Post-treatment Assessment of Floodplain plant communities and Channel form | P19AS00253

Opportunity Information: Apply for P19AS00253

The grant opportunity titled "Post-treatment Assessment of Floodplain plant communities and Channel form" (Funding Opportunity Number P19AS00253) is a National Park Service cooperative agreement focused on understanding how past invasive plant removal efforts have affected both vegetation recovery and stream channel conditions in Canyon de Chelly National Monument (CACH). The overall purpose is practical and management-oriented: CACH needs an updated, evidence-based picture of how its floodplain plant communities and channel form are responding over time so the park can better protect native ecosystems, maintain and plan road-stream crossings, and balance resource stewardship with the needs of canyon residents. The long-term emphasis is preserving the canyon's cultural and ecological resources, which depend heavily on stable floodplain function and healthy, predominantly native riparian vegetation.

The project centers on four specific study sites (sites #3-6) where exotic plant removal treatments were established in 2005. The work relies on comparing earlier datasets collected from 2005 through 2008 with additional field data collected in 2019. By pairing the older baseline and post-treatment information with the newer measurements, the study is designed to evaluate longer-term outcomes of the removal work rather than just short-term results. In practice, this kind of design helps managers understand whether initial improvements held up, whether the system drifted back toward pre-treatment conditions, or whether new issues emerged over the last decade.

The opportunity lays out three main questions that guide the assessment. First, it asks how the stream channel itself has changed in the treated areas since 2008, specifically whether the channel has narrowed or widened and whether it has incised (cut downward) or aggraded (built up sediment). These channel-form changes matter because they influence floodplain connectivity, erosion risk, and habitat conditions; they also have direct implications for infrastructure like crossings and for managing flood-related impacts on nearby communities and cultural sites. Second, it asks how the vegetation in the treatment plots has changed over time, with particular attention to native plant cover. This focuses the evaluation on whether native plants are re-establishing and persisting, which is often one of the main goals of invasive species removal in riparian settings. Third, it examines whether key invasive woody species, especially tamarisk and Russian olive, have reinvaded areas where they were previously removed, and whether other exotic plants have moved into the treated areas. This reinvasion question is critical because removal projects can sometimes create open niches that are recolonized by the same invaders or replaced by different nonnative species, which can undermine the intended ecological benefits and increase long-term maintenance needs.

Administratively, this is a discretionary funding opportunity from the U.S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service, under the Natural Resources activity category (CFDA 15.944). The funding instrument is a cooperative agreement, which typically indicates substantial involvement by the federal agency in the project compared to a standard grant. Eligibility is limited to public and state-controlled institutions of higher education, reinforcing that the work is expected to be carried out by an academic partner with the capacity to analyze multi-year datasets and conduct field-based ecological and geomorphic assessment. The opportunity anticipated a single award, with an award ceiling of $29,760. It was posted on June 10, 2019, with an original closing date of June 19, 2019, reflecting a short application window and a targeted, site-specific project need.

In plain terms, the project is about checking the long-term scoreboard after invasive plant removal: what happened to the river channel, what happened to native vegetation, and did the invaders come back or get replaced by other exotics. The expected outcome is a clearer, data-backed understanding of whether the 2005 treatments produced lasting ecological benefits and what follow-up actions might be needed to better protect Canyon de Chelly's riparian corridors, infrastructure interfaces, and culturally significant landscapes.

• The Department of the Interior, National Park Service in the natural resources sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Post-treatment Assessment of Floodplain plant communities and Channel form" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 15.944.
• This funding opportunity was created on Jun 10, 2019.
• Applicants must submit their applications by Jun 19, 2019. (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 $29,760.00 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 P19AS00253

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