Cultural Landscape Report | P17AS00511

Opportunity Information: Apply for P17AS00511

The Cultural Landscape Report grant opportunity (Funding Opportunity Number P17AS00511) is a National Park Service cooperative agreement under the U.S. Department of the Interior focused on producing a comprehensive Cultural Landscape Report (CLR) for Pecos National Historical Park in northeastern New Mexico. It was issued as a discretionary funding opportunity within the Natural Resources activity category (CFDA 15.945), with eligibility limited to public and state-controlled institutions of higher education. The opportunity was created on July 19, 2017, with an original closing date of July 28, 2017, and anticipated a single award with a maximum funding level (award ceiling) of $209,476.

The core purpose of the project is to document, interpret, and guide stewardship of an exceptionally complex park landscape that reflects thousands of years of human use and occupation. Pecos National Historical Park contains nearly 800 archaeological sites alongside historic buildings, landscape features, and broader cultural landscapes that span multiple cultural and historical periods. These include the Archaic period and the Developmental, Coalition, and Classic periods associated with Ancestral Pueblo cultures, as well as the Spanish Colonial and Mexican periods, the Territorial era (including the Civil War), and the early statehood period of New Mexico. While Pecos Pueblo and the Glorieta Battlefield are highlighted as especially significant resources, the scope is wider and explicitly includes additional prehispanic and historic features such as pit houses, rock art, field houses, small pueblos, tipi rings associated with visiting Plains peoples, early Euroamerican homesteads, segments of the Santa Fe Trail with three related stage stops, a Civil War Union encampment location, and a historic ranch complex that includes a ranch house designed by architect John Gaw Meem.

The project is structured as a partnership between the National Park Service and the University of Oregon, specifically through the university’s Department of Landscape Architecture. Colorado Mesa University is included as a subcontractor through the University of Oregon and is responsible for providing archaeological expertise for defined portions of the work. A major emphasis is placed on integrating cultural landscape planning with archaeological and historical research so that management decisions are grounded in both the material record and the broader evolution of land use over time.

The deliverables for the CLR are clearly defined and include thorough documentation, a historical narrative and context, a landscape analysis, and a treatment plan. The work is intended to synthesize existing information, drawing on materials such as Cultural Landscape Inventories (CLIs), vegetation management plans, National Register nominations, and other prior research, while also adding new fieldwork and archival research. This combined approach is meant to clarify how the park’s landscape has changed across time, how surviving features and spatial patterns reflect different uses of the land, and how the park’s cultural resources connect to the larger regional landscape.

Management outcomes are central to the grant’s intent. Treatment recommendations and management strategies are expected to prioritize preservation of overall landscape character across the entire park unit, rather than focusing narrowly on isolated sites. At the same time, the opportunity calls for more targeted and detailed treatment guidance in two key areas: historic agricultural land use and the delineation and protection of the Glorieta Battlefield cultural landscape associated with the Civil War. The battlefield component is specifically identified as a collaborative effort with Colorado Mesa University’s Department of Archaeology, reflecting the need for specialized methods to define and protect battlefield-related features and spatial organization.

An additional applied science and resource management dimension is built into the project through coordination with the NPS Southern Plains Inventory and Monitoring Network. This collaboration is intended to strengthen the ecological and vegetation management strategies that will inform the CLR’s treatment planning, including alignment with ongoing park research related to pinon and juniper management. Beyond producing a one-time planning document, the project is also framed as a pilot effort to deepen and refine how NPS cultural landscape standards and methodologies are used for documentation and analysis, with attention to how the resulting information is delivered to park staff for practical management and how it can be interpreted for the public.

• The Department of the Interior, National Park Service in the natural resources sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Cultural Landscape Report" 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 Jul 19, 2017.
• Applicants must submit their applications by Jul 28, 2017. (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 $209,476.00 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 P17AS00511

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