Answering: Hibernate or Migrate?Detecting WNS Presence in Parks | P18AS00524

Opportunity Information: Apply for P18AS00524

The grant opportunity titled "Answering: Hibernate or Migrate? Detecting WNS Presence in Parks" is a National Park Service (NPS) research effort focused on understanding how northern long-eared bats and other bat species affected by white-nose syndrome (WNS) are surviving in and around National Capital Region (NCR) parks. Building on NPS-sponsored summer fieldwork conducted from 2014 through 2018, the project would support additional work that would not otherwise occur, with the goal of figuring out whether bats in key parks like Rock Creek Park and Prince William Forest Park are persisting locally despite WNS, or whether they are avoiding the disease by using unusual (aberrant) local hibernation sites or by migrating to coastal areas and southeastern Virginia to overwinter.

At the center of the project is a conservation question with major implications: if bats that are heavily impacted by WNS are still reproductively viable in the eastern portion of the NCR, that area could represent one of the last strongholds for the federally listed threatened northern long-eared bat. The project also considers the possibility that NCR parks function as maternity areas for bats that overwinter farther southeast. This matters because there is anecdotal evidence suggesting that the regions where many overwintering bats have been documented in southeastern Virginia and northeastern North Carolina show relatively little maternity activity. If NCR parks are where reproduction is happening, then protecting and managing these habitats becomes even more important to the species overall recovery and persistence.

The proposal emphasizes that identifying where bats spend the winter, and how they move between wintering and summering areas, directly affects how the species might be listed and managed under the Endangered Species Act. If the NCR turns out to be critical to the species survival, that information could support arguments to prevent an uplisting from threatened to endangered, or potentially contribute to future downlisting or delisting decisions if recovery benchmarks are met. The work also recognizes that overwinter survival is not just about the hibernation period itself. Even bats that hibernate successfully must forage intensively in spring to regain condition for migration and pregnancy, so understanding habitat needs across fall and spring is a key missing piece.

A strong management angle runs through the opportunity. The NCR is described as rapidly urbanizing, which increases the importance of large, protected park lands as remaining bat roosting and foraging habitat. The project highlights that management strategies designed to help WNS-impacted bats have not adequately considered fall habitat, spring staging habitat, or the possibility of nontraditional overwinter habitat use in the mid-Atlantic. The findings are intended to translate into practical, park-level conservation guidance on issues that routinely come up in park operations and land stewardship, including forest and field management decisions, hazard tree removal policies that can affect roost availability, and the planning and use of prescribed fire.

Geographically, the proposal lays out a working expectation of WNS distribution across specific park units and distances. It predicts that Harpers Ferry National Historical Park (HAFE) and Chesapeake and Ohio Canal National Historical Park (CHOH), within roughly 30 to 40 km, are likely WNS-infected; that areas closer moving toward Washington, DC may show a mix of infected and uninfected conditions; and that from DC southward toward Prince William Forest Park and Manassas National Battlefield Park, conditions may be uninfected. Testing these expectations by detecting WNS presence in parks would help clarify how the disease front is distributed and whether certain park landscapes are acting as refuges.

Administratively, this is a discretionary funding action by the Department of the Interior, National Park Service, under a cooperative agreement mechanism in the science and technology/research and development category (CFDA 15.945). The funding opportunity number is P18AS00524, with an award ceiling of $126,031 and an expected single award. Importantly, it is not an open call for applications. Instead, it serves as notice that NPS intended to issue a task agreement under an already-competed cooperative agreement (P17AC01176) with Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, meaning the recipient and competitive selection had effectively been decided prior to this announcement. The opportunity was created August 14, 2018, with an original closing date of August 24, 2018, reflecting its role as a formal notification rather than a solicitation.

• The Department of the Interior, National Park Service in the science and technology and other research and development sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Answering: Hibernate or Migrate?Detecting WNS Presence in Parks" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 15.945.
• This funding opportunity was created on Aug 14, 2018.
• Applicants must submit their applications by Aug 24, 2018 This announcement is not a request for applications. It is notification that NPS will award a task agreement under already competed Cooperative Agreement Number P17AC01176 with Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University .. (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 $126,031.00 in funding.
• The number of recipients for this funding is limited to 1 candidate(s).
• Eligible applicants include: Public and State controlled institutions of higher education.

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