Cooperative Agreement L24AC00406

This $300,000 award from the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) under the Agriculture and Food Research Initiative (CFDA 10.310) will fund the development and field testing of elite poplar tree varieties with reduced lignin content for more sustainable and efficient wood fiber production. The project aims to establish a short-rotation agroforestry system utilizing these genetically engineered poplar trees with enhanced traits for increased pulp yield and reduced carbon...

This Project Grant award from the National Science Foundation's Division of Environmental Biology (CFDA 47.074) provides $336,155 to Northern Arizona University to assemble a high-quality genome sequence for the pinyon pine (Pinus edulis) and analyze how its genome structure affects gene expression across environmental and genetic gradients. The three-year project will train the lead researcher in advanced genomic methods and leverage a collaboration with the University of Connecticut to...

American Forests will provide $250,000 in climate-smart reforestation services to Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks under a four-year cooperative agreement from the National Park Service's Natural Resource Stewardship program. Key activities include meeting with indigenous stewards to develop reforestation goals, evaluating assisted adaptation strategies, collecting tree cones, growing seedlings, planning post-fire recovery, and stakeholder engagement. American Forests will work with...

The University of California Santa Cruz (UCSC) has been awarded a $716,186 project grant from the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) under the Agriculture and Food Research Initiative (AFRI) program. The grant supports research to investigate the impacts of climate change on California's oak rangelands, with a focus on the drought tolerance and genetic adaptations of the blue oak species. The proposed research will evaluate the potential for "assisted gene flow" -...

This $245,350 Cooperative Agreement award from the U.S. Geological Survey's National and Regional Climate Adaptation Science Centers (CFDA 15.820) program aims to study the effectiveness of using soil and microbial inoculants to improve the growth and survival of giant sequoia seedlings planted in severely burned groves in national parks and forests. The project has three key objectives: 1) Identify how wildfire alters soil conditions and microbial communities in sequoia groves, 2) Coordinate...

The North Carolina State University was awarded an $811,641 Project Grant from the United States Department of Agriculture National Institute of Food and Agriculture under the Agriculture and Food Research Initiative competitive grants program. The grant will fund research and education activities to develop poplar as a flexible feedstock for lands in North Carolina's mountains previously used for Fraser fir production but now impacted by Phytophthora root rot disease. Key activities include...

This Project Grant award from the National Science Foundation (CFDA 47.084 - NSF Technology, Innovation, and Partnerships) provides $274,990 to Trees ROI LLC to develop a 3-dimensional, non-destructive ground penetrating radar (GPR) computed tomography (CT) system with software analytics to assess the quality of container-grown root systems in nursery stock trees. The goal is to modernize industry inspection methods to improve the quality, value, and lifespan of nursery trees, promoting...

This Cooperative Agreement from the U.S. Department of the Interior Fish and Wildlife Service, under the Endangered Species Recovery Implementation program (CFDA 15.657), provides $100,000 to the Whitebark Pine Ecosystem Foundation to complete the development of genomic-based technology to increase the speed and efficiency of selecting white pine blister rust resistant and climate adapted whitebark pine seed sources for conservation and restoration efforts across its natural range in the U.S....

This Cooperative Agreement award, provided by the Department of the Interior National Park Service under the Cooperative Research and Training Programs - Resources of the National Park System (CFDA 15.945) program, supports a comprehensive network of cooperative study units to facilitate cooperative research, technical assistance, education, and training on science-based management of the National Park System. The $100,000 award to the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) aims to...

The Department of Agriculture's National Institute of Food and Agriculture awarded Oregon State University $649,333 under the Agriculture and Food Research Initiative competitive grants program (CFDA 10.310) from June 2023 through May 2026. The Project Grant funding will support research to develop robust and computationally efficient methods for calibrating process-based, individual tree growth models using high resolution remote sensing data. Specifically, the university will establish...