Avian Health and Disease Program FWS Southwest Region, Lead on the Texas NWRs

NOTICE OF INTENT TO MAKE A SINGLE-SOURCE AWARD. In accordance with Department of Interior Guidance (505 DM 2), U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Region 2 hereby provides notice of its intent to make a single-source award in the estimated amount of $32,720 to Stephen F. Austin State University under an existing cooperative agreement with the recipient for the project Environmental Availability of Lead and Use of Moist soil Management to Attract Waterfowl on the Texas NWRs. The objective of the cooperative agreement is to investigate the occurrence, availability, and ecosystem-related stress of lead on National Wildlife Refuges (NWRs) of the Texas Gulf Coast. The project will 1) determine the role of environmental lead present on National Wildlife Refuges (NWRs) of the Texas Midcoast NWR Complex and Aransas NWR; and 2) assess the use of moist-soil management on the Texas Chenier Plain NWR Complex to reduce waterfowl use of areas with potential hazardous lead concentrations. It is suspected that effects of lead exposure are contributing to the declining population trends of mottled ducks in Texas since the mid 1990s. Migratory birds, including the mottled duck, are a trust resource of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. This project will benefit the public by providing information that will support management decisions for mottled ducks, a popular gamebird, on NWRs of the Texas Gulf Coast. A cooperative agreement was chosen because the recipient is cooperating with the Service on a project to isolate potential sources of lead in the environment, determine where and when lead exposure occurs in mottled ducks, and evaluate effects of management practices on lead availability. Information from that project will be complemented by the information from this project to support management decisions for mottled ducks on National Wildlife Refuges of the Texas Gulf Coast. Because of the interrelationship between this award project and the project under which the Service and Stephen F. Austin State University are already cooperating, the Service anticipates having to direct or redirect the work as the project is delivered. Additionally, because the project study-sites are National Wildlife Refuges, substantial coordination between the Recipient and the Service will be needed. The assessment of moist-soil management is subject to a prescribed management rotation in refuge subunits (field preparation (e.g., disking), flooding, and drawdowns) that will be coordinated by the Service. The single-source determination is in accordance with criterion #2 (Continuation) and #4 (Unique Qualifications) under Department of Interior guidance (505 DM 2 at 2.14 B). THERE IS NO FULL ANNOUNCEMENT ASSOCIATED WITH THIS NOTICE.