Notice of Intent to Award to Kansas State University | BOR LC N010

Opportunity Information: Apply for BOR LC N010

This funding opportunity is a Notice of Intent to Award from the U.S. Department of the Interior, Bureau of Reclamation, under a discretionary cooperative agreement (Funding Opportunity Number: BOR LC N010; CFDA: 15.517). It is structured as a single expected award with an anticipated ceiling of $122,944, created on August 6, 2018, with an original closing date of August 21, 2018. The eligible applicant category is public and state-controlled institutions of higher education, and the notice indicates Kansas State University as the intended recipient.

The project sits under the Gila River Basin Native Fishes Conservation Program, a long-running mitigation effort that was established to address impacts identified in the 1994, 2001, and 2008 biological opinions. Those opinions required actions to offset negative effects linked to the transfer of Colorado River water into the Gila River Basin. The Program primarily targets recovery and conservation of several federally listed aquatic species, with a particular emphasis on five listed fish species: spikedace, loach minnow, Gila chub, Gila topminnow, and razorback sucker. It also includes the Chiricahua leopard frog and, more broadly, supports conservation actions that benefit other native aquatic and semi-aquatic species throughout the basin.

A central management goal described in the notice is to reduce extinction risk and improve long-term resilience by establishing additional populations in new or restored locations. In practice, this means repatriating species into areas where they have disappeared or creating new populations to spread risk across the landscape. The notice notes that multiple repatriation attempts have already been made and have produced mixed results, and that a key challenge is the lack of clear, range-wide information explaining why some reintroductions succeed while others fail. This gap in practical, decision-ready knowledge is the main driver for the proposed work.

The intended project will conduct a range-wide, multi-scale habitat assessment focused specifically on loach minnow and spikedace. The point is to generate stronger, empirically grounded guidance on what habitat conditions these species actually require and where viable repatriation opportunities may exist. Rather than looking at habitat in a single way, the work is designed to evaluate habitat associations at multiple spatial scales, from fine microhabitats (the immediate physical conditions fish use in a stream reach) up through broader reach- and watershed-level features that shape flow, channel form, temperature, and overall ecological context. Alongside habitat measurements, field surveys will also document the associated fish community at each site, recognizing that community composition (including potential competitors, predators, and nonnative species) can influence whether a population can persist after repatriation.

The project also includes a time component: it will quantify temporal dynamics in abundance and habitat use at selected sites over two years of sampling. This matters because conditions in desert and semi-arid river systems can vary widely season to season and year to year, and fish may shift where they concentrate as flows, temperature, and habitat availability change. By revisiting sites and tracking changes over time, the project aims to move beyond a one-time snapshot and provide a more realistic picture of how these species use habitat under variable conditions.

Site selection is also meant to directly test repatriation outcomes. The notice specifies that sampling will include locations where loach minnow and spikedace have been extirpated as well as locations where they have been repatriated. Comparing these categories is intended to help evaluate how habitat characteristics and fish community structure relate to whether repatriated populations are sustainable. In other words, the study is designed to produce evidence that can distinguish between sites that look suitable on paper and sites that actually support stable populations over time.

Finally, the notice highlights coordination with an ongoing, range-wide genetic analysis. Population abundance estimates developed through this project will be paired with genetic metrics to examine relationships among habitat conditions, population size, and measures of population genetic structure. This linkage is important for conservation planning because it can help identify whether certain habitats are associated not just with more fish, but with healthier, more genetically robust populations, which in turn affects long-term adaptability and persistence. The combined outcome is intended to support more informed, defensible management decisions about where to prioritize habitat conservation, where repatriation has a higher likelihood of success, and how to allocate Program resources across the basin.

• The Department of the Interior, Bureau of Reclamation in the environment sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Notice of Intent to Award to Kansas State University" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 15.517.
• This funding opportunity was created on Aug 06, 2018.
• Applicants must submit their applications by Aug 21, 2018. (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 $122,944.00 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 BOR LC N010

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