BLM-AK, Monitoring Movements and Distribution of the Teshekpuk Caribou Herd | L17AS00023

Opportunity Information: Apply for L17AS00023

The grant opportunity titled "BLM-AK, Monitoring Movements and Distribution of the Teshekpuk Caribou Herd" is a Bureau of Land Management (BLM) effort to support ongoing monitoring and research on the Teshekpuk caribou herd (TCH) on Alaska's North Slope. The herd calves and spends the summer in the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska (NPRA), a large area managed by BLM that also contains significant oil and gas resources. The core problem driving this opportunity is that the TCH is in a steep population decline, and because this herd is a primary subsistence resource for communities within and near the NPRA, the decline is expected to create serious social and economic hardship for local residents who rely on caribou for food and cultural continuity.

The main purpose of the project is to keep BLM's understanding of the herd's movements, habitat use, and population status current enough to support responsible land and resource management. In practice, that means collecting data that helps managers reduce or avoid harmful impacts to the herd that could result from oil and gas activities, associated infrastructure, aircraft use, and other human disturbances on the North Slope. The opportunity emphasizes that management decisions need to be informed by up-to-date information about where the herd goes at different times of year, how distribution patterns change, and how those patterns overlap with areas of current or potential development.

A central priority is improving the ability to estimate herd abundance, track population trajectory over time, and calculate harvestable surplus. These are not just academic metrics; they directly affect decisions about conservation measures and the sustainability of subsistence harvest. To do this well, the opportunity stresses the need for a statistically robust sample of collared animals so that demographic rates and movement patterns can be monitored with confidence rather than inferred from small or biased samples.

The monitoring strategy described is built around a long-term collaring program that starts with young caribou fitted with VHF collars, then replaces those collars when animals reach roughly 3 to 4 years of age, which is when most individuals in this herd begin to reproduce. This approach creates a known-age sample that can be followed from approximately 12 months of age (and in some cases from just a few days old) through the remainder of life. With that known-age structure, researchers can estimate age-specific fecundity, recruitment, and mortality more accurately than would be possible with opportunistic observations alone. In other words, the collaring program is designed to produce population vital-rate information that can explain not only that the herd is declining, but also why it is declining (for example, reduced calf survival, increased adult mortality, lower pregnancy rates, or a combination of factors).

The opportunity also highlights the added value of satellite collars compared to VHF-only monitoring. Satellite collars can provide frequent, precise location data, which makes it possible to quickly identify when and where an animal dies. That near-real-time mortality signal improves the ability to investigate causes of death (such as predation, disease, starvation, or human-related factors) before evidence is lost to time and scavenging. It also helps agencies use expensive flight time more efficiently by directing aerial efforts to the most informative places and times, including focal animal sampling and key surveys such as parturition (calving), composition counts, and recruitment assessments. Another important point is sexual segregation: during much of the year, bulls and cows may use different areas, so having a substantial sample of satellite-collared bulls can improve understanding of overall herd distribution and demographics when male and female groups are not strongly overlapping.

Finally, the opportunity notes that a large satellite-collared sample is important for monitoring herd mixing. On the North Slope, multiple caribou herds can overlap in space and time, which complicates efforts to estimate how much harvest comes from each herd. By tracking movements and overlap among herds, managers can better estimate herd-specific harvest during periods and in areas where hunters may encounter animals from more than one herd, improving the accuracy of harvest accounting and the fairness and effectiveness of any management responses.

Administratively, this is a discretionary funding opportunity offered by the U.S. Department of the Interior, Bureau of Land Management, using a cooperative agreement as the funding instrument, and categorized under natural resources (CFDA 15.231). Eligibility is listed as unrestricted, meaning a wide range of entity types may apply as allowed by the opportunity's terms. The opportunity number is L17AS00023. It was created on January 30, 2017, had an original closing date of March 3, 2017, and anticipated a single award with a ceiling of $500,000.

• The Department of the Interior, Bureau of Land Management in the natural resources sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "BLM-AK, Monitoring Movements and Distribution of the Teshekpuk Caribou Herd" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 15.231.
• This funding opportunity was created on Jan 30, 2017.
• Applicants must submit their applications by Mar 03, 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 $500,000.00 in funding.
• The number of recipients for this funding is limited to 1 candidate(s).
• Eligible applicants include: Unrestricted (i.e., open to any type of entity above), subject to any clarification in text field entitled Additional Information on Eligibility.

Apply for L17AS00023

[Watch] Creating a grant proposal using the step-by-step wizard inside the applicant portal: