Images

A Motus tower installed on the spillway of the former Glines Canyon Dam in Olympic National Park. The solar-powered array of radio antennae will detect the signals send by tiny transmitters known as “nanotags” that have been attached to small flying animals. This tower was installed to study bat movement behavior.

A researcher holds a myotis bat during the process of capturing bats to fit them with Motus transmitters.

A scientist carefully collects a soil sample to determine soil density. Accurate soil density measurements are required for scaling soil carbon from the plot to the landscape. 

Researchers examine a bat wing while in the process of capturing bats to attach tiny Motus radio tags to track their movements.

A team of biologists prepares to measure, weigh, and tag a captured bats. On the left, USGS biologist Gabe Reyes has a bat in a bag, used to separate and calm the bats. USGS biologist Julia Ersan is holding some alcohol used to ensure clean instruments and work surfaces, and USGS biologist Austin Waag is getting something out of a backpack.

A sagebrush steppe landscape in northern Nevada, photographed during field work near Owyhee.

Scientists using binoculars and radio telemetry to survey for northwestern pond turtles at Hills Creek Reservoir in Oregon. USGS is collaborating with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to study turtle movements in reservoirs in response to fluctuating water levels.

A plot that was sprayed with herbicides to control invasion of exotic annual grasses after the Martin Fire in northern Nevada. The white line defines the boundaries of the plot.

A FIREss team scientist analyzing field data at the Snake River Field Station in Boise, Idaho.

Scientists in the field monitoring the effects of experimental herbicide treatments for controlling exotic annual grasses in the Boise River Wildlife Management Area.

A map of an area of the Minidoka National Wildlife Refuge that was burned by wildfire. Researchers conducted experiments testing the longevity of herbicides for controlling exotic annual grasses. The fire perimeter is displayed with a red outline. Stripes of tan were sprayed with indaziflam. Stripes of purple were treated with indaziflam and imazapic.

A sagebrush seedling that was grown in a nursery and then planted at the Idaho/Oregon Soda wildfire treatment area

A field of sagebrush in northern Nevada, photographed at sunset after a day of field work.

A field technician photographing a vegetation monitoring plot at the site of the Martin Fire in northern Nevada.

A sagebrush plant photographed at a park in Boise, Idaho. Sagebrush landscapes cover a vast part of the western U.S. but are threatened by invasive grasses and a cycle of more frequent and more intense wildfires.

USGS scientist Nick Esser using radio telemetry to track northwestern pond turtles at Fall Creek Reservoir in Oregon. USGS researchers partner with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to study movement of turtles in response to fluctuating water levels.

An experimental plot that was drill seeded with native grasses after the Martin Fire in northern Nevada. Drill seeding is a method in which a drill buries seeds into the soil at a targeted depth that is ideal for that plant species. A tractor typically pulls the drill along to bury the seeds in rows.

This landscape south of Rock Springs, Wyoming was burned and subsequently invaded by cheatgrass. Cheatgrass has a short growing season and leaves behind mats of dry, dead material that serves as wildfire fuel--contributing to a cycle of more frequent and larger wildfires and more plant invasions.

Cheatgrass has invaded the space between sagebrush shrubs on this landscape south of Rock Springs in Wyoming. 

This site south of Rock Springs in Wyoming was not burned but cheatgrass has invaded the space between sagebrush shrubs. 

This site was burned but not invaded by exotic annual grasses. Many perennial bunchgrasses were present before the fire and were able to recover quickly afterwards.