Cooperative Agreement for affiliated Partner with the Rocky Mountain Cooperative Ecosystem Studies Unit

<p>U.S. Geological Survey is offering a funding opportunity to a CESU partner for research to advance co-produced science aimed at improving decision support capabilities for natural resource managers across western rangelands and alpine ecosystems. The research conducted on this project will builds upon long standing collaborations between USGS and university partners, which have demonstrated the value of jointly designed studies and shared analytical approaches. The overarching goal of this work is to enhance the understanding of how habitat conditions, ecological processes, and wildlife, interact across broad and changing landscapes, and to translate this understanding into tools that support management decisions. This project will develop analytical frameworks and spatial tools that help natural resource managers identify, prioritize, and respond to conservation and management challenges across extensive landscapes. As land managers confront changing vegetation patterns, shifting disturbance regimes, disease pressures, and competing land use demands, there is a critical need for science that is developed jointly with practitioners, ensuring that data products, models, and evaluations are directly usable in operational planning. The emphasis of this opportunity is on tools that synthesize ecological data, management objectives, and partner input to generate transparent decision support products that can be adapted to diverse management contexts.</p>