The Western Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies (WAFWA) and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) are seeking proposals from state and provincial wildlife agencies, universities and non-governmental organizations and others to help conserve greater sage-grouse and encourage collaboration among Landscape Conservation Cooperatives and their partners. Proposals will be considered for traditional research projects (original data collection), for projects that provide management support products (priority habitat mapping, modeling, adaptive management constructs, decision support tools, compilation or analysis of existing data sets, etc.), for projects that interrogate extant data sets, or for projects that incorporate existing datasets into the Landscape Conservation Management and Analysis Portal (LC MAP). A total of $500,000 is available for projects to be completed by 30 Sept. 2015.

Support for these projects is being provided by the FWS through a grant program designed to foster collaboration between Landscape Conservation Cooperatives. FWS Region 6 applied for funds for the "Inter-LCC Greater Sage-Grouse Initiative" on behalf of WAFWA and the Great Basin, Great Northern, Plains and Prairie Potholes and Southern Rockies LCC's that overlap the range of the greater sage-grouse. Proposals being requested focus on two specific elements of this initiative: 1) funding support for priority greater sage-grouse research and management projects, and 2) supporting the identification and incorporation of existing datasets on sage-grouse and sagebrush ecosystems important to greater sage-grouse into the LC MAP portal.

Proposals must be submitted to the LC MAP/Sage-Grouse Project Coordinator, Tom Remington, no later than May 8, 2013. The Request for Proposal contains eligibility information, instructions on applying for funding, and a list of contacts within state agencies and LCCs that applicants may wish to contact concerning collaboration.

Download the RFP as a Word document. (cs)