Cooperative Ecosystem Studies Unit, Great Lakes Northern Forests CESU | G17AS00080

Opportunity Information: Apply for G17AS00080

The Cooperative Ecosystem Studies Unit (CESU) Great Lakes Northern Forests opportunity (Funding Opportunity Number G17AS00080) is a U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) discretionary funding call, issued through the Department of the Interior, to support a single cooperative research project focused on monarch butterfly conservation. The award is structured as a cooperative agreement, indicating that USGS expects to be actively involved in the project rather than serving only as a pass-through funder. The program area is categorized under Science and Technology and other Research and Development (CFDA 15.808), with eligibility limited to CESU partners (listed as "Others" with further clarification in the full eligibility text of the notice). The opportunity was created on June 21, 2017, had an original closing date of July 7, 2017, anticipated one award, and set a maximum funding level (award ceiling) of $166,977.

The core purpose of the project is to generate empirical, field-based evidence about how monarch butterflies use habitat across both patch and landscape scales, and how those spatial features affect key biological outcomes. The funding notice emphasizes that monarch conservation is happening in a resource-limited environment where actions need to be prioritized, coordinated, and strategically placed, especially because restoration inputs such as native seed for monarch habitat can be scarce. The project is intended to help decision-makers move beyond broad targeting guidance and toward more precise, evidence-driven placement of restoration efforts by determining which landscape configurations most effectively support monarchs.

A central motivation for the research is that, while the Monarch Conservation Science Partnership has already identified priority regions and land-cover types for conservation, important practical questions remain unanswered. Specifically, the opportunity calls out several landscape ecology factors that are suspected to shape monarch success but are not well understood: habitat connectivity between patches, patch size, edge effects (conditions and risks at habitat boundaries), and the influence of surrounding land-cover categories. The research is expected to clarify how these variables affect the monarchs ability to locate suitable habitat patches, whether monarchs choose to stay within a patch once found, and how well eggs and larvae survive within different patch and landscape contexts.

The notice also highlights that prior attempts to address these issues have relied heavily on movement models that had limited grounding in real-world observational or experimental data. This project is positioned as a way to strengthen the scientific foundation for conservation planning by collecting empirical data that can validate, refine, or challenge earlier model-based assumptions. In practical terms, the study is meant to translate into better restoration targeting: not just restoring habitat in the right general region, but restoring the right habitat in the right spatial arrangement to maximize the odds that monarchs will find it, use it, and successfully reproduce.

Geographically, the work is planned for the St. Croix Wetland Management District (WMD), which is presented as a strategic location because it can leverage ongoing habitat restoration led by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS). By building research around active restoration sites, the project can integrate with management actions already underway, potentially improving both the efficiency and the immediate applicability of the findings. Although the study is situated in the St. Croix WMD, the opportunity states that results should be broadly relevant to the Upper Midwestern region, an area characterized as important to the overall monarch population and therefore a high-value setting for applied conservation research.

In summary, this grant opportunity funds one CESU-partner research effort to fill key knowledge gaps linking monarch biology to habitat patch design and landscape composition. The deliverable value is largely decision-oriented: producing data that can guide where and how to restore monarch habitat when time, funding, and seed supplies are limited, and ensuring conservation investments are targeted to landscape configurations most likely to improve monarch habitat use and survival.

• The Department of the Interior, Geological Survey in the science and technology and other research and development sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Cooperative Ecosystem Studies Unit, Great Lakes Northern Forests CESU" 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 Jun 21, 2017.
• Applicants must submit their applications by Jul 07, 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 $166,977.00 in funding.
• The number of recipients for this funding is limited to 1 candidate(s).
• Eligible applicants include: Others (see text field entitled Additional Information on Eligibility for clarification).

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