BCPOS Small Grants Program 2025 – Colorado - fundsforNGOs

The Boulder County Parks & Open Space (BCPOS) department is offering small grants for research and biological inventories on open space lands.

Donor Name: Boulder County Parks & Open Space

State: Colorado

County: Boulder County (CO)

Type of Grant: Grant

Deadline: 01/09/2025

Size of the Grant: $10,000 to $100,000

Grant Duration: 1 Year

Details:

These research projects and inventories provide valuable data to monitor management practices and improve resources and park visitor experiences.

Research Topics

Plant Ecology
- Investigate impacts of reed canarygrass (Phalaris arundinacea) on riparian plant establishment and stream geomorphology, and efficacy of various measures to control its spread and establishment.
- A literature review or field study comparing pollinator richness, or a larger comparative invertebrate survey, of native grasslands with and without the presence of prairie dogs.
- Analyze historical changes in native and non-native tree establishment and distribution relative to stream channel morphology, utilizing a combination of aerial imagery, LiDAR, tree dendrochronology, or other applicable methods.
- Investigate the efficacy of aerial wood mulching on soil loss and vegetation establishment on the Cal-Wood Fire, four years post fire.
- Does I-Naturalist or other citizen science spatial mapping platforms enable or increase plant poaching of at-risk species in the wild?
- Demonstrate the feasibility of UAS flights with appropriate sensors and seasonality to map spatial distribution of Physaria bellii, a rare and endemic species.
- Demonstrate the ability, technology and methods to use UAS, Object Based Image Analysis (OBIA), and ground truthing or other methods to classify grassland vegetative associations for land managers to apply across a broader area.
- Assess wetland plant diversity and functional groups in grazed and ungrazed wetlands.
- How does phosphorous deposition from fire retardant use affect plant species and communities?
Wildlife
- Develop or utilize an open-source, highly accurate artificial intelligence software system to identify terrestrial wildlife species within BCPOS-provided game camera photos.
- Investigate utilization of downed woody substrate by small mammals in lower montane and/or upper montane forests. Conduct a literature review and develop guidelines for management to retain woody substrate.
- Conduct comparative inventories of willow carr condition using historical data. In the absence of historical data, conduct baseline assessments of current conditions, related to increased grazing ungulate pressure. Based on assessments, provide recommendations for maintaining or improving site conditions.
- Assess long-term study data of bird diversity and abundance in high elevation areas in Boulder County to determine analysis potentials, based on collection methodologies, consistency of annual effort levels and other factors.
- Develop a contemporary habitat suitability model for greater short-horned lizard (Phrynosoma hernandesi) within Boulder County, and optionally, conduct targeted field surveys to confirm presence.
- Produce a baseline status report of white nose syndrome in bats using existing data from Boulder County Parks & Open Space properties and provide a review of recommended methodology to determine disease prevalence.
- Produce a multi-species habitat connectivity model for Boulder County, based on existing modelling, that is scalable to address regional and site-specific fragmentation.
Forestry and Fire
- Demonstration study for utilizing U.A.S. to remotely identify limber pine. They would be targeting one or two properties to determine the feasibility using the multi/hyperspectral camera owned by BCPOS.
- Terrestrial Laser Scanners (TLS) are beginning to be utilized in forestry research and to a limited extent in forest management. However, understanding the various applications of ground based lidar can be difficult for land managers without a strong lidar background. They would like to see a literature review of practicality, capabilities, and short comings of TLS for land managers. The interests include a review of accuracy, ease of use, time efficiency, models best suited to forestry, sampling methodologies, third party analysis software, and data storage solutions.
- Direct seeding of limber pine often results in high levels of seed predation. Deterring predation would substantially increase the quantity of seeds available for germination and possible success. A study determining the most effective seed protection methods would allow us to implement a process that increases germination from direct seeding. Possible methods could include physical deterrents (mesh, cages, etc.) or chemical deterrents (charcoal, hot sauce, etc.)
Education and Outreach
- Estimate seasonal and annual visitation to Boulder County’s regional trails (Coal Creek, Rock Creek, and LoBo Trails.)
Invasive Plants
- Does soil microbe density, diversity and function change depending on soil moisture patterns in Indaziflam Cheatgrass controlled Treated sites vs. untreated sites? Conduct Soil Microbe analysis looking at microbe diversity, density and function in comparison to soil moisture patterns in Indaziflam treated sites vs untreated sites. Conduct companion lab experiments that look at shorter- term Indaziflam treatment effects under controlled conditions to identify soil microbe impacts.
- How does cheatgrass impact wildfire or prescribed fire behavior? Study would conduct field trial of cheatgrass fire behavior in a controlled setting. Study would consider fuel compositions (cheatgrass, vs. perennial vegetation), overall fuel biomass in the system, and identify differences in fire speed/mobility across the surface of various vegetation compositions, evaluate fire temperatures and flame length, to help identify what role cheatgrass plays in wildfire or prescribed fire.
- Does shrub forage quality improve in native wildlife shrub browse and native forb species in Indaziflam treated vs. untreated sites? Study will conduct a comparison of Indaziflam treated and untreated critical winter range browse and forbs for mule deer looking at forage quality found on the two sites.