BLM Utah Colorado Plateau Native Plant Program Partnership for Seed Collection, Seed Use Research, Demonstration Gardens, Outreach/Communications/Web Support and Meetings

Description

Background: The Colorado Plateau Native Plant Program (CPNPP; old webpage: http://www.blm.gov/ut/st/en/prog/more/CPNPP.html. New webpage (2017): TBD) is a multistakeholder partnership coordinated by the BLM. This regional program supports national policies and initiatives including the National Seed and Pollinator Protection Strategies, efforts to mitigate invasive species and wildland fire impacts, and efforts to adapt to global change impacts. The CPNPP works to support healthy landscapes and ecosystems with a focus on plant materials for restoration and reclamation on public lands, and to communicate information on those topics. Using a mix of research, development, practical application and communication, the CPNPP supports all aspects of native plant materials development and use including the following: wildland seed (and/or other propagules for vascular plants and soil organisms) collection, banking, selecting, testing, transfer zone development, increase, release to industry, research trials and effectiveness monitoring, as well as molecular and scenario modeling analyses. This Program is only possible with the participation of partners who can provide technical expertise and capacity above and beyond that of BLM staff, yet who work closely with the BLM and other agencies.Objectives: The Recipient/s of this cooperative agreement will provide assistance in pursuit of CPNPP Program goals: Goal 1: Native Seed Collection in Support of Evaluation and DevelopmentGoal 2: Evaluation and DevelopmentGoal 3: Field EstablishmentGoal 4: Seed Production by Private GrowersGoal 5: Seed StorageGoal 6: Restore Native Plant CommunitiesGoal 7: Monitor Restoration ActivitiesGoal 8: Communication with Partners and the PublicRecipient may propose projects that support any of these goals; award prioritization will be related to CPNPP needs. Topics of current interest include: creating and managing a new non-federal CPNPP website, increasing overall CPNPP activity with Native American Tribes; partnering on citizen science efforts, data management and administration including online applications and tools; information synthesis and communication; education and outreach; establishment of demonstration sites or gardens; scenario modeling to inform collection, development and increase priorities; economic analyses including that of biodiversity and other non-market values; field studies including common garden experiments; propagation and storage research, leadership/implementation of relevant citizen science efforts (extant or new), and work that supports pollinator conservation. CPNPP Partners are expected to function with transparency and fiscal accountability, demonstrate project quality assurance/ quality control and management plan/s, to participate in annual meetings as well as regular CPNPP conference calls, to cooperate with other CPNPP partners, and to be responsive to inquiries about progress or in support of outreach efforts. Partners sought will have similar/ overlapping interests and missions, and will intend to pursue projects of mutual interest over the long-term, e.g. five years or more, although future funding is not guaranteed. Initial awards will be for first-year funding of five-year assistance agreements, but proposals including five-years of activities and budget estimates are very welcome. Public Benefit: Public Benefit: This project will benefit the public by proactively improving and increasing the materials available to restore and reclaim public lands; by improving the scientific rigor of studies and information synthesized and used to inform strategic plant material development efforts, as well as the practical use and evaluation of those materials in reclamation and restoration; by recording and communicating the information used in and resulting from these efforts so as to educate and inform other practitioners, researchers, and stakeholders; by engaging youth and underrepresented groups in natural resources management; and by facilitating improved management of public natural resources, and thus the ecosystem services and ecological processes, upon which humans rely for survival.

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