Historian Intern Authored Cultural Landscape Report | NPS NOIP18AS00183

Opportunity Information: Apply for NPS NOIP18AS00183

The Historian Intern Authored Cultural Landscape Report grant opportunity (Funding Opportunity Number NPS NOIP18AS00183) was a discretionary National Park Service cooperative agreement designed to fund a short, focused project centered on cultural landscape documentation and planning support. Administered by the U.S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service, it targeted nonprofit organizations with IRS-recognized 501(c)(3) status (excluding institutions of higher education). The opportunity was posted on April 24, 2018, with an original application deadline of May 4, 2018. The program anticipated making a single award, with a maximum funding amount (award ceiling) of $35,266, and it was categorized under employment, labor and training as well as science and technology/other research and development because it combines paid internship staffing with a formal research and documentation product.

The core purpose of the project was to place a historian intern in a real-world National Park Service setting and have that intern produce a completed Cultural Landscape Report (CLR) for a portion of the C and O Canal National Historical Park near Harpers Ferry, West Virginia. A CLR is a planning and preservation document that typically compiles historical background, existing landscape conditions, evaluations of significance and integrity, and recommendations that guide long-term stewardship. In this case, the work would focus on the area adjacent to Harpers Ferry and would also serve two units of the National Trails System that overlap or connect with the study area, ensuring the findings are useful not just for the park itself but also for trail-related planning and interpretation.

At the end of the internship, the deliverable was a finished CLR provided to the C and O Canal Trust. The grant description emphasizes multiple uses for the report: strengthening protection of cultural and natural resources, supporting public education through interpretive and educational programs, and functioning as an environmental study that informs future interpretation, management decisions, and planning efforts. The CLR was also intended to be shared with the relevant National Trails System units so they could use the information for their own educational and planning needs, reflecting an inter-unit benefit rather than a report that sits on a shelf for a single site.

A notable component of the required documentation was a Visual Resource Assessment to be included as an appendix, focused on the confluence area. This assessment would document and evaluate scenic quality from selected viewpoints, including views toward the Gap where the Potomac and Shenandoah Rivers meet and cut through the surrounding terrain. Importantly, this visual analysis was expected to look beyond the strict CLR study boundaries, capturing a broader scenic context and providing a more complete picture of viewsheds and landscape character that influence visitor experience and resource management decisions.

Overall, the funding was specifically meant to cover the staffing support necessary to hire and utilize the historian intern to complete the CLR project. The opportunity combined workforce development (giving an emerging historian applied experience in a national park and trail context) with a tangible preservation planning product that would directly support resource stewardship, interpretation, and coordinated planning across park and trail units in the Harpers Ferry area.

• 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 "Historian Intern Authored Cultural Landscape Report" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 15.935.
• This funding opportunity was created on Apr 24, 2018.
• Applicants must submit their applications by May 04, 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 $35,266.00 in funding.
• The number of recipients for this funding is limited to 1 candidate(s).
• Eligible applicants include: Nonprofits having a 501(c)(3) status with the IRS, other than institutions of higher education.

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