Conservation Delivery at the Nexus of Game Management and Landscape Ecology: Strategic Use of Deer management Cooperatives in Habitat Networks | F17AS00156

Opportunity Information: Apply for F17AS00156

The grant opportunity titled "Conservation Delivery at the Nexus of Game Management and Landscape Ecology: Strategic Use of Deer Management Cooperatives in Habitat Networks" is a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Department of the Interior) discretionary grant focused on using Deer Management Cooperatives (DMCs) as a practical, landscape-scale conservation tool. The central idea is to examine how groups of neighboring landowners and hunters who coordinate deer management across property lines can be mapped, measured, and evaluated as part of broader habitat network and landscape conservation planning efforts. Rather than treating deer management as something that happens parcel by parcel, this project looks at how coordinated management units fit into the larger spatial pattern of habitats and how that pattern can be leveraged to deliver conservation outcomes.

The award is intended for the Quality Deer Management Association (QDMA) to work in partnership with the University of Georgia, state wildlife agencies, and deer hunters. Using data from six states (Michigan, Texas, Missouri, New York, Georgia, and Florida), the project would evaluate the spatial extent, arrangement, and configuration of existing DMCs across the landscape. In practical terms, this means identifying where cooperatives are located, how large they are, how their boundaries line up with habitat features and land ownership patterns, how connected or fragmented they are, and how they sit within broader habitat networks. The goal is to quantify whether and how DMCs can function as conservation planning building blocks within a habitat network approach, where connectivity and landscape configuration are key considerations.

A major deliverable is identifying what makes a DMC "successful" and turning that into measurable parameters. Success is defined in both human and biological terms: hunter success and satisfaction on one side, and deer herd management outcomes and deer health on the other. This implies the project would examine indicators such as harvest outcomes, achievement of herd objectives (for example, sex ratios or age structure goals where applicable), and deer condition or health metrics, alongside social metrics like hunter satisfaction and perceived effectiveness of cooperative management. By quantifying these factors, the project aims to move beyond anecdotal claims and provide evidence-based characteristics that can predict when a cooperative approach is likely to work well.

The opportunity also places heavy emphasis on translating findings into usable guidance for practitioners. The project is expected to develop educational and outreach materials such as manuals, webinars, and publications aimed at state, federal, and non-governmental natural resource professionals. The intent is to help agencies and partners understand how to implement and support DMCs in a way that aligns with landscape-level conservation planning, including how to incorporate cooperative boundaries and management practices into broader planning frameworks, prioritization exercises, and habitat network designs.

Finally, the grant explicitly extends beyond deer by requiring an assessment of DMC benefits to other game and non-game species, with a specific focus on species of conservation concern in line with Landscape Conservation Cooperative goals. This component recognizes that land management actions taken to improve deer habitat or coordinate harvest can also affect vegetation structure, forest regeneration, edge habitat, and disturbance regimes, which in turn can influence a wider community of wildlife. The project’s conservation value, therefore, is not limited to improving deer management outcomes; it also aims to determine whether DMCs can contribute to broader biodiversity and conservation targets when viewed through the lens of habitat networks and landscape ecology.

Administratively, the funding announcement is identified as Funding Opportunity Number F17AS00156 under CFDA 15.664, with an activity category spanning education, environment, and natural resources. It was created March 9, 2017, with an original closing date of March 16, 2017, and it is explicitly described as a notice of intent to award to a single source, meaning it was not a typical open competition despite listing eligibility as "unrestricted" in a general sense. The opportunity anticipated a single award, with an award ceiling listed as 1 (as provided in the source text), reinforcing that this was structured around one primary recipient executing the project in coordination with the named partners.

• The Department of the Interior, Fish and Wildlife Service in the education, environment, natural resources sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Conservation Delivery at the Nexus of Game Management and Landscape Ecology: Strategic Use of Deer management Cooperatives in Habitat Networks" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 15.664.
• This funding opportunity was created on Mar 09, 2017.
• Applicants must submit their applications by Mar 16, 2017 THIS IS A NOTICE OF INTENT TO AWARD TO A SINGLE SOURCE ANNOUNCEMENT ASSOCIATED WITH THIS NOTICE.. (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 $1.00 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.

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