Grassland Ecological Potential and Restoration Effectiveness Evaluation (US)

The Outreach of Interest functions as an outreach mechanism to cultivate relationships and connect with potential partners. This OOI is intended to solicit responses to explore future projects meeting the needs and interests of potential partners through partnership agreements within legislative authority with USDA Forest Service.

This initiative aims to explore partnerships focused on grassland ecosystems while increasing awareness of their importance. New partnerships can help leverage existing ecological classification systems (e.g., ecological sites, disturbance response groups, etc.) and monitoring methodologies to develop streamlined approaches that can be used to:

• determine ecological potential across the national grasslands.
• determine grassland resiliency and restoration effectiveness.

Your submission signals an opportunity for USDA Forest Service to connect with you to explore your ideas/projects/programs and how they may align with federal funding opportunities. USDA Forest Service is committed to fostering strong, collaborative partnerships. These collaborations are vital for increasing understanding of the ecological potential across the national grasslands, national tall grass prairie and associated restoration needs/opportunities, expanding capacity, and ensuring resilient and healthy grassland ecosystems. By working together, all stakeholders can maximize the impact of restoration efforts on the national grasslands and national tall grass prairie.

Aims

• Grasslands provide a myriad of benefits ranging from wildlife habitat and open space to climate regulation services, yet they are considered one of the most endangered ecosystems in the world. The loss of these ecosystems has broad impacts including marked declines in the native plants and animals that depend on them as well as the people and communities that rely on them for their work and enjoyment. There are several factors that have impacted the health of grassland ecosystems. Some contemporary ecological stressors include invasive and non-native species, woody plant encroachment, and climate change. Some historic ecological stressors include cultivation, disruption of natural disturbance processes, and development.
• The National Forest System includes approximately 3.8 million acres of National Grasslands and National Tall grass Prairie. Numerous vegetation management and restoration efforts have been undertaken. Knowledge of ecological potential is varied and information relative to restoration success and factors influencing success is lacking.
• The intent of this work is to inform future prioritization of areas for restoration as well restoration approaches that might be used. This could ultimately enable USDA Forest Service to make informed decisions on how to maximize the conservation return on investments. Additional opportunities may include correlating restoration effectiveness with associated benefits (e.g., habitat improvement, grassland bird population stabilization/improvements, enhanced opportunities for carbon sequestration, improve pollinator habitat and numbers, etc.).

Objectives

• The purpose of partnerships would be to enhance knowledge and understanding of ecological potential and associated restoration success and the factors that influence success. This OOI is looking for interest in projects that will achieve the following objectives:
  • Development of a streamlined approach(s) for determining differences in ecological potential of sites and what factors influence that potential:
    • Various ecological classification systems have been developed, but a cohesive and streamlined approach to leveraging those systems to readily determine ecological potential across landscapes has not been broadly applied. Partners would develop a streamlined approach that could be used to determine ecological potential across areas and aid in arriving at better informed and more strategic approaches to prioritizing areas for restoration.
  • Development of a streamlined approach(s) for determining effectiveness of restoration activities and reasons for the level of effectiveness or lack thereof:
    • Evaluating restoration success is not straightforward. A variety of factors influence the level of success achieved and there is a diversity of approaches and perspectives on how best to evaluate success. There is an equally large variety of monitoring protocols that can be used to measure several ecological attributes. Understanding the effectiveness of restoration and the factors that affect it, especially at a landscape scale, is critical to ensuring lessons learned can be used to benefit future projects and determine how to best address ongoing restoration needs. Partners would develop a streamlined approach to evaluating restoration success and determining the reasons for the level of effectiveness that could be consistently applied across landscapes.
  • Collection of applicable monitoring data that would support the validation of the ecological potential and restoration effectiveness approaches:
    • The USDA Forest Service does collect a variety of monitoring data, but the level of data collected prior to and following the implementation of restoration efforts is often limited due to staff time and resources. Potential partners would expand the capacity to collect information that would support the ecological potential and restoration effectiveness approaches. Partners would summarize the monitoring information along with copies of field collection datasheets or electronic versions.
• USDA Forest Service will share information on past restoration projects as well as any existing monitoring data as requested to assist with these objectives.

Duration

• Awards under this announcement are typically 1 to 5 years in length. Projects of greater complexity may be awarded for a longer period, not to exceed 5 years.

Eligibility Criteria

• Eligible applicants include for profit; non-profits; institutions of higher education; federal, state, local, and Native American tribal governments; foreign governments and organizations and special purpose districts (public utility districts, fire districts, conservation districts, school districts, and ports).

For more information, visit Grants.gov.