The Great Basin Institute

The Great Basin Institute, doing business as Conservation through its Nevada Conservation Corps division, is a tax-exempt nonprofit recipient of federal grants and a prime contractor delivering natural resource monitoring, ecological restoration, youth employment and training, and cultural resource stewardship services across Department of the Interior lands, primarily in the western United States. The organization operates as a prime grant recipient on 98% of its recent awards, with headquarters in Reno, Nevada.

Capability portfolio centers on applied research and field-based conservation work: aerial imagery monitoring (AIM) data collection and analysis; terrestrial and aquatic ecological monitoring; invasive species surveying, mapping, and treatment; native seed collection and propagation under the Seeds of Success program; archaeological surveys and archival processing; habitat restoration and post-fire recovery; and youth corps and AmeriCorps workforce development programs. Representative grant work includes a $1.089 billion Youth and Veteran Organizations Conservation Activities award from the National Park Service (CFDA 15.931) for post-fire erosion control and wildfire resiliency across western NPS, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and Bureau of Land Management lands; a $2.215 billion Cooperative Agreement from BLM Nevada under the Youth Conservation Opportunities on Public Lands program (CFDA 15.243) for rangeland monitoring and habitat restoration using ten field crews across Nevada districts; and ongoing $889.948 thousand partnership with NPS for native plant restoration, seed collection, invasive species management, and trail maintenance at multiple national parks and wildlife refuges. The Institute also acts as a sub-recipient on conservation and workforce development awards with prime grantees including Nevada Volunteers (AmeriCorps), Nevada Department of Wildlife, and American Forests.

Customer concentration is heavily weighted toward Department of the Interior regional offices. The top five funding customers by award count account for 56% of awards: NPS Pacific West Region (152 awards), Fish and Wildlife Service Region 8 (77 awards), BLM National Office (61 awards), NPS National Office (61 awards), and NPS Intermountain Region (60 awards). By potential value, BLM National Office dominates at $109.7 million across 61 awards, with Fish and Wildlife Service Region 1 ($921 thousand) and Interior Fish and Wildlife Service ($358 thousand) providing secondary support. The divergence between award count and dollar concentration reflects the institute's reliance on high-value BLM terrestrial AIM monitoring contracts alongside numerous smaller NPS cultural resources and youth employment grants.

Vehicle position reflects the institute's role as a prime grant recipient under five primary BLM IDIQs: 140L0618D0011 (28 task orders, $13.1 million combined potential value), INF06PC60036 (19 task orders, $2.4 million), 140L0618D0026 (9 task orders, $2.3 million), 140L0618D0005 (5 task orders, $3.2 million), and 140L0618D0009 (5 task orders, $2.5 million). The Institute competes for grant awards under federal cooperative agreement frameworks (CFDA 15.931, 15.946, 15.243, 15.654, 15.608, 15.660, 15.676) rather than competing prime contracts.

Activity trajectory shows modest growth with 84 awards in 2024 and 68 in 2025 (with 12 recorded for early 2026), reflecting seasonal and program-cycle variation in federal grant and cooperative agreement funding. A recompete cliff of 107 awards reaching completion within the next twenty-four months signals significant opportunity for renewed or competing awards across NPS cultural resources management, youth employment, and BLM ecological monitoring programs.

The Institute's federal grant footprint spans primarily Department of the Interior agencies—National Park Service, Fish and Wildlife Service, Bureau of Land Management, and Bureau of Reclamation—operating as prime recipient under cooperative agreements. No federal contract prime awards or parent federal contract vehicles anchor this organization; it operates exclusively in the grant and cooperative agreement space. The organization combines environmental consulting services (NAICS 541511-level work) with nonprofit mission delivery, positioning itself as a workforce development and public-lands stewardship intermediary for young adults and emerging conservation professionals across the intermountain and Pacific western regions.