BCNA Grant Application Guidelines

The next round of grant applications due on February 15, 2025

BCNA is pleased to offer research funding for one-year grants to support projects that help promote our mission. These grants are funded by BCNA members and donors.

Grants of up to $4,000 are available for projects to enhance our understanding of the ecosystems of Boulder County. Focal areas may include, but are not limited to, examining the patterns, causes, and consequences of variation in biodiversity, conservation biology of species and communities, links between biological communities and ecosystem function, and evaluating changes in ecosystems associated with environmental changes such as climate change. Research findings should add to the knowledge base available to Boulder County decision-makers to both protect and enjoy our natural resources.

Proposals must be limited to 4 pages single spaced, not including references, using a 12 point font and 1 inch margins. The proposal should include an introduction with sufficient background to establish clear questions or hypotheses, a methods and materials section that describes how the research will address the hypotheses, as well as locations, sample sizes, data collected, the statistical analyses, and a timeline for the work. Research that requires handling vertebrates must include verification that the investigator has met the current institutional animal care and use committee (IACUC) requirements of the home institution. The budget should describe specifically how the requested items will support the research, and list other sources of funding for the project. Priority will be given to funding equipment and supplies over salaries. BCNA will not pay any institutional overhead- all funding goes directly for research. Please also include a brief curriculum vitae of no more than 2 pages for the principal investigator.

Submit proposals on or before February 15, 2025 to Bill Bowman (grants@bcna.org). Applicants will be notified before mid-March whether they have been selected for funding from BCNA. Successful applicants will provide reports written for a general audience that will be shared on the BCNA website. In addition BCNA may request brief presentations at their annual meeting.

Please address any questions about proposals or grants to Bill Bowman (email listed above).

Current Research Projects Sponsored by BCNA

• Do color pattern differences reduce mixed mating between two closely related Boulder County bird species?
• Genetic and acoustic characterization of hybrid fitness and hybrid zone dynamics
• Lichens: The Final Frontier of Biodiversity in Colorado
• Comparing the genetics of spatial memory in two species of food caching chickadee
• Examining the Effects of Rising Air Temperature on Alpine N Cycling and Trace Gas Emissions
• Generating new data to explain wildlife use of talus habitats by estimating sub-surface temperature from widely available data on free-air temperature
• Disentangling the Effects of Contemporary Climate Change on Montane Mammal Distributions in Boulder County, Colorado
• Butterfly Populations Following the Cal-Wood Fire
•  Impact of the Marshall Fire on Macroinvertebrate and Fish Communities in Coal Creek at the Interface of the Burn Area within the Coal Creek Basin

A sample of research reports from past projects

2022 After Fire Butterfly Inventory at Geer Meadow & Heil Ranch (Chu & Stoner)

2022 Community Monitoring for Forest Health

2022 Investigating Mammal Activity and Use of Button Rock Preserve, Lyons, Colorado

2021: Floristic Survey of Ron Stewart Preserve at Rabbit Mountain, Boulder County Parks and Open Space

2020: Impacts of Cheatgrass on Mammal, Bird, and Butterfly Populations in a Rocky Mountain Foothills Grassland

2019: Roger’s Grove Park Banding Station

2019: Digging up Boulder’s Biodiversity: Buried Responses to Climate and Land Management

2019: Boulder County Butterflies 

2018: Take it to the Ribbit: A Quest for the Northern Leopard Frog

2018: Putting stress to the test: Could feces be the key to conserving the American pika?

2016: Front Range Pika Project 

2015: Butterflies along Three Trails: Showing Affects of the 2013 Flood On Boulder County Open Space Properties

2014: Boulder County Butterflies: Summer

2014: Front Range Pika Final Report

2011: Gene Flow of the Variegated Fritillary Butterfly as an Indicator of Ecological Connectivity in Boulder CO

2010: Front Range Pika Project 

2009: Post-Plague Re-colonization in Black-Tailed Prairie Dogs 

2009: Spatial Heterogeneity of Nitrogen in Plant Invasion Project Progress Report 

2008: Genetic Effects of Post-Plague Re-colonization in Black-Tailed Prairie Dogs 

Publications supported in part by BCNA grants

Whipple AL, Ray C, Varner J, Kitchens JN, Hove AA, Wilkening JL. 2022. Stress-associated metabolites vary with both season and habitat across populations of a climate sentinel species. Arctic, Antarctic and Alpine Research 54:603-623. LINK: https://doi.org/10.1080/15230430.2022.2146633

 Kellner, Annie, Carver,S., Scorza, V., McKee, C.D., Lappin, M., Crooks, K.R., VandeWoude, S., and Antolin, M.F, (2018) Transmission pathways and spillover of an erythrocytic bacterial pathogen from domestic cats to wild felids. Ecology and Evolution 2018:8:9779-9792.

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