Fish and Wildlife

The North American Waterfowl Management Plan (NAWMP) represents the foundational and successful effort to manage waterfowl and migratory bird in North America. Continued success of NAWMP depends on maintaining relevance to partners and society over time. Social science research supports NAWMP by providing a better understanding of what people value regarding waterfowl and their habitats.

Environmental stressors that impact habitat and wildlife species include: abiotic factors (for example, land use, temperature); soil, air, and water quality (for example, eutrophication, contaminants); and disturbance (for example, fire, drought, hurricanes, species invasions). Understanding how these stressors impact ecosystems is critical to conservation and management.

The Southwest Montana Sagebrush Partnership (SMSP) team, including land managers, landowners, and scientists, is implementing conifer removal projects encompassing over 55,000 acres of private, state, and federal lands throughout the region. To date, little place-based information exists regarding likely vegetation and bird responses to such treatments in Southwestern Montana. To address this...

Researchers at USGS are using historical wild horse survey and monitoring records to conduct a study of horse density across sagebrush ecosystems of the western United States. Researchers will develop generalized density maps for the species that will enhance concurrent evaluations into the ecological effects of wild horse populations.

Diseases are challenging to manage in wild ungulate populations, particularly when there are many ways the disease can spread. Wildlife management agencies often need to take action to control disease spread, but it is unclear which actions are most effective in constraining disease because the importance of different spread mechanisms is not fully understood. This project will aid state wildlife...

The Greater Sage-grouse Population Monitoring Framework fills a prominent information gap to help inform current assessments of sage-grouse population trends at nested spatial and temporal scales. It is centered on four objectives: (1) create a standardized database of lek counts; (2) develop spatial population structures by clustering leks; (3) estimate spatial trends at different temporal...

The Greater Sage-grouse Population Monitoring Framework fills a prominent information gap to aid current assessments of sage-grouse population trends across spatial and temporal scales. It centers on four objectives: 1) create a standardized database of lek counts; 2) cluster leks to develop spatial population structures; 3) estimate spatial trends across temporal extents; and 4) develop a system...

The Greater Sage-grouse Population Monitoring Framework fills a prominent information gap to aid current assessments of sage-grouse population trends across spatial and temporal scales. It centers on four objectives: 1) create a standardized database of lek counts; 2) cluster leks to develop spatial population structures; 3) estimate spatial trends across temporal extents; and 4) develop a system...

The Greater Sage-grouse Population Monitoring Framework fills a prominent information gap to aid current assessments of sage-grouse population trends across spatial and temporal scales. It centers on four objectives: 1) create a standardized database of lek counts; 2) cluster leks to develop spatial population structures; 3) estimate spatial trends across temporal extents; and 4) develop a system...

To support management decisions, western state wildlife agencies identified the need for a range-wide database that tracks annual counts of greater sage-grouse ( Centrocercus urophasianus; sage-grouse) at leks (breeding sites), recorded since the early 1950s. Researchers at Colorado State University (CSU) and U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) worked with state wildlife agencies to 1) construct this...

Land and wildlife managers require accurate estimates of sensitive species’ trends to help guide conservation decisions that maintain biodiversity and promote healthy ecosystems. Accurately assessing greater sage-grouse ( Centrocercus urophasianus; sage-grouse) population trends can be difficult because (1) missing lek counts or incomplete repeat counts, (2) variation in counts of sage-grouse from...

The National Park Service (NPS), U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS), and community Citizen Scientists are working together to remove brown treesnakes at War in the Pacific National Historical Park - Asan Beach Unit to aid restoration of native avian and reptile species.