GNLCC FY15 Funding Allocation
Recommended by GNLCC Advisory Team and Review Panel
BACKGROUND
The Great Northern LCC has $700,000 available for shared science and capacity. A Grants.gov announcement described in detail the funding
opportunity, categories for funding and process for selection. The announcement was open from January 13, 2015 to March 13, 2015 (60 days).
The GNLCC FY15 Funding Guidance is available at: http://greatnorthernlcc.org/sites/default/files/documents/gnlcc_fy15_funding_guidance.pdf
From March-April, proposals were screened for applicability to the GNLCC program according to general criteria and an inter-agency review panel
reviewed and ranked proposals according to specific relevance criteria (as described in the GNLCC FY15 Funding Guidance). In late April, the
GNLCC Advisory Team considered the panel rankings and discussed the proposals and GNLCC program goals and objectives over a series of
conference calls and emails. The following is the final recommendation to the GNLCC Steering Committee from the Advisory Committee.
Category A: Tribal Capacity (summaries at end of this document): AT recommends funding 5 proposals at $10K ea
Total = $50,000
Category B: Partner Forum Capacity (summaries at end of this document): AT recommends funding 4 proposals at $15K ea
Total = $60,000
Category C: Applying GNLCC Science to Management Outcomes
Total = $590,000
The Advisory Team (AT) considered the following to develop this recommendation:
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
independent scores of the Review Panel
requested dollar amounts of each proposal
existing and previous GNLCC funding investments
partnership building and collaborative opportunities
The AT is providing a preferred recommendation (Option 1) and two additional options for the SC to consider.
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Option 1 (AT preferred): The AT considers this the preferred option. This option recommends providing partial funding to the 10 highest scoring
proposals using a set cap and sliding scale. This supports using a breakpoint in scoring between proposals 10 and 11 as a natural cut off. This
Option includes capping all grants at $75K and partial funding for lower ranked proposals. Note: in all 3 options, the J. Gude proposal is
recommended at a substantially lower level ($45K) than requested ($360K) commensurate with providing a coordinator and developing the project
as a pre-proposal for FY16. Part of the rationale for recommending reduced funding levels (Options 1&2) is to emphasize the partnering aspect of
these projects in seeking other supporting partners and the ‘investment’ approach to shared science.
Option 2: This option uses an across-the-board 30% reduction of initial request in order to fund the top 10 proposals. There was a substantial
scoring breakpoint between proposals 10 and 11 providing a natural cut off. This approach would entail a proportionally equal impact on all
proposals and strong reliance on the review process (funding criteria – reviewers – final ranked list).
Option 3: In this option, the AT recommended strategic reductions based on funding portions of proposal deliverables. This approach tailors
reductions individually but allows for funding of only 8 projects (v. 10 projects for Options 1&2). Savings identified allowed for the addition of one
additional project (Connors) at partial level of funding. This option maintains budgets at their requested levels for targeted deliverables but
reaches less partners and geographies.
Category D: Strategic Science Pre-proposals for FY16:
Pre-Proposals were solicited with the expressed intention that a select few would be supported and development facilitated by GNLCC staff for
priority consideration in FY16. The Review Panel suggested the top 5 (Counihan, Gude, Muhlfeld, Yu, and Lawler) should be supported by GNLCC.
The AT recommends the AT develop a process for consideration of all 7 pre-proposals and a process for evaluating and selecting proposals for FY16.
This process may include consideration of proposals from the above list which may be of interest to GNLCC partners but which were not selected in
FY15.
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Recommendation Summary Tables
Category A: Tribal Capacity
PI
Treasure
Caplins
Title
The Confederated Tribes of
Warm Springs (CTWS) Climate
Change Readiness Program
Cross cultural capacity building:
Landscape conservation and
climate change adaptation with
the Blackfeet Nation
Rose
Yakama Nation participation in
landscape scale conservation
collaboration within the Great
Northern LCC and the Columbia
Basin
Vatland
Climate adaptation planning for
Nez Perce fisheries
Snow
Stoney Nakoda Nation Cultural
Awareness
Summary
Obtain funding to support attendance and travel to climate change related events and
trainings.
Recommendation
$10,000
The purpose of the proposed project is to increase the “cross cultural capacity” (Craig
et al. 2012:241) of indigenous and non-indigenous groups to collaborate on climate
adaptation in the Crown of the Continent (CoC) a sub-region of the GNLCC area. In
order to achieve this purpose, the objectives of this project are to conduct a pilot
study 1) to identify the necessary protocols for collaboration between the Blackfeet
Nation and government and non-government agencies active, and 2) to identify the
priorities of the Blackfeet Nation in climate change adaptation. The outcomes of this
project will include both written and presented material on the priorities of, and
protocols for working with the Blackfeet Nation, including a widely distributed public
brochure, local community presentations, and national academic paper and
presentations.
The Yakama Nation Department of Natural Resources is currently developing a
department-wide Climate Adaptation Plan (CAP). YN staff will be integrating
Traditional Ecological Knowledge with current science findings to better prepare their
natural resource programs to address future climate conditions. Funding through this
grant will facilitate sharing of key strategies between the CAP and the GNLCC
Conservation Framework.
Here, we propose to improve the capacity of the Nez Perce Tribe to address climate
change issues. This grant will facilitate Nez Perce involvement with the Great Northern
Landscape Conservation Cooperative process and, in doing so, aid in building the
foundation of resources and partnerships necessary to enact a successful, long-term
climate adaptation strategy for Nez Perce fisheries management. Specifically, this
grant will support participation in meetings, workshops, and training opportunities.
To provide First Nation cultural awareness of the Rocky Mountain and Eastern Slopes
areas, from a Stoney Nakoda perspective, to the Greater Northern Landscapes
Conservation Cooperative. We believe that this type of First Nation history of the
Rocky Mountain and Eastern Slopes areas, is important understanding historic
conservation practices, and cultural uses.
$10,000
3
$10,000
$10,000
$10,000
Category B: Partner Forum Capacity
PI / PF
Waste /
Columbia
Basin
Reuling /
Rocky
Mountain
Title
Facilitation and technical
support for the Columbia Basin
Partner Forum of the Great
Northern Landscape
Conservation Cooperative
Increasing the Capacity of the
GNLCC Rocky Mountain Partners
Forum
Heller /
Sage
Steppe
Positioning the Sage Steppe
Partner Forum as a pivotal
communication tool for
Sagebrush Biome conservation
implementation
Watkins /
Cascadia
Strategic conservation planning
for partner applications in
Cascadia.
Summary
The CBPF is requesting funding to enhance partner participation, collaboration, and
product development across the landscape at the intersection of the Columbia Basin
and the GNLCC region. GNLCC funds will provide administrative and technical support
services, as well as travel support for key partners who would otherwise not
participate.
The CBPF is requesting funding to enhance partner participation, collaboration, and
product development across the landscape at the intersection of the Columbia Basin
and the GNLCC region. GNLCC funds will provide administrative and technical support
services, as well as travel support for key partners who would otherwise not
participate.
The Sage Steppe Partner Forum (SSPF) is requesting funding for technical support
services to upgrade and enhance the Sage Steppe Partner Forum wiki and engage
partners in coordinated sage-steppe conservation planning and implementation. SSPF
will enhance communication resources to better serve biome-wide coordinated
conservation implementation as four LCCs and partners initiate the Sagebrush
Conservation Science Network.
The Cascadia Partner Forum requests funding to track and foster implementation and
update to conservation design for four Great Northern Landscape Conservation
Cooperative (GNLCC) conservation targets underway towards completion currently
while initiating conservation design on two new conservation targets (Canada lynx and
bull trout) to contribute to Cascadia-wide climate adaptation strategies and provide
input and integration to the courser scale GNLCC-wide Science Plan’s established
objectives, threats, metrics, and conservation actions for each target. Additionally we
propose to continue our work to create a transboundary network of practitioners
coordinating to increase the adaptive capacity of the ecosystems and species of
Cascadia, while facilitating a Cascadia-wide discussion and identification of spatial
priority landscapes that contribute to our resilient landscape vision.
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Recommendation
$15,000
$15,000
$15,000
$15,000
Category C: Strategic Science - Land Management and/or Science to Action
PI
Title
Summary
Young (USFS)
A rapid range-wide
assessment of bull trout
distributions: a crowdsourced, eDNA-based
approach with
application to many
aquatic species
Tabor
(Center for
Large
Landscape
Cons; Shared
Landscape
Outcomes)
Whitfield
(Heart of the
Rockies
Initiative)
Conserving an Intact and
Connected GNLCC
Landscape
The bull trout is an ESA-listed species that relies on cold stream environments across the
Northwest and is expected to decline with climate change. Resource managers are charged with
maintaining bull trout across their range, but monitoring this species is difficult and many
populations have rarely or never been sampled. To reduce this uncertainty (and regulatory
gridlock), we propose to coordinate a crowd-sourced field assessment of the distribution of bull
trout in the U.S. by using inexpensive, reliable environmental DNA (eDNA) sampling. Samples
collected by this multi-partner effort can be used to evaluate many other species (e.g., a
biodiversity assessment) with no additional field costs and can serve as a multi-species baseline
for future assessments.
In May 2014, the GNLCC Steering Committee approved a pilot project to coordinate sciencebased management across the GNLCC on the connectivity goal. In this second year, we propose to
(1) expand the information in the atlas (to refine existing information, and incorporate avian
connectivity, aquatic connectivity, ecosystem processes, and climate change); (2) conduct
regional workshops to refine the connectivity implementation strategy and explore actions for
climate change adaptation; and (3) follow up on actions identified at the April 2015 managers
workshop and approved by the GNLCC Steering Committee.
Moskal (U of
WA)
Mapping wetland
hydrology across an
ecoregion and
developing climate
adaptation
recommendations
Wolverine
metapopulation
monitoring and
connectivity in the U.S.
Rocky Mountains and
North Cascades
Gude (State of
MT; WAFWA)
Al-Chokhachy
(USGS)
Landscape Conservation
Design in the High
Divide. An Analysis of
Future Landscape
Scenarios and Their
Viability--Phase 1
Directing conservation
and restoration
priorities in the
Yellowstone Cutthroat
Trout Prioritization
Framework
Request
138,000
Option 1
75,000
Option 2
Option 3
96,600
$131,000
90,850
75,000
63,600
$82,850
The Heart of the Rockies Initiative (HOTR), on behalf of its High Divide Collaborative partners,
seeks support to identify and evaluate future landscape configurations that address the needs of
local communities while conserving the High Divide’s unique landscape resources. In this
landscape we emphasize wildlife connectivity between large protected core areas: Yellowstone,
the Crown, and central Idaho (See attached map). This project builds on our prior GNLCC-funded
project to deliver the latest science in connectivity and climate response and earlier stakeholder
identification of lands of high conservation value (HOTR 2010). This project takes the next step by
coupling socio-economic data and trends with conservation modeling in a holistic landscape
conservation design process.
The intent of this project is to fill critical information gaps in support of wetland conservation
efforts in the CP ecoregion under a changing climate. First, we will provide consistent, wall-to-wall
data on wetland location, historical hydrologic dynamics, and projected climate change impacts
on hydrologic dynamics. Secondly, we will work with managers in using these data to develop
recommendations for climate-smart conservation of wetlands across the CP.
82,000
75,000
57,400
$75,000
88,834
75,000
62,140
$73,834
This project is intended to advance wolverine conservation across the Rocky Mountains and
North Cascades in the contiguous United States. It will include maintaining landscape connectivity
among occupied wolverine habitats, assessing the feasibility to assist wolverine distribution
expansion with translocation, developing and implementing a collaborative multi-state
monitoring plan to assess distribution and genetic characteristics of the metapopulation, and
engaging key partners at multiple levels to prioritize habitat conservation, population
connectivity, and management activities.
As part of an ongoing collaborative conservation strategy funded by the GNLCC, we have worked
with the Yellowstone Cutthroat Trout Work Group to develop a comprehensive framework for
prioritizing conservation of populations of Yellowstone cutthroat trout (YCT). Through this effort,
managers have specifically identified potential actions that could be taken to secure and expand
populations, particularly in anticipation of climate change. Currently, there remains a paucity of
empirical analyses supporting the effectiveness and/or needs of conservation actions, particularly
regarding the relative threats to existing extant YCT populations. Here we look to use existing
360,250
45,000
45,000
$45,000
25,551
25,551
17,750
$25,551
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Sexton (U of
Montana;
Crown
Managers
Partnership)
Applying GNLCC Science
to Coordinated Climate
Change Adaptation for a
Suite of Conservation
Targets Across the CCE
Connors
(Pacific
Salmon
Foundation,
BC; USFS)
Towards developing an
interagency stream
temperature database
and model for BC and
northern half of GNLCC
Schwend
(State of
Montana DNR;
EPA/CEQ
project)
Building Large Scale
Drought Resiliency in
the Missouri
Headwaters Basin
Ireland
(Montana
State U.)
Evaluating management
alternatives to mitigate
the adverse effects of
climate change on
whitebark pine
ecosystems in the
Greater Yellowstone
Ecosystem
long-term datasets from two distinct regions within the historical range of YCT to demonstrate
the potential risks and benefits of conservation actions and, conversely, inactions (e.g., not
addressing non-native species) in the context of climate change. Integrating these results will
assist in prioritizing actual threats and perceived benefits and risks from addressing such threats.
We are proposing to coordinate and implement separate jurisdictional actions that align to
contribute to landscape-scale out-comes. Our Climate Change Adaptation Targets include native
salmonids, aquatic invasive species (AIS), terrestrial invasive weeds and whitebark pine.
The CMP is using GNLCC-supported science and Rocky Mountain Partner Forum (RMPF) decisionsupport tools to identify and prioritize climate change adaptation strategies and tactics related to
our conservation targets, to coordinate implementation of these strategies at a landscape scale,
and to foster collaborative learning and adaptive management. Specifically, in the coming year,
we will pilot Crown-wide projects to: (i) Reduce vulnerability and increase resilience for bull trout
and westslope cutthroat trout; (ii) Address AIS and terrestrial invasive weeds through collective
prioritization of targeted management areas and invasive-free areas; and (iii) Initiate coordinated
action for whitebark pine protection and restoration, incorporating GNLCC science. This project
builds on the CMP’s foundational database in which a shared template, shared science and
synthesized baseline data support projects within and across jurisdictions.
Stream temperature data will be compiled from federal and provincial government agencies, as
well as other data holders in British Columbia which will be housed in an interagency database.
Spatial statistical models for river networks like those used for NorWeST will be used with these
data to develop a consistent set of high-resolution predictions for all streams and reaches within
streams for a pilot area within the Cascadia ecotypic area of the GNLCC (i.e., middle Fraser River
and Okanagan River basins). The pilot area work would entail development of technical protocols
so that future efforts could be scaled broadly across BC and the northern half of the GNLCC to
ultimately provide a consistent set of international stream temperature scenarios for planning
and vulnerability assessments for aquatic species.
The White House Council for Environmental Quality has identified two national watersheds to
pilot large-scale drought resiliency implementation. The Missouri Headwaters Basin within the
GNLCC region and High Divide landscape is one of these national demonstration areas, and the
GNLCC can advance its collective mission with this opportunity. By delivering science to
management and building a learning network among watershed groups, this project will align the
large-scale watershed management efforts of the GNLCC with the National Drought Resiliency
Program (NDRP) and the Montana Department of Natural Resources (DNRC) to build drought
resilience into this important northern Rocky Mountain landscape.
Existing climate change science and guidance for restoring and maintaining whitebark pine forests
will be evaluated using landscape simulation modeling to inform implementation of the Greater
Yellowstone Coordinating Committee (GYCC) Whitebark Pine (WBP) subcommittee’s “WBP
Strategy”. We will design a “no constraints” management scenario based on the GYCC WBP
Strategy and 2015 publication Restoring whitebark pine ecosystems in the face of climate change
and incorporating the latest projections of future climate suitability for WBP and other landscape
stressors (mountain pine beetles, competing species, wildland fire). We will use the landscape
simulation model FireBGCv2 to simulate interactions of future climate, mountain pine beetles,
and wildland fire on whitebark pine dynamics under no active management, the GYCC WBP
Strategy, and the “no constraints” management strategy. The results of the simulation modeling
will be used to evaluate how well these management alternatives will maintain resilient
whitebark pine ecosystems into the future.
TOTAL
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88,000
75,000
61,500
$78,000
121,500
48,150
85,000
$78,765
100,000
48,150
70,000
0
69,962
48,150
31,000
0
1,164,947
590,000
590,002
590,000
Category D: Strategic Science Pre-proposals:
PI
Counihan
Title
Developing an Integrated Monitoring
Framework for the Columbia River Basin
portion of the Great Northern LCC
Gude
Wolverine metapopulation monitoring
and connectivity in the U.S. Rocky
Mountains and North Cascades
Muhlfeld
Conserving Native Trout across the Rocky
Mountains of the Great Northern LCC:
Linking Science and Management
Yu
Culture and Ecosystems Science Planning
Support for the Great Northern Landscape
Summary
In order for the GNLCC’s landscape conservation goals to be met, managers must be able
to measure the effects of their actions and adapt accordingly. To address this need, we
will develop an integrated monitoring framework for the Columbia River Basin (CRB)
portion of the GNLCC. Our objectives are to develop guidance for how to establish
baseline conditions, develop a framework for assessing the status and trends of natural
and socioeconomic resources affected by climate change, invasive species, contaminants,
and land use management, and how to assess the action effectiveness of conservation
actions intended to mitigate landscape scale stressors and achieve landscape scale
conservation objectives The objective and tasks described in this pre-proposal will be
further developed and refined for the remainder of the current Fiscal Year, and will build
upon the capacity building efforts by the Columbia Basin Partner Forum (CBPF) of the
GNLCC.
This project is intended to advance wolverine conservation across the Rocky Mountains
and North Cascades in the contiguous United States. It will include maintaining landscape
connectivity among occupied wolverine habitats, assessing the feasibility to assist
wolverine distribution expansion with translocation, developing and implementing a
collaborative multi-state monitoring plan to assess distribution and genetic characteristics
of the metapopulation, and engaging key partners at multiple levels to prioritize habitat
conservation, population connectivity, and management activities. This project covers
much of the Great Northern LCC (GNLCC) area within the United States and directly
addresses many of the priorities outlined in the GNLCC Strategic Conservation Framework
(including terrestrial connectivity and all of the target Habitats and Ecosystems in the
Rocky Mountain and Sage-steppe ecotypes, and focuses on wolverines, which are a target
species) as well as the entire proposed process for directly addressing specific priority
GNLCC Conservation Targets outlined in the GNLCC 2015-2019 Science Plan.
Human impacts are radically altering freshwater ecosystems supporting native trout in the
Rocky Mountains, but our ability to accurately predict the future status of native trout is
limited. A unified spatiotemporal analysis of fish population data – an analysis based on
observed patterns over time – would dramatically improve understanding of how trout
interact with human-induced stressors. We propose to capitalize on existing fish
population data collected by various management agencies (all of whom fully support this
effort) and new high resolution climate data across the Rocky Mountains of the Great
Northern LCC to: 1) use empirical fisheries data coupled with fine-scale climate data to
identify mechanisms linking native trout (bull trout and cutthroat trout) to a variety of
human-stressors (invasive species, climatic change, and habitat loss); 2) improve
forecasting models using empirical relationships based on observed patterns through
time; and 3) integrate these efforts to develop and implement consistent and
comprehensive vulnerability assessments and risk analyses that will help managers
prioritize actions within and between regions.
The proposed project is the completion of the GNLCC Cultural Goal, and development of a
Culture and Ecosystems Science Plan for the GNLCC. It is organized in two phases: 1) Pre-
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Conservation Cooperative’s (GNLCC)
Strategic Science Program
Lawler
Climate Refugia: Comparing, Evaluating,
Connecting, and Prioritizing Potential Sites
Identified with Four Analytical Approaches
Ray
An evaluation of climate adaptation tools
to maintain wetland function and diversity
Mahalovich
Whitebark pine ecophysiology and
adaptive capacity across the US Northern
Rockies: Implications for resilience and
restoration
proposal, submitted here; and 2) Full Performance upon GNLCC approval of full proposal.
The project will advance two missions of the GNLCC Conservation Framework:
1. Support Science Development, by identifying and facilitating the development,
integration, and application of social and natural scientific information needed to inform
conservation actions and sustainable resource management decisions to conserve water,
land, fish, wildlife, and cultural heritage; and
2. Effect Coordination, by supporting coordination and integration of conservation science
and actions across ecosystems at the landscape scale, leveraging the capabilities of
respective agencies/organizations/partnerships. The proposed project will be highly
effective in developing a clear strategy with measurable outcomes for conserving
landscape scale human dimensions and cultural relationships and the natural systems
upon which they depend. The success of this approach depends on close collaboration
with best available expertise in tribal, public, and academic sectors.
We will use four complementary approaches to map potential climate refugia across the
GNLCC region. We will then integrate, evaluate, compare, assess the connectivity of, and
prioritize the modeled refugia. Our products will address multiple GNLCC conservation
targets (including ecosystems from the alpine to sagebrush steppe and grassland and the
majority of the GNLCC terrestrial species targets) as well as the needs of multiple
agencies’ management plans by identifying critical areas for safeguarding habitat and
maintaining landscape connectivity and process integrity in a changing climate.
We propose to evaluate the importance of wetlands to biodiversity in the Greater
Yellowstone Area, the Crown of the Continent, and Montana’s Big Hole Valley and to
determine whether beaver ponds expand the contribution of wetlands to regional
biodiversity and increase their resiliency to climate change. Evaluations will be based on
existing NPS and USGS data on wetland area and species richness, new data from novel
genetic tools that describe wetland associated biodiversity, and partnerships with land
managers who are installing beaver mimicry structures to restore impaired waters. Finally,
we will use down-scaled climate models and water balance models to project how climate
change is likely to affect wetlands in this region, and to test the efficacy of beaver and
beaver mimicry structures to provide low-cost, achievable climate adaptation strategies
for wetland-dependent species. (Pre-proposal)
This project will focus on the genetic and spatial analysis of 10 years of blister rust
resistance, cold hardiness, and drought tolerance (∆13C) data, and δ13C, δ15N, δ34S
stable isotopes for upwards of 600 whitebark pine (Pinus albicaulis Engelm.) plus trees
(healthy, cone-bearing individuals exhibiting phenotypic resistance to blister rust) and
their seedling progeny, with a goal to identify the key geo-climatic and edaphic factors
driving the spatial heterogeneity. We will synthesize our results into Geographic
Information System (GIS) map layers, a seed transfer zone map and submit our findings to
peer-reviewed journals. Development of these predictive models and spatially
representing the adaptive capacity of whitebark pine will better inform land managers
and wildlife biologists where whitebark pine has a higher likelihood of persisting under
warmer, drier climates; as well as providing information to the US Fish and Wildlife Service
during their status review.
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