Condition Assessment and Intensive Survey for Lake Lucero | P18AS00159

Opportunity Information: Apply for P18AS00159

The Condition Assessment and Intensive Survey for Lake Lucero grant opportunity (Funding Opportunity Number P18AS00159) is a National Park Service cooperative agreement intended to fund a focused archaeological condition assessment and intensive field survey at the Lake Lucero Site on the western edge of White Sands National Monument (now White Sands National Park). The project area overlooks the Lake Lucero playa and sits within the deposits of ancient Pleistocene Lake Otero, a landscape with strong potential to preserve long sequences of human activity alongside environmental change. Although the location has been visited many times over recent decades by both professional researchers and organized public or avocational tours, the Park indicates that the site has never been fully mapped or comprehensively documented, leaving gaps in the Park's ability to manage, interpret, and protect the resource.

The need for the project is driven by recent observations that suggest the site is more complex and potentially more sensitive than previously understood. During a recent visit, investigators identified adobe room blocks visible on the surface, which points to substantial architectural remains and potentially later occupational components than a simple scatter of artifacts might suggest. In addition, some parts of the area show extremely high artifact densities, which the Park interprets as strong indicators of buried or semi buried cultural features. The opportunity description specifically notes the likelihood of pithouses, thermal features (such as hearths or roasting pits), trash middens, and even possible human burials. Because such features can be vulnerable to erosion, visitation impacts, and unauthorized collecting, the Park frames the survey as urgent so that management decisions can be based on solid, up to date field data rather than partial observations.

The core work products expected from the recipient center on three practical outcomes: locating and recording the full extent of the site, assessing its current condition, and determining its significance. In practice, this means completing a systematic, intensive survey that documents spatial boundaries, identifies and records cultural features and artifact concentrations, and evaluates integrity and threats so the Park can prioritize protection actions. The cultural and temporal evaluation component is expected to rely heavily on diagnostic artifacts, especially projectile points and ceramics, interpreted within their broader cultural and environmental contexts. This approach is meant to support defensible conclusions about when the site was used, by whom in a cultural historical sense, and how different activity areas may relate to each other across time.

A notable element of the opportunity is the expectation that the project will connect archaeological findings with paleoenvironmental information where available. By correlating temporal indicators from artifacts and features with environmental records tied to Lake Otero and the surrounding dune and playa system, the project may allow the Park and researchers to explore long term relationships between human use of the area and shifts in biotic communities. In other words, the survey is not just about mapping artifacts; it is also positioned as a way to place human occupation and land use into a changing environmental backdrop, potentially strengthening the site's research value and clarifying its broader regional significance.

The deliverable that ties all of this together is a synthesized report that compiles collected data and provides recommendations for preserving the site. The Park emphasizes that the information gathered will serve as a baseline for future condition assessments, meaning it should be detailed enough to support repeat monitoring over time and help detect new impacts, natural degradation, or emerging risks. The report is also intended to inform additional project planning, which could include targeted follow up studies, protective measures, interpretive decisions, or consultation steps if sensitive resources such as burials are confirmed or strongly indicated.

Administratively, this was a discretionary funding opportunity offered by the U.S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service, under CFDA 15.945, with an anticipated single award. The funding instrument type is a cooperative agreement, which typically implies substantial federal involvement during the project compared to a standard grant. Eligible applicants are limited to public and state controlled institutions of higher education, aligning the work with academic capacity for archaeological survey standards, reporting, and curation expectations. The award ceiling listed is $130,735, the opportunity was created on April 16, 2018, and the original closing date was April 25, 2018, indicating a short application window consistent with a targeted, mission driven need for timely field documentation and management support.

• The Department of the Interior, National Park Service in the natural resources sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Condition Assessment and Intensive Survey for Lake Lucero" 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 Apr 16, 2018.
• Applicants must submit their applications by Apr 25, 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 $130,735.00 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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