Monitoring Frameworks

The North American Breeding Bird Survey (BBS) Portal is a modern information system that enables volunteer observers and regional coordinators to manage survey routes, enter field data, and coordinate route assignments online. The portal replaces legacy paper-based and outdated digital workflows with a streamlined interface built for the BBS community. Observers can view their assigned routes...

Wild horses and burros are iconic wildlife of the western USA as well as a complicated management issue on tribal, state, and federal lands. Due to their history as domesticated animals, these wild equids – also called “free-roaming” or “feral” equids – can reproduce quickly, and have few natural predators, allowing their populations to grow rapidly if not managed. When populations are too large...

Greater sage-grouse ( Centrocercus urophasianus) are at the center of state and national land use policies largely because of their unique life-history traits and their role as an ecological indicator for the health of sagebrush ecosystems. Multiple science centers with the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) in conjunction with Colorado State University (CSU) have developed the Greater Sage-Grouse...

The Strain and Genetic Online Tissue Repository (SAGOTR) is being developed by the USGS Fort Collins Science Center to document, track, discover, and request physical samples of Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD). SAGOTR connects natural resource managers, tissue repositories, and researchers in one online platform, making it easier to locate and share samples and support research and management of CWD...

Bats are essential contributing members of healthy, functioning ecosystems. They perform numerous ecosystem services like insect pest control and plant pollination, and provide enormous economic benefits through ecotourism, medical research, and novel biotechnologies. North American bats face unprecedented threats including habitat loss and fragmentation, white-nose syndrome, and wind energy...

Once numbering in the tens of millions, plains bison ( Bison bison bison) were nearly driven to extinction with only a few hundred individuals remaining by the late 19th century. Plains bison have since recovered to approximately 20,000 animals managed in conservation herds throughout North America, yet substantial challenges to their recovery remain. The Department of the Interior (DOI) stewards...