one to two peer-reviewed journal articles that address vegetation responses to intermediate-term change and examine management concerns and options in a shifting environment.

Administratively, the opportunity falls under CFDA 15.945 and lists eligibility for public and state-controlled institutions of higher education, aligning with the University of Minnesota partnership described in the announcement. The award ceiling is $300,006, with an expectation of one award. The opportunity was created on March 23, 2020, and originally closed on April 2, 2020.

• The Department of the Interior, National Park Service in the education, employment, labor and training, environment, natural resources, science and technology and other research and development sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "GLNF-CESU: Forest Health Assessment for GLKN" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 15.945.
• This funding opportunity was created on Mar 23, 2020.
• Applicants must submit their applications by Apr 02, 2020. (Agency may still review applications by suitable applicants for the remaining/unused allocated funding in 2026.)
• Each selected applicant is eligible to receive up to $300,006.00 in funding.
• The number of recipients for this funding is limited to 1 candidate(s).
• Eligible applicants include: Public and State controlled institutions of higher education.

Apply for NPS NOIP20AC00367

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