Cooperative Agreement for affiliated Partner with the Rocky Mountain Cooperative Ecosystem Studies Unit
The U.S. Geological Survey funds a Rocky Mountain Cooperative Ecosystem Studies Unit partner to develop science-based decision tools for managing western rangelands and alpine ecosystems.
Funder: Geological Survey
Due Dates: December 2, 2026 (Applications, 11:59 p.m. ET)
Funding Amounts: $1–$495,000 per award over three years; $495,000 total funding for one anticipated award
Summary: Supports co-produced research and spatial decision-support tools for natural resource management across western rangelands and alpine ecosystems.
Key Information: Applicants must be participating partners of the Rocky Mountain Cooperative Ecosystem Studies Unit.
Description
The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) offers this cooperative agreement to advance science developed jointly by researchers and natural resource managers across western rangelands and alpine ecosystems. The project will connect habitat conditions, ecological processes, wildlife responses, and management objectives through analytical frameworks and spatial tools that support conservation decisions.
Research should integrate ecological monitoring, vegetation change, invasive species, fire risk, habitat relationships, population processes, and landscape-scale environmental drivers. Potential work includes spatial prioritization maps, scenario evaluation models, climate-informed fire models, and demographic or distribution models for birds and ungulates. Tools should help partners compare management alternatives, assess ecological and economic trade-offs, identify priority conservation locations, and plan under changing conditions and uncertainty. Work will proceed in close collaboration with USGS scientists and management partners.
