Three-fold project; provide visitor support through interpretation | P19AS00390

Opportunity Information: Apply for P19AS00390

The grant opportunity titled "Three-fold project; provide visitor support through interpretation" (Funding Opportunity Number P19AS00390) is a National Park Service (NPS) discretionary funding notice describing a planned cooperative agreement connected to natural resource and visitor-service work at Carl Sandburg Home National Historic Site (CARL). The project is designed to strengthen the park's Resource Education and Management needs by combining three core work areas: visitor support through interpretive services, invasive vegetation management, and wildlife monitoring. In practical terms, it ties together what visitors experience day-to-day with behind-the-scenes stewardship activities that protect and manage the park's natural and cultural resources.

A major component of the project focuses on visitor services through interpretation, specifically by providing Park Guides. These positions support the public-facing side of the park, helping staff deliver educational programming, answer visitor questions, assist with orientation and safety messaging, and improve the overall quality and consistency of interpretation. By adding capacity in visitor support, the park can better connect audiences to the site's history and meaning while maintaining smooth operations during visitation.

The second component centers on vegetation management aimed at reducing invasive plant populations within the park boundaries. Invasive species can outcompete native vegetation, degrade habitat quality, and alter ecological conditions that parks are responsible for maintaining. This project area is framed as hands-on resource management work intended to control or reduce invasive plants, supporting healthier ecosystems and helping preserve the landscape character and habitat conditions within CARL.

The third component is wildlife monitoring, described as essential for tracking animal movement patterns and informing wildlife management plans. This includes collecting field data from wildlife recording equipment, which typically refers to tools such as remote cameras, acoustic recorders, or similar monitoring devices used to document presence, activity patterns, and changes over time. The purpose is to generate reliable observations that can guide management decisions, identify trends, and support ongoing planning related to wildlife within the park.

Importantly, this posting is a notice of intent to award and explicitly states it is not a request for applications. The Department of the Interior and NPS, in association with Great Smoky Mountain National Park, is providing public notice that it intends to fund these activities without full and open competition. The work is planned to be carried out under an existing cooperative agreement (P15AC00015) with American Conservation Experience. In other words, the agency is signaling its intention to proceed with a partner under a specific agreement rather than running a competitive grant application process for new applicants.

The opportunity lists an award ceiling of $86,000 and an original closing date of 2019-07-27, which in this context functions more like an end date for the public notice period rather than a deadline to submit proposals. The listing also indicates expected awards as 0, consistent with a notice of intent where the agency is not soliciting applications. Eligibility categories shown include certain nonprofits and other entities, but because the notice states it is not open for competition, those eligibility details do not translate into an actionable chance to apply for this particular award. Overall, the notice describes a targeted, three-part effort to improve interpretation and visitor support while advancing resource stewardship through invasive plant control and systematic wildlife data collection at Carl Sandburg Home National Historic Site.

• The National Park Service in the natural resources sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Three-fold project; provide visitor support through interpretation" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 15.931.
• This funding opportunity was created on 2019-07-17.
• Applicants must submit their applications by 2019-07-27. (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 $86,000.00 in funding.
• Eligible applicants include: Nonprofits that do not have a 501 (c) (3) status with the IRS, other than institutions of higher education, Others.

Apply for P19AS00390

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