Coordination and Outreach for the Southern Arizona Resilient Landscape Collaborative | P17AS00282

Opportunity Information: Apply for P17AS00282

The grant opportunity titled "Coordination and Outreach for the Southern Arizona Resilient Landscape Collaborative" (Funding Opportunity Number P17AS00282) is a Department of the Interior, National Park Service discretionary funding opportunity structured as a cooperative agreement. It focuses on education and natural resources work tied to CFDA 15.945, with the central purpose of strengthening landscape resilience in southern Arizona by addressing buffelgrass, a highly invasive species that threatens the Sonoran Desert's native ecosystems and increases fire risk in desert environments that are not adapted to frequent burns.

At the core of the project is the Arizona-Sonoran Desert Museum (ASDM), whose mission emphasizes helping people live in harmony with the natural world through a deeper understanding and appreciation of the Sonoran Desert. In this project, ASDM is positioned as the key organization to connect scientific and land-management efforts with public understanding and participation. The work is designed to support the goals of the Southern Arizona Resilient Landscapes Collaborative (SARLC), a multi-partner coalition working across jurisdictions and land ownership boundaries to improve coordinated buffelgrass management and broader desert resilience outcomes.

The scope of work centers on outreach, education, and coordination. ASDM is expected to lead public-facing education and outreach efforts that explain the threat posed by buffelgrass and encourage community involvement in prevention and control. A major emphasis is engaging private landowners, which is often essential in invasive species management because infestations can spread across property lines and undermine public-land control efforts if neighboring lands are not addressed. Alongside community engagement, ASDM will support Saguaro National Park by helping develop press releases and other communications products, as well as assisting with reports that document project progress and outcomes.

Another major component is project coordination across SARLC partners. Rather than focusing only on on-the-ground treatment, the agreement highlights the coordination role needed to track, compile, and report partner accomplishments. ASDM will work with Saguaro National Park to meet Department of the Interior Resilient Landscape reporting requirements, which typically involves consistent documentation of activities, outputs, and outcomes across agencies and partners. The opportunity also notes the potential for ASDM to coordinate future mapping and monitoring of buffelgrass populations with SARLC partners, signaling an interest in building shared situational awareness and data-driven prioritization over time, even if mapping and monitoring are not the only near-term deliverables.

The collaborative structure is explicitly broad and designed to remain open-ended: the agreement is intended to cover both current and future partners as long as they meet SARLC membership requirements. The listed current partners illustrate the cross-sector nature of the effort, including Saguaro National Park, the US Forest Service, US Fish and Wildlife Service, Bureau of Land Management, the Tohono Oodham Nation, Pima County, the US Geological Survey, Northern Arizona University, the University of Arizona (Tumamoc Hill), and the Arizona Native Plant Society. This mix reflects a landscape-scale approach where federal, tribal, local government, academic, and nonprofit entities coordinate around a shared invasive species threat.

In terms of applicant eligibility and award details, the opportunity is limited to nonprofits with 501(c)(3) status, excluding institutions of higher education. The anticipated funding profile is a single award with an award ceiling of $73,100 and an expected number of awards of 1. The opportunity was created on May 22, 2017, with an original closing date of May 31, 2017, indicating a short application window typical of some targeted cooperative agreements, especially when the intent is to support a specific coordination and outreach function tied to an existing collaborative partnership.

• The Department of the Interior, National Park Service in the education, natural resources sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Coordination and Outreach for the Southern Arizona Resilient Landscape Collaborative" 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 May 22, 2017.
• Applicants must submit their applications by May 31, 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 $73,100.00 in funding.
• The number of recipients for this funding is limited to 1 candidate(s).
• Eligible applicants include: Nonprofits having a 501(c)(3) status with the IRS, other than institutions of higher education.

Apply for P17AS00282

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