NOTICE OF INTENT: Successional changes in arthropod assemblages during watershed restoration and fire management in the Jemez Mountains, New Mexico | P17AS00180

Opportunity Information: Apply for P17AS00180

This Notice of Intent (Funding Opportunity Number P17AS00180) is a National Park Service discretionary funding opportunity to support ongoing research on how arthropod (insect and other invertebrate) communities change over time as watersheds in the Jemez Mountains of New Mexico undergo forest restoration and fire management. The work is centered on the Valles Caldera National Preserve and the Jemez Ranger District of the Santa Fe National Forest, where large landscape treatments are being implemented under the USFS Collaborative Forest Landscape Restoration Program (CFLRP) and the DOI Resilient Landscapes Program. Those programs are aimed at bringing back more natural fire regimes in forest and grassland watersheds by reducing unnaturally high fuel loads through forest thinning and then using prescribed and managed fire to maintain healthier, more resilient conditions.

A major driver for the project is that this landscape has recently experienced two large, uncharacteristic wildfires: the Las Conchas Fire in 2011 and the Thompson Ridge Fire in 2013. These fires, particularly where burn severity was high, created significant changes in habitat structure and resources that can strongly affect terrestrial invertebrates. After the 2011 Las Conchas Fire, Preserve biologists set up replicated monitoring sites to track post-fire responses across multiple parts of the ecosystem, including vegetation, birds, small mammals, and invertebrates. The grant opportunity is designed to continue and deepen the invertebrate component of that monitoring, focusing on successional patterns, meaning the step-by-step shifts in which arthropod groups are present and how abundant they are as burned stands, woodlands, and grasslands recover.

The opportunity also ties into planned fire management actions. The U.S. Forest Service intended to conduct a prescribed burn in 2016 (the Southern Paliza Fire), and invertebrates were collected before the burn, with plans to collect again afterward. That before-and-after sampling is meant to show how fire influences both pest species and beneficial invertebrates, which can include predators, parasitoids, pollinators, and decomposers. By linking wildfire recovery monitoring with prescribed fire monitoring, the project aims to provide practical information about how different fire types and intensities affect arthropod communities and, by extension, ecosystem functions such as herbivory, nutrient cycling, and food availability for wildlife.

From a work-scope standpoint, the statement of work emphasizes that the added funds are intended to continue analysis of arthropod samples collected after the Las Conchas Fire during 2011 to 2015. The modification also extends the period of performance so additional backlogged samples can be processed and specimens can be identified, consistent with the original statement of work. In other words, a key deliverable is the laboratory and taxonomic work required to turn collected field samples into usable ecological data, including sorting, cataloging, and identification to appropriate taxonomic levels so trends in community composition can be analyzed over time and across habitat types and burn severities.

The grant is structured as a cooperative agreement, indicating substantial involvement and collaboration with the federal partners rather than a simple pass-through award. It falls under CFDA 15.945 (Natural Resources). The posting lists an expected single award with an award ceiling of $1, and eligibility is described generally as "Others" with additional clarification referenced in the full eligibility text (not included in the excerpt). The opportunity was created April 10, 2017, with an original closing date of April 20, 2017, and it notes that any future awards would depend on the availability of funds.

Overall, the purpose of the funding is to support long-term, applied ecological monitoring that can feed directly into adaptive management for restoration and fire operations on the Preserve and surrounding National Forest lands. The resulting analyses are intended to help managers understand whether restoration treatments and fire reintroduction are moving the system toward desired conditions, and how invertebrate communities respond through succession following severe wildfire and under planned prescribed fire and thinning treatments.

• The Department of the Interior, National Park Service in the natural resources sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "NOTICE OF INTENT: Successional changes in arthropod assemblages during watershed restoration and fire management in the Jemez Mountains, New Mexico" 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 Apr 10, 2017.
• Applicants must submit their applications by Apr 20, 2017. (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 $1.00 in funding.
• The number of recipients for this funding is limited to 1 candidate(s).
• Eligible applicants include: Others (see text field entitled Additional Information on Eligibility for clarification).

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