Ethnographic Overview and assessment of ranching and agriculture | P19AS00192

Opportunity Information: Apply for P19AS00192

The Department of the Interior, National Park Service is offering a discretionary cooperative agreement (Funding Opportunity Number P19AS00192) to support an ethnographic and historical overview of ranching and agriculture in Capitol Reef National Park. The project is framed as a cultural and natural resources effort (CFDA 15.945) aimed at improving how the park documents, interprets, and manages long-standing agrarian uses that remain part of Capitol Reef's living landscape. Eligibility is limited to public and state-controlled institutions of higher education, with one award expected and a funding ceiling of $49,879. The opportunity was created May 23, 2019, with an original closing date of June 1, 2019.

At its core, the grant supports a study that brings together archival history, field-based documentation, and ethnographic research to explain both the historical significance and the current status of ranching and agriculture in the park. Ranching is explicitly recognized as an allowable use at Capitol Reef, and the opportunity notes that there is still an active grazing lease of roughly 15,000 acres. That contemporary lease, along with livestock trailing through the park, is tied to families who have multi-generational experience in the area and who carry extensive knowledge about the land's cultural history as well as its ecological patterns and changes. The project is designed to make that knowledge visible and usable for park staff, visitors, researchers, and managers.

A major emphasis of the work is relationship and context: the opportunity directly acknowledges that interactions between ranchers and federal land management agencies, including the NPS, have often been shaped by suspicion and mistrust. Instead of treating ranching only as a management issue, the study is meant to document it as a cultural tradition with deep emotional and identity-based connections to place. The grant calls for capturing the lived experiences and perspectives of ranching families, including their values, concerns, aspirations, and practical realities. By giving ranchers a clearer voice in the record, the project aims to produce information that is credible to both community members and park decision-makers.

In terms of deliverables and scope, the grant describes three central tasks. First, it will document more than 130 years of ranching history associated with Capitol Reef, likely drawing on historical records, local histories, and other archival sources. Second, it will inventory historic structures and other cultural resources linked to ranching and agriculture within the park, which can inform preservation priorities and future compliance or planning work. Third, and described as the most important component, it will record ethnographic data from ranching families themselves, focusing on traditional knowledge, land-use practices past and present, and how families understand both the opportunities and constraints of operating around or within a national park.

The intended outcome is practical as well as interpretive. By developing a clearer understanding of ranchers' perspectives and operational needs, the NPS expects to be better positioned to make management decisions that respect traditional knowledge, recognize the depth of cultural ties to the landscape, and improve sensitivity to economic and day-to-day realities of grazing and trailing. The project is also presented as supporting the broader NPS mission of resource stewardship, suggesting the final products will help align cultural resource documentation, public interpretation, and land management decisions with a more complete picture of how Capitol Reef's ranching and agricultural activities have shaped, and continue to shape, the park.

• The Department of the Interior, National Park Service in the natural resources sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Ethnographic Overview and assessment of ranching and agriculture" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 15.945.
• This funding opportunity was created on May 23, 2019.
• Applicants must submit their applications by Jun 01, 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 $49,879.00 in funding.
• The number of recipients for this funding is limited to 1 candidate(s).
• Eligible applicants include: Public and State controlled institutions of higher education.

Apply for P19AS00192

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