This financial assistance opportunity is being issued under a Cooperative Ecosystem Studies Unit, CESU program. CESUs are partnerships that provide research, technical assistance, and education. Funds under this cooperative agreement award are to be used for a graduate student to conduct research for a masters thesis on rural subsistence users engaged in collaborative management of fish and wildlife. It will identify factors affecting collaborative management of natural resources on the Yukon Kuskokwim River Delta as well as identify factors contributing to the decline in Federal subsistence regional advisory council applicants in the Yukon Kuskokwim Region. This research also will provide the Office of Subsistence Management with information pertaining to the factors impacting collaboration, communication, and capacity building between rural subsistence users and resource managers and will analyze similarities and differences between the findings from Jacobs and Brooks research in 2011 and this study. This study will provide information that will improve meaningful participation of rural subsistence users in collaborative management and provide resource managers with information to help guide effective consultation with rural subsistence users. See the application instructions for more infromation.