BLM-NOC Socio-Economic and Fiscal Impact Assessment Study of Nevada's Communities | L18AS00081

Opportunity Information: Apply for L18AS00081

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM), within the Department of the Interior, issued this discretionary funding opportunity to support a statewide effort in Nevada: creating county-level socioeconomic baselines for every Nevada county using a single, consistent structure. The central aim is standardization. Instead of different counties or agencies using different formats, assumptions, and levels of detail when describing local economic and social conditions, this project is meant to produce a uniform set of baseline profiles that can be relied on repeatedly across planning and analysis efforts. The award is set up as a cooperative agreement, which typically signals that BLM expects to be meaningfully involved during the work (for example through collaboration, review, coordination, and shared development of the final products), rather than simply receiving a finished report at the end.

The work is designed to support both broad Department of the Interior priorities and practical needs at multiple levels, including national, state, and local public entities as well as private stakeholders. A major motivation is that public land management decisions often have ripple effects on nearby communities, and those effects are frequently evaluated through socioeconomic and fiscal impact analysis. By building baseline county profiles collaboratively, the project is intended to help agencies and stakeholders develop a shared understanding of local conditions, including historic context and present-day realities. That shared understanding can reduce confusion and disagreement later when specific projects or land-use decisions are analyzed, because the foundational data and narrative are already established in a standardized, mutually understood way.

A key intended use of these baselines is to strengthen and streamline National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) analyses. NEPA reviews often require agencies to describe the affected human environment and assess potential socioeconomic impacts. The opportunity emphasizes that these county-level baselines can be incorporated into NEPA documentation for any federal agency, not just BLM. Because the baselines are meant to be developed with involvement from potentially affected parties, the FOA highlights the value of "immediate buy-in" from stakeholders who might otherwise challenge the assumptions or data used in impact assessments. In plain terms, the project tries to solve a common problem in environmental and land management reviews: inconsistent socioeconomic descriptions from one analysis to the next, and a lack of shared starting points among agencies, counties, industry, and community groups.

The expected outcome is a set of standard and uniform county baselines that make future socioeconomic impact analyses more consistent, comparable, and defensible across Nevada. By having a common framework, analysts can more readily evaluate how proposed actions might affect employment, income, population trends, public services, and fiscal conditions at the county level, and they can do so using a baseline that is already vetted and consistent across jurisdictions. The FOA also frames this as supportive of local economic development, since clearer and more consistent impact analysis can help communities and decision-makers understand tradeoffs, plan mitigation, and identify opportunities tied to BLM’s presence and land management activities.

From the administrative details provided, this was a single-award opportunity (ExpectedAwards: 1) with an award ceiling of $100,000. It was posted July 27, 2018 and originally closed August 29, 2018. The activity category is Natural Resources and the CFDA number listed is 15.224. Eligibility is described as unrestricted, meaning it was open to any type of entity as allowed under the announcement terms (subject to any additional eligibility clarifications that may have been included in the full FOA). Overall, the funding was aimed at producing a practical, reusable set of county socioeconomic baseline products that can serve as a trusted foundation for land management decision-making and impact assessment across Nevada.

• The Department of the Interior, Bureau of Land Management in the natural resources sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "BLM-NOC Socio-Economic and Fiscal Impact Assessment Study of Nevada's Communities" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 15.224.
• This funding opportunity was created on Jul 27, 2018.
• Applicants must submit their applications by Aug 29, 2018. (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 $100,000.00 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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