Great Lakes Barrier Assessment | F18AS00164

Opportunity Information: Apply for F18AS00164

The Great Lakes Barrier Assessment grant (Funding Opportunity Number F18AS00164) is a discretionary grant offered by the U.S. Department of the Interior, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS), Midwest Region. The project focuses on collecting consistent, on-the-ground information about aquatic barriers (especially dams) and how those structures affect fish movement in tributaries connected to the Lake Huron, Lake Erie, and Lake Ontario watersheds. The bigger picture goal is to finish building a basin-wide, standardized understanding of barriers across the entire Great Lakes system, complementing work that was already underway or completed in the Lake Michigan and Lake Superior watersheds by fall 2018.

At its core, the opportunity is about field assessments that produce practical, decision-ready data. The information gathered will be added to an existing barrier database that USFWS and partners are already using. That database is meant to support better estimates of dam and barrier removal costs, help calculate cumulative fish passability throughout watersheds (in other words, how a series of barriers adds up to limit movement across a whole river network), and identify infrastructure maintenance issues that could become safety, budget, or operational problems over time. USFWS is tying this work directly to Department of the Interior priorities, specifically modernizing infrastructure (DOI priority 8) and rebuilding trust and cooperation among agencies, partners, landowners, and other affected stakeholders where dams may need repair or removal (DOI priority 3). The emphasis is not only ecological restoration, but also creating shared, credible information that can make future conversations about dam management more transparent and less contentious.

A key requirement is that any proposed assessment method must be compatible with previous Great Lakes barrier assessment efforts so the results can be merged seamlessly into the existing database. The University of Wisconsin-Madison, working with USFWS, the Great Lakes Fishery Commission (GLFC), and other partners, developed a field barrier assessment protocol that sets the standard for what should be recorded. That protocol includes documenting infrastructure condition, barrier dimensions such as height and width, the presence and type of fish passage technologies (for example, fish ladders or other passage features), taking photographs of barriers, and capturing accurate GPS coordinates. Applicants are expected to use this protocol or a very similar one, but the minimum expectation is that the data collected must at least match the existing protocol fields so the final dataset remains consistent across the basin.

The funding is offered as a grant under CFDA 15.670, within the Natural Resources activity category. The opportunity listed an award ceiling of $150,000, with an expectation of making 2 awards. Eligible applicants are broad and include state, county, and city or township governments; federally recognized Native American tribal governments; public and state-controlled institutions of higher education; private institutions of higher education; and nonprofit organizations both with and without 501(c)(3) status (as long as they are not institutions of higher education in the nonprofit category listing). The notice was created June 5, 2018, with an original application closing date of August 3, 2018.

In practical terms, a competitive proposal would center on a clear plan to visit and evaluate targeted dam and barrier sites in the specified Great Lakes tributary watersheds, use standardized field methods aligned with the UW-Madison protocol, produce complete georeferenced documentation (measurements, condition ratings, photos, fish passage details), and deliver a clean dataset that can be integrated into the established Great Lakes barrier database. The value of the work is in making barrier information comparable across multiple watersheds and jurisdictions, so agencies and partners can prioritize removals or repairs, estimate costs more accurately, understand where fish passage restoration will have the most impact, and manage aging infrastructure with fewer surprises.

• The Department of the Interior, Fish and Wildlife Service in the natural resources sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Great Lakes Barrier Assessment" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 15.670.
• This funding opportunity was created on Jun 05, 2018.
• Applicants must submit their applications by Aug 03, 2018. (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 $150,000.00 in funding.
• The number of recipients for this funding is limited to 2 candidate(s).
• Eligible applicants include: State governments, County governments, City or township governments, Public and State controlled institutions of higher education, Native American tribal governments (Federally recognized), Nonprofits having a 501(c)(3) status with the IRS, other than institutions of higher education, Nonprofits that do not have a 501(c)(3) status with the IRS, other than institutions of higher education, Private institutions of higher education.

Apply for F18AS00164

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