NOI-posted.pdf

BOR-DO-19-N019 Notice of Intent to Award Template (03/2019)

NOTICE OF INTENT TO AWARD

This notice is not a request for applications. This provides public notice of the Bureau of Reclamation’s intention to fund the following project activities without full and open competition.

OPPORTUNITY

NUMBER

BOR-DO-19-N019

PROJECT TITLE Research Support for Science Communications and Water Resource Management Toolbox

RECIPIENT Arizona Board of Regents, University of Arizona

ANTICIPATED

FEDERAL AMOUNT

$575,000

STATUTORY

AUTHORITY

Public Law 111-11, Section 9509, Research Agreement Authority The Secretary may enter into contracts, grants, and cooperative agreements, for periods not to exceed 5 years, to carry out research within the Bureau of Reclamation.

CFDA NUMBER 15.560

RECLAMATION

POINT OF CONTACT

Matthew Reichert

SUMMARY OF

PROJECT

ACTIVITIES

Under this Cooperative Agreement, the Collaborative Conservation and Adaptation Strategy Toolkit (CCAST) will be developed by the University of Arizona. The intent of the proposed project is to further develop the CCAST helps build internal and external capacity needed by Reclamation and stakeholders by sharing information, tools, and technologies that can be readily applied and used by water managers and increasing the capacity to delivery and communicate science and tools across ongoing planning and operations activities. In addition, CCAST can be used to identify and develop appropriate adaptation and mitigation strategies.

Researchers at the University of Arizona – Tucson will focus on the following tasks:

• Deliver scientific information on proven and implemented methods and applied science tools for natural resource management so that managers can learn from one another and build on previous successes, as well as avoid possible future pitfalls.

• Build content contributed and driven by managers and applied science users on managing water operations, restoration activities, responding to complex environmental requirements, and planning for extreme events such as droughts and floods.

• Promote awareness and use of tools, methods and information used in different aspects of water management, i.e., watershed restoration and reservoir operations.

• Share methodologies from efforts to develop data standards, platforms and tools that work well for managers.

BOR-DO-19-N019 Notice of Intent to Award Template (03/2019)

• Communicate lessons learned from stakeholders establishing cooperative watershed groups, including examples of good governance and collaboration.

• Promote transparency and communication with stakeholders by focusing on outcomes and lessons learned from projects funded by Reclamation.

• Enhance communication and deliver information and tools across Reclamation and with stakeholders.

SELECTION

JUSTIFICATION

Reclamation did not solicit full and open competition for this award based on the following the unique qualifications of the principal investigator, the proximity of the investigator to staff and stakeholders leading the CCAST effort located in Tucson, Arizona, the ability to leverage the results of previous research performed collaboratively with the principal investigator, and the ability to reduce the overall cost of the project by performing the work under the Desert Southwest Cooperative Ecosystem Studies Unit Agreement.

Specific cooperative research synthesis and analysis, along with other activities to be undertaken in this agreement, involve substantial guidance and oversight by Reclamation and US Fish and Wildlife Service staff, who are based in Boulder City, Nevada and Tucson, Arizona, in close proximity to the University of Arizona. Because the success of CCAST requires knowledge of on-the-ground management activities and multi-stakeholder engagement to complete case studies across a broad geographical and scientific range in the southwestern United States, the Desert Southwest Cooperative Ecosystem Studies Unit (CESU), which includes a network of ten federal, eight university, and seven nongovernmental agencies.

In addition, Larry A. Fisher, Ph.D., Research Professor in the School of Natural Resources and the Environment will serve as the Point of Contact and provide supervision for a Research Assistant. Dr. Fisher has extensive experience in the areas of natural resource management and adaptation, multi-stakeholder collaboration, and environmental conflict and mediation. Since 2011, Dr.

Fisher has developed a teaching, research, extension and service program at the University of Arizona, which will contribute information to CCAST.

Additionally, Dr. Fisher was a senior program manager at the U. S. Institute for Environmental Conflict Resolution and the director for the Program on Environment and Community, Center for the Environment, at Cornell University. He currently serves as Senior Diplomatic Interpreter for the U.S.

Department of State, Washington, D.C. and as Consultant for the USDA Forest Service International Programs, the Ford Foundation and the Climate and Land Use Alliance, the Center for International Forestry Research, and the Bureau of Land Management, Tucson Field Office.

Dr. Fisher has worked in the field of collaborative research and conservation for the majority of his career. His expertise as well as his proximity to staff and stakeholders in Tucson, Arizona who would significantly contribute research to CCAST also uniquely qualify him to lead this work. Reclamation staff have worked with Dr. Fisher in the past on various activities and results from those projects will be leveraged in this research. The work to be performed under this agreement builds upon previous work performed under Cooperative Agreement R17AC00101 and will improve project outcomes.