Cooperative Agreement for CESU-affiliated Partner with Rocky Mountain CESU Cooperative Ecosystem Studies Unit | G23AS00390

Opportunity Information: Apply for G23AS00390

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), through its Northern Rocky Mountain Science Center (NOROCK), is offering a discretionary financial assistance opportunity under a Cooperative Agreement to support research focused on threatened bull trout in two transboundary river systems shared by the United States and Canada: the St. Mary and Kootenai rivers. The central purpose of the award is to strengthen scientific understanding of how environmental conditions and other drivers influence bull trout populations, and to translate that understanding into practical tools that can guide conservation, recovery, and water management decisions across jurisdictions.

The project is framed around advancing knowledge of bull trout population dynamics by combining (and making better use of) existing population and environmental datasets. A major emphasis is on developing and applying integrated population models, which are designed to link biological monitoring information (such as abundance, survival, recruitment, and movement) with environmental variables (such as flow, temperature, habitat conditions, and other stressors). By integrating these data streams, the work aims to improve the ability to identify which factors most strongly affect bull trout outcomes and to forecast how populations may respond under changing environmental and water management scenarios. The end goal is decision support: producing analyses and modeling outputs that resource managers can use to proactively prioritize and implement actions that improve the species' status and resilience.

Collaboration is a core expectation of the opportunity. The work is intended to be conducted jointly by quantitative ecologists at a university partner and research ecologists at USGS NOROCK, with coordination and input from a range of management and governance partners. Those partners explicitly include state, federal, provincial, and tribal entities, reflecting the cross-border and multi-jurisdictional nature of the St. Mary and Kootenai systems. This cooperative structure is meant to ensure that the research remains aligned with real management questions and that resulting tools and findings can be readily incorporated into bull trout conservation planning and water resource decision-making in both countries.

This award is being issued through the Cooperative Ecosystem Studies Unit (CESU) Program, which is a network of partnerships created to provide research, technical assistance, and education support for public trust resource issues. Eligibility is limited to applicants that are active participants in the Rocky Mountain CESU. The funding opportunity is identified as G23AS00390 under CFDA (Assistance Listing) 15.808, administered by the Geological Survey. The opportunity was posted on 2023-06-05 with an original closing date of 2023-07-05, and it carries an award ceiling of $70,500.

• The Geological Survey in the science and technology and other research and development sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Cooperative Agreement for CESU-affiliated Partner with Rocky Mountain CESU Cooperative Ecosystem Studies Unit" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 15.808.
• This funding opportunity was created on 2023-06-05.
• Applicants must submit their applications by 2023-07-05. (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 $70,500.00 in funding.
• Eligible applicants include: Others.

Apply for G23AS00390

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