March 20, 2026
NPS Funding Opportunity: Identifying Important Bat Habitats for Homestead National Historical Park
BACKGROUND
Homestead National Historical Park (HOME) is a 212-acre park northwest of Beatrice, Nebraska in Gage County. The park was created in 1936 to commemorate the 1862 Homestead Act and is located on the site of the first homestead claim that was filed under that law. The park has approximately 120 acres of high-quality restored prairie and 60 acres of riparian woodland along Cub Creek, a perennial stream which meanders through the park for over a mile and averages 5.5 meters wide and 30-50 cm deep.
The park is working to reintroduce fire at regular intervals to help the vegetation better represent the landscape the first settlers would have encountered. The park plans to conduct low intensity burns in woodland areas to reduce fire intolerant species (such as hackberry trees) and improve the habitat for fire tolerant species (such as bur oak). As funding and time allow, targeted thinning is planned to be used to open the woodland. To minimize negative impacts on bats, as a species of concern, the park requires updated research on:
- What species are in the park, when they are present, and how they use different areas of the park.
- To distinguish local management actions’ impacts from impacts more broadly in the bats home range, we also need to identify their probable wintering grounds.
The park’s existing data (mist netting in 2004, 2015 and 2019) confirms the presence of evening, big brown, eastern red, northern long-eared, and hoary bats at HOME. Additionally, manually vetted acoustic monitoring indicates the presence of tricolored, silver-haired and little brown bats. Unvetted acoustic data (just using the software) suggests that Mexican free-tailed, silver haired, long-legged, Townsend’s big-eared and fringed myotis bats may also use the park.
During the 2019 study, five northern long eared bats were netted and tagged so they could be detected with telemetry equipment. Two of those bats were never detected after tagging them, but the other three provided the park with information about the diverse roosts they can use including a privacy fence, a knothole in a small tree, and under the bark of a log located in a wood pile. (Homestead Bat Study (U.S. National Park Service).
We seek to update these data using a combination of mist netting, roost emergence counts, and Motus tracking locally within the park, and across the bats’ ranges. The data collected in this study will be used to directly inform management of park resources to minimize impacts on bats. We anticipate that these data will help us revise burn plans and other park planning efforts.
FUNDS AVAILABLE AND ELIGIBILITY
The project will be funded using FY2026 funds that will need to be obligated by September 30. Budget is not to exceed $33,000 inclusive of 17.5% Cooperative Ecosystem Studies Unit (CESU) indirect costs $28,085 direct cost plus $4915 indirect cost = $33,000 total available). Non-federal partners of any CESU network are eligible to apply. Entities that are eligible and willing to join a CESU network prior to the final award are also eligible to apply.
DEADLINE
We request that Statements of Interest be submitted by April 14th, 2026, 11:59 p.m. CDT. This Request for Statements of Interest will remain open until that time.
CONTACT
Direct questions and statements of interest to: Jesse Bolli, Resource Management Specialist, Homestead National Historical Park. Jesse_Bolli@nps.gov or 402-223-1705.
Please see the attached flyer for my information.