Grants / Department of Defense / Engineer Research and Development Center

W81EWF-25-SOI-0006: Interior Least Tern Monitoring on the McClellan Kerr Arkansas River Navigation System in the Little Rock Corps District

Closed Closed August 13, 2025 Opportunity W81EWF-25-SOI-0006 ☆ Save

This grant is closed. A newer notice from the same program is open now: ERDC Broad Agency Announcement (W912HZ26S0001). Status: Closes January 1, 2027 (55 days left). It is in our archive of Engineer Research and Development Center notices from 2025.

• Award ceiling$48,000
• Total funding$240,000
• Cost sharingNot required
• Funding typeCooperative Agreement

Key dates

Who can apply

This opportunity was open to the applicants described in the notice.

• Others (see text field entitled "Additional Information on Eligibility" for clarification)

This opportunity is restricted to non-federal partners of the Great Rivers or Gulf Coast Cooperative Ecosystems Studies Unit (CESU).

Is this a realistic fit?

• Past Basic, Applied, and Advanced Research in Science and Engineering awards averaged $1.1 million; this notice allows up to $48,000 per award.
• Most of the program's money (69% over five years) went to colleges and universities.
• No cost sharing or match is required.

What the grant funds

A. Short Description of Funding Opportunity: ERDC seeks applications for Interior Least Tern Monitoring on the McClellan Kerr Arkansas River Navigation System in the Little Rock Corps District. B. Background: Least terns (Sternula antillarum) are fish-eating birds that nest in a variety of open habitats on rivers and coasts (Thompson et al. 1997). The interior population of the Interior Least Tern (ILT) is defined as all Least Terns nesting >50 miles from the Gulf of Mexico on rivers of the Great Plains and in the Lower Mississippi Valley (USFWS 1985, 1990). Most individuals of this population nest on sandbars with little to no vegetation that are located on large rivers, primarily the Mississippi, Red, Arkansas, Canadian, Missouri, and Platte (Lott 2006). ILT was listed as endangered by the United States Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS)in 1985 due to concerns about breeding habitat loss and degradation associated with water resource development projects, which affect a large proportion of this population (USFWS 1985). Large multi-purpose dams, engineered navigation systems, bank stabilization projects, and wells or canals that remove water for irrigated agriculture affect ILT nesting habitat across much of their range (USFWS 1990). Many of the large dams and navigation systems in the range of ILT are operated by USACE (U. S. Army Corps of Engineers 1999, 2002, 2003, 2004a, 2004b, 2005) as detailed in the incidental take statement of the 2016 PBO in accordance with the Endangered Species Act (ESA) (USFWS 2016). Historically, sandbar nesting habitat on many rivers throughout the range of ILT has been lost or strongly degraded due to channel responses to large dam placement or channelization for navigation (Friedman et al. 1998, Funk and Robinson 1974, Williams 1978, Stinnett et al. 1988, Tommelleri 1984, and Knoll 2006). In addition to this initial (and in some cases, ongoing) pulse of habitat loss during channel adjustment to large-scale river engineering, multi-purpose dam operations continue to have direct effects on ILT reproductive success (e.g., nest and chick mortality due to flooding) that are strongest directly below 8 large multi-purpose dams on the Arkansas, Red, Canadian, and Missouri Rivers (USFWS 2003, 2005a). Habitat restoration efforts and monitoring has been ongoing on the Arkansas River since 2016 to present.

Category: Science and Technology and other Research and Development.

Applying now

This notice no longer takes applications. Apply under the newer notice, W912HZ26S0001, which is open now.

The notice on Grants.gov keeps its full text and attachments, which is useful for planning a resubmission.