Monitoring

The expansion of the bat fungal disease White-Nose Syndrome (WNS) to the Pacific Northwest is centered in western Washington. The USGS partners with the National Park Service on projects to understand bat distribution, activity, and disease spread in and around Washington’s National Parks.

Fire rehabilitation programs have existed within federal agencies since the early 1960s. The U.S. Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management are the largest users of emergency stabilization and rehabilitation (ES&R) funds, but these agencies only sporadically implement proposed monitoring and rarely use common protocols. As a result, it is impossible to draw scientifically credible conclusions...

The Land Treatment Exploration Tool provides a practical resource for managers who are planning restoration and rehabilitation actions on public lands. The tool generates a variety of spatial products while being user friendly for all levels of GIS expertise, even to those with little or no experience.

Flight facilitates comparatively rapid access to large areas, and the study of the movements of birds is essential for learning their relationships to their environment, and for managing the resources on which they depend and conserving the communities in which they live. Often the amount of space used by raptors varies with behavior associated with the birds’ ages and with the annual cycle. For...

This research largely involves developing and applying survey methods to gather and analyze data to study raptor population biology and population status. Results also provide land and wildlife managers with information about the general distribution and local occurrence of birds of prey. Most raptor species occur in low densities compared to other birds. Raptors are widely dispersed during much...

Restoration of aquatic ecosystems involves a broad spectrum of active and passive efforts. Passive efforts rely on natural recovery of ecosystems, such as land use practices that protect riparian zones and sources of wood and sediment that drive the geomorphic and associated biological functions in streams. Active efforts involve more direct intervention, usually applied to specific locations, to...

We study aspects of basic biology and ecology of predators to contribute to understanding ecosystems and to provide results that can be applied to the conservation of natural resources. Subject matter includes behavior and relationships of birds to features of their environment such as habitat, prey, and contaminants.

The Oregon spotted frog ( Rana pretiosa) is a medium-sized anuran native to the northwestern United States. Body coloration ranges from brown or tan to brick red, usually overlaid with dark, ragged spots. Oregon spotted frogs can be distinguished from other native species by their relatively short hind legs, orange or red wash of color on underside of abdomen and legs, and upturned chartreuse eyes...

The Pacific Northwest includes a patchwork of public lands managed by numerous state and federal agencies. Our research informs and supports these agencies as they conserve and manage native amphibian species, including pre- and post-treatment assessment, decision support, long-term monitoring, population translocation, and habitat restoration.

Energy production has become essential for modern society. At the same time, this process can have negative effects on wildlife and ecosystems. It is in the best interest of society and the environment to understand these effects and to manage and mitigate for them. Our team focuses on measuring how energy development influences birds of prey and learning how to minimize impacts.

Development of wind-power and solar facilities is expected to increase dramatically in areas occupied by golden eagles in the western U.S. Renewable energy development in areas used by golden eagles poses a unique challenge to natural resource managers because of this species’ vulnerability to collisions with wind turbines and sensitivity to changes in human land-use.

Quaking aspen stands typically support higher avian abundance and diversity than surrounding habitat types, and our current distribution and abundance of bird species in the Great Basin is likely tied to the persistence of aspen on the landscape. Aspen populations are declining in much of the West due to changes in fire frequency, competition with conifers, animal grazing, drought, disease, and...