A Monarch's View of Urban Landscapes: Pilot City Design Projects

A project consisting of pilot design projects at various scales in at least two cities to advance the state of science for developing landscape conservation design (LCD) guidelines for monarch butterfly conservation in urban areas as described below. The emerging multi-LCC EPIC Network integrates the ecological and urban communities to guide and promote conservation practices, such as those across the monarch flyway. Specifically, this project will lay the groundwork for design principles to guide the development, testing and deployment of future urban conservation for the Monarch butterfly across the Eastern half of the country. This strategy will need to reflect an integrated and interdisciplinary approach, one that includes ecological and social dimensions specific to an urban landscape. There is not an application process for this funding opportunity, this is a notice of intent to award a single source cooperative agreement in the amount of $100,000 to the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF) under justification 505DM 2.14.B. (2) and (4) without competition. Competition is not practical for this award as this monarch project will specifically address urban opportunities for on-the-ground pilots to identify socioeconomic factors and best management practices that will be incorporated into a Landscape Conservation Design currently underway with the Field Museum of Chicago. To fill geographic gaps in the monarch flyway and support the LCD, selection of city recipients must be completed within the next several months and closely coordinated with other monarch projects currently being implemented with existing NFWF funds. Therefore, NFWF is uniquely qualified to continue/complete the activities and it is necessary to have continuity for the satisfactory completion of the project. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service) will be substantially involved in the project under this funding opportunity. In particular, the Service and its partners have put substantial staff and funding resources towards the conservation of the iconic monarch butterfly in several closely related projects. The Service will participate jointly with the recipient by facilitating contact with stakeholders in the EPIC network of urban conservationists, assisting in selection of city projects, ensuring relevant application to design of the EPIC Urban Monarch LCD, direct or redirect the work due to interrelationships with other LCCs and related Service monarch research projects, and reserve the right to immediately halt activity if detailed performance specifications are not met.