Remote Sensing

Renewable energy development, such as solar and wind energy, is growing in the United States and is expected to continue expanding for the foreseeable future. However, renewable energy infrastructure can be a risk to some wildlife including threatened and endangered species. Wildlife managers and energy developers need wildlife risks to be assessed and effective strategies to mitigate those risks...

The USGS Snow and Avalanche Project (SNAP) uses remotely sensed technologies to understand snowpack changes that influence water storage, recreation, avalanche hazard and acts as a driver of landscape change. Satellites, uninhabited aerial systems (UAS), and structure-from-motion (SfM) photogrammetry are some of the tools scientists use to collect high resolution imagery that supports ongoing snow...

Across the globe, glaciers are decreasing in volume and number in response to climate change. Glaciers are important for agriculture, hydropower, recreation, tourism, and biological communities. Loss of glaciers contributes to sea-level rise, creates environmental hazards and can alter aquatic habitats. These are among the cascading effects linked to glacier loss which impact ecosystems and human...

The Interagency Grizzly Bear Study Team (IGBST) is an interdisciplinary group of scientists and biologists responsible for long-term monitoring and research efforts on grizzly bears in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem (GYE). The team was formed by the Department of the Interior (DOI) in 1973 as a direct result of controversy surrounding the closure of open pit garbage dumps within Yellowstone...

Today, the alternative energy and telecommunications industries are developing the airspace much the way metropolitan growth and mechanized agriculture develop the landscape. NOROCK scientists and partners are using both historical and traditional technologies in new and innovative ways to observe wildlife behaviors in response to these changing habitats.

The wild hog (Sus scrofa) is an exotic invasive species that significantly impacts native resources and their populations are expanding significantly throughout the United States. In addition, wild hogs are likely contributing to the spread of disease such as pseudorabies. National Park Service units in the Southeast that have populations of exotic wild hogs include Big South Fork National River...

NOROCK science has developed capabilities for the remote sensing and evaluation of burns. Working with diverse institutions and individuals in fire science and information technology, we advance mutual interests of fire science partners by undertaking relevant research, and by disseminating findings through coordination and technology transfer.

Fishery biologists and managers are increasingly consumed with the recovery and restoration of native trout and salmon throughout the western United States. These fish historically inhabited a variety of freshwater habitats, but have declined due to habitat degradation, fragmentation and introduction of nonnative species. Introduced fishes constitute a major threat to the persistence of native...

Accurate projections of climate change and associated impacts on wildlife are now essential to conservation planning, but predictive models of range shifts for many species are often coarse, ignore extinction dynamics, and overestimate suitable habitat. Recent studies suggest the American pika (Ochotona princeps) is vulnerable to increasing heat stress in the Great Basin yet appears more resilient...

Beyond large-scale climate models, it is becoming increasingly important to quantify how regional climate patterns link with in situ stream temperatures and hydrologic regimes and concomitantly, fish behavior, growth, and survival. Here, we are using comprehensive mark-recapture techniques to evaluate how changing climatic conditions are likely to influence native westslope cutthroat trout and non...

USGS collected GPS data as well as genetic and other samples on over 100 bighorn sheep east of the Continental Divide in Glacier National Park, Waterton National Park, and the Blackfeet Reservation. Bighorn sheep across the west are vulnerable to disease such as pneumonia. We are therefore working to improve our understanding of bighorn sheep movements, approaches for monitoring bighorns, and...

Between 2005 and 2010, we radio- collared 61 female elk (Cervus elaphus) on Fossil Butte National Monument and 12 female elk near Cokeville, Wyoming, slightly northwest of the Monument, all from the West Green River herd. We are using the 209,250 locations from these elk to identify seasonal distribution patterns, evaluate habitat use, and assess factors influencing the timing of migration...