Piscataway Park Cultural Landscape Inventory | P18AS00573

Opportunity Information: Apply for P18AS00573

The Piscataway Park Cultural Landscape Inventory opportunity is a National Park Service (NPS) project aimed at documenting and evaluating the cultural landscape of Piscataway Park through a combination of on-the-ground fieldwork, standardized GIS mapping, and written inventory narratives. The overall purpose is to capture what exists on the landscape today, describe how it developed and changed over time, explain why it is significant, and provide practical recommendations for improving or stabilizing landscape conditions. In addition to the general cultural landscape inventory products, the project also includes a distinct Indigenous cultural landscapes component that is focused less on producing a full inventory and more on laying out appropriate methods and recommended next steps for future work in the park area managed by NPS.

A major piece of the work is the field survey effort, which involves systematically collecting information about cultural landscape characteristics and features across the project area. The survey methods specifically call for using GPS to collect spatial data so that features can be accurately located, photographing landscape features digitally to create a visual record of existing conditions, and compiling a character/condition log that identifies key features, evaluates their current condition, and captures field notes and observations. In practice, this means producing a defensible, organized set of field documentation that can support both resource management decisions and future research.

Another core deliverable is a set of existing conditions maps prepared for individual properties, created according to NPS cultural landscape inventory guidance. All spatial data must be delivered to NPS using the Cultural Resource Spatial Data Transfer Standard, which is essentially the required data model and format for how NPS wants cultural resource GIS information structured and shared. The opportunity points to an official geodatabase template available through NPS (IRMA) that contains the necessary feature classes, metadata fields, and domain values that implement the standard. The template establishes the minimum required fields, while still allowing additional fields if they are needed for the project. The guidance also references the broader Cultural Resource Spatial Data Transfer Standards documentation, which provides more detail on geodatabase structure and functionality, ensuring the resulting GIS dataset can be integrated cleanly into NPS systems and used consistently alongside other NPS cultural resource datasets.

The narrative portion of the work requires preparing Cultural Landscape Inventory documents that move beyond mapping and field notes into a structured written analysis. Required elements include an annotated historical chronology of physical development (using an Excel spreadsheet template), a historical narrative describing the propertys physical development and landscape changes across different periods, and a historical significance summary explaining how the NPS-owned lands in Piscataway Park meet National Register of Historic Places criteria. That significance summary must also explain how the landscape contributes to relevant areas of significance and identify the period of significance. The narrative deliverables further require an analysis and evaluation of the landscape characteristics that apply to each property, explicitly connecting those characteristics to the landscapes significance, and concluding with stabilization measures intended to improve or maintain the condition of the cultural landscape. Taken together, these written products are meant to provide both the historic context and the management-oriented evaluation that supports preservation planning.

A separate deliverable addresses Indigenous Cultural Landscapes (ICLs). Rather than requiring a full ICL inventory, the opportunity calls for a standalone summary document that identifies appropriate Indigenous cultural landscape methodologies and recommends next steps specifically for the Piscataway Park project area managed by NPS. This positions the Indigenous component as a guidance and planning product, aimed at defining how future work should be approached in a culturally appropriate and methodologically sound way.

Administratively, this is a Department of the Interior, National Park Service discretionary opportunity using a cooperative agreement instrument, associated with CFDA 15.945 and activity areas that include employment and training as well as science and technology or research and development. Eligible applicants are public and state-controlled institutions of higher education. The notice, however, makes clear it was not an open call for new applications: it served as a notification that NPS would issue a Task Agreement under an already competed cooperative agreement (P18AC00901) with St. Marys College of Maryland. The anticipated award information lists a single expected award with a funding ceiling of $57,000, with the announcement originally posted on August 22, 2018 and an original closing date of September 1, 2018.

• The Department of the Interior, National Park Service in the employment, labor and training, science and technology and other research and development sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Piscataway Park Cultural Landscape Inventory" 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 Aug 22, 2018.
• Applicants must submit their applications by Sep 01, 2018 This announcement is NOT a request for applications. It is notification that NPS will award a Task Agreement under already competed Cooperative Agreement Number P18AC00901 with St. Maryaposs College of Maryland.. (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 $57,000.00 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.

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