Monitoring Prime Hook NWR, Tidal Marsh Restoration, Hurricane Sandy | F19AS00359

Opportunity Information: Apply for F19AS00359

The grant opportunity titled "Monitoring Prime Hook NWR, Tidal Marsh Restoration, Hurricane Sandy" (Funding Opportunity Number F19AS00359) is a Department of the Interior, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service discretionary funding notice for a cooperative agreement focused on continued post-restoration monitoring at Prime Hook National Wildlife Refuge in Delaware. Although the listing includes an "unrestricted" eligibility label in the data fields, the narrative makes clear that this is a single-source financial assistance award intended specifically for the Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control (DNREC), Wetland Assessment Section, and that the announcement functions primarily as a public notification rather than a competitive call for proposals. The opportunity was created on Aug 30, 2019, with an original closing date of Sep 27, 2019, and it anticipated one award with a maximum funding amount (award ceiling) of $35,000. The assistance is associated with CFDA number 15.677 and falls under the Natural Resources activity category.

The core purpose of the award is to sustain an established monitoring program designed to evaluate the effectiveness and long-term performance of a major tidal marsh restoration project at Prime Hook NWR that followed Hurricane Sandy. The monitoring effort began in 2010 to build baseline datasets describing the refuge's wetland habitats, and it later transitioned into a restoration-outcomes framework so that post-restoration conditions could be compared against both pre-Sandy and pre-restoration benchmarks. By maintaining continuity in methods and data collection, the project aims to generate credible trend information over time, which is especially important for dynamic tidal marsh systems where changes in vegetation, hydrology, and elevation can unfold over multiple seasons and years.

The work described centers on tracking key performance metrics that indicate whether the restored marsh is functioning as intended and whether it is resilient to ongoing stressors such as storms, sea-level rise, and altered hydrology. Specific monitoring targets include wetland integrity, recovery of vegetation communities, water quality conditions, hydrologic patterns, and marsh elevation. These measurements collectively help managers understand whether the marsh is rebuilding habitat structure, supporting appropriate plant communities, maintaining suitable water conditions, and achieving elevations that allow tidal wetlands to persist rather than convert to open water or degraded marsh.

A major theme of the opportunity is adaptive management. Monitoring results are not treated as a passive record; they have been used to guide decisions about how the restoration is managed over time, helping refuge staff and partners identify what is working, what is not, and where course corrections may be needed. The opportunity also emphasizes that findings have already contributed to the broader restoration science community, having been shared at professional conferences, and that Prime Hook's project has served as a prominent case study because it was described as the largest tidal marsh restoration of its kind at the time and has functioned as a model for other land managers across the country.

The announcement also ties the project to a Department of the Interior financial assistance priority: "Restoring trust with the local community" (priority #3). The rationale is that continued monitoring, conducted through a proven collaboration among federal refuge staff and state and university partners, supports transparency and accountability for a high-profile project located near communities that were concerned about flooding. Because the restoration helped ease some flooding concerns and drew strong community attention due to its proximity, maintaining an ongoing flow of monitoring information and sharing evidence of restoration performance is positioned as a way to preserve and strengthen community trust built in recent years.

DNREC's Wetland Assessment Section is identified as the intended recipient because of its unique qualifications and its history of conducting this specific monitoring under prior agreements. In practical terms, the single-source approach is justified on continuity, institutional knowledge, and the need to maintain consistent monitoring protocols and datasets that span baseline conditions, disturbance impacts, restoration implementation, and post-restoration recovery.

• The Department of the Interior, Fish and Wildlife Service in the natural resources sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Monitoring Prime Hook NWR, Tidal Marsh Restoration, Hurricane Sandy" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 15.677.
• This funding opportunity was created on Aug 30, 2019.
• Applicants must submit their applications by Sep 27, 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 $35,000.00 in funding.
• The number of recipients for this funding is limited to 1 candidate(s).
• Eligible applicants include: Unrestricted (i.e., open to any type of entity above), subject to any clarification in text field entitled Additional Information on Eligibility.

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