Monitoring of the Flat-Tailed Horned Lizard and the Sonoran Pronghorn Captive Breeding Pen | N624731920010

Opportunity Information: Apply for N624731920010

This grant opportunity, titled "Monitoring of the Flat-Tailed Horned Lizard and the Sonoran Pronghorn Captive Breeding Pen" (Funding Opportunity Number N624731920010), is a Department of Defense effort run through the Naval Facilities Engineering Command (NAVFAC). It focuses on continuing on-the-ground conservation work tied to military lands around Marine Corps Air Station (MCAS) Yuma, where both the endangered Sonoran pronghorn and the flat-tailed horned lizard occur. The main purpose is to maintain continuity of existing, long-running recovery and monitoring programs that support compliance with wildlife protection obligations while also sustaining coordinated regional management strategies.

A major part of the project centers on the Sonoran pronghorn (Antilocapra americana sonoriensis), a subspecies with a long history of federal protection and one of the earliest animals covered under U.S. endangered species laws. The opportunity summarizes how the pronghorn was listed as endangered in 1967 and later carried onto the Endangered Species Act list in 1973 through the ESA "grandfather clause." Historically, the Sonoran pronghorn ranged broadly across southwestern Arizona, southeastern California, and northwestern Sonora, Mexico. Formal recovery planning began in the mid-1970s, culminating in a recovery plan prepared for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in 1982. The text highlights a critical turning point in 2002, when extreme drought in southern Arizona nearly wiped out the U.S. population. In response, multiple agencies launched intensive interventions, including building and maintaining water developments, creating forage enhancement plots, providing supplemental feeding, and establishing a captive breeding program. This grant is meant to keep those types of conservation actions operating, especially the management of captive breeding pens associated with MCAS Yuma.

The second major focus is the flat-tailed horned lizard (Phrynosoma mcallii), described as having one of the most restricted distributions of any horned lizard in the United States. The species occurs in the Colorado Desert across parts of California and Arizona and extends into Mexico, with habitat also present on MCAS Yuma. The opportunity notes that the lizard was flagged as sensitive by the Bureau of Land Management in California in 1980, and that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service proposed it for listing as threatened in 1993. That proposed listing was later withdrawn in 2003, in part because of management commitments and coordination structures already in place.

Those coordination structures are a key backdrop for the monitoring work funded here. The Flat-Tailed Horned Lizard Interagency Coordinating Committee (FTHL ICC) and the Management Oversight Group (FTHL MOG) bring together state and federal partners, including the Department of the Navy, to coordinate monitoring, research, and management across the species range in Arizona, California, and Mexico. The opportunity references the Rangewide Management Strategy (RMS) developed to guide long-term monitoring and identifies that portions of the Barry M. Goldwater Range West fall within the Yuma Desert Management Area (YDMA), where monitoring objectives are designed to track population status and inform management decisions. Funding under this notice supports continued implementation of those standardized monitoring protocols so the interagency groups have consistent data on current conditions and trends.

From a contracting and administration standpoint, the grant is structured as a Cooperative Agreement in the natural resources category (CFDA 12.300). The intent is to continue and formalize a multi-year partnership between MCAS Yuma and the Arizona Game and Fish Department (AZGFD) for two combined service areas: (1) joint management of the Sonoran pronghorn captive breeding pens and (2) monitoring of flat-tailed horned lizards. The notice explains that these activities were previously handled under two separate cooperative agreements executed in 2015 (N62473-15-2-0018 and N62473-15-2-0020), both managed by NAVFAC Southwest, and that those agreements were reaching their final year. The new action is presented as a re-procurement needed to avoid disruption to ongoing conservation work, and it consolidates the two efforts into a single cooperative agreement for efficiency and continuity.

The opportunity is designed for a single expected award, with an award ceiling of $162,620. It is also described as being sole-sourced to AZGFD under Section 101(d)(2) of the Sikes Act (16 U.S.C. 670a(d)(2)), which is the authority often used for natural resource conservation partnerships on military installations when working with state wildlife agencies. In practical terms, that means the funding is aimed at sustaining an established, specialized partnership rather than opening a broad competition among many applicants. The overall outcome the agency is seeking is straightforward: keep the pronghorn captive breeding and support operations functioning and keep the horned lizard monitoring program running under the interagency framework, so MCAS Yuma can continue contributing to regional species recovery and meet its conservation responsibilities without gaps in service.

• The Department of Defense, NAVAL FACILITIES ENGINEERING COMMAND in the natural resources sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Monitoring of the Flat-Tailed Horned Lizard and the Sonoran Pronghorn Captive Breeding Pen" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 12.300.
• This funding opportunity was created on Jun 08, 2019.
• Applicants must submit their applications by Jul 08, 2019. (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 $162,620.00 in funding.
• The number of recipients for this funding is limited to 1 candidate(s).
• Eligible applicants include: Others (see text field entitled Additional Information on Eligibility for clarification).

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