Publications

The National Park Service (NPS) is charged with maintaining natural riverine resources and processes in its parks along the Yampa River and downstream along the Green River. This mission requires information on how proposed water withdrawals would affect resources. We present a methodology that quantifies the impact on natural riverine and riparian features of Dinosaur National Monument based on a

Managing fire ignitions for resource benefit decreases fuel loads and reduces the risk of high-severity fire in fire-suppressed dry conifer forests. However, the reintroduction of low-severity wildfire can injure trees, which may decrease their growth after fire. Post-fire growth responses could change from first-entry fires to reburns, as first-entry fires reduce fuel loads and the vulnerability

The U.S. Geological Survey, Bureau of Land Management, and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service partnered to develop a new type of science product: the structured science synthesis. Structured science syntheses are peer-reviewed reports that synthesize science information about a priority resource management issue on public lands. Structured science syntheses are developed explicitly to facilitate the a

Efforts to restore habitats and conserve wildlife species face many challenges that are exacerbated by limited funding and resources. Habitat restoration actions are often conducted across a range of habitat conditions, with limited information available to predict potential outcomes among local sites and identify those that may lead to the greatest returns on investment. Using the Gunnison sage-g

The U.S. Geological Survey Community for Data Integration annually funds small projects focusing on data integration for interdisciplinary research, innovative data management, and demonstration of new technologies. This report provides a summary of the 12 projects funded in fiscal year 2020, outlining their goals, activities, and accomplishments.

BackgroundWildfires are increasing in size and severity due to climate change combined with overstocked forests. Fire increases the likelihood of debris flows, posing significant threats to life, property, and water supplies.AimsWe conducted a debris-flow hazard assessment of the Santa Fe Municipal Watershed (SFMW) to answer two questions: (1) where are debris flows most likely to occur; and (2) h

Traditionally, local-scale habitat-relationship models are developed over small spatial extents, limiting model transferability and inference outside the study area. Thus, habitat managers frequently lack fine-scale information regarding the influence of vegetation composition and structure on site suitability or species abundance. Gymnorhinus cyanocephalus (Pinyon Jay) represents one declining sp

In this paper we provide a concise yet comprehensive examination of the importance and sustainability of trail networks, considering a diverse array of perspectives. Sustainability related to recreation infrastructure elements has been variously defined, with different disciplines often only considering one or two aspects of sustainability. In the context of trail networks, we suggest that there m

Severe fire on steep slopes increases stormwater runoff and the occurrence of runoff-initiated debris flows. Predicting locations of debris flows and their downstream effects on trunk streams requires watershed-scale high-resolution topographic data. Intense precipitation in July and September 2013 following the June 2011 Las Conchas Fire in the Jemez Mountains, New Mexico, led to widespread debri

Road networks and their associated vehicular traffic disturb many terrestrial systems, but inventories of roads used to assess these effects often focus on the ‘where’ (e.g., local road type and density) and neglect the ‘when’ (e.g., temporal disturbance) or ‘how much’ (e.g., traffic volume disturbance). We developed annual estimates of the ‘when’ (road age) and ‘how much’ (vehicular traffic volum

Drippy blight, an emergent bacterial disease of oaks, was described recently from urban oaks in the Front Range of Colorado, USA. This disease, which causes branch dieback and oozing of bacterial exudates from cankers, is caused by Lonsdalea quercina and primarily affects red oaks, with Northern red oak (Quercus rubra) the most susceptible. Drippy nut is a similar, less acute condition that exists

Hydrologic stress is increasing in Fremont cottonwood (Populus fremontii) forests across the southwestern United States because of increased temperature and streamflow diversion. The spatial variability of this stress is large yet poorly understood. Along the Yampa and Green Rivers in Colorado and Utah, vapour pressure deficit and flow diversions increase downstream. To investigate effects of this