Images

Touring public lands, guided by the people who manage the lands, is a important to RAMPS. On these tours we get to meet the passionate people, understand their challenges and aspirations, and help make steps towards innovative science-based solutions.

RAMPS works with public land managers to better understand the challenges they face, so that the decision frameworks and tools they create are relevant. Learn more at RAMPS.

Dark biocrusts. Photo taken by SBSC in Utah during surveys, 2018, courtesy of Erika Geiger.

Organ pipe cactus are rare in the Sonoran desert in the U.S. They can only be found in and around Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument, shown here. The distribution of Organ Pipe Cactus is limited due to lack of tolerance for cold temperatures. The biota of the Sonoran desert is particularly senstive to disturbance.

Saguaro cacti flower and produce fruit in the spring in Tucson, Saguaro National Park, southern Arizona. Photo by Daniel Winkler, SBSC, USGS.

Biocrusts damaged by vehicle. Photo taken by SBSC during surveys, Utah, courtesy of Erika Geiger, 2018.

Rangelands of the desert Southwest can be in a degraded condition and lacking perennial vegetation, which can lead to exposed soil and erosion.

Comb Ridge in southeastern Utah. Photo courtesy of Rob Massatti, USGS, Southwest Biological Science Center, taken in 2017.

The USGS RAMPS program hosts workshops where land managers from federal, state, and local agencies, practitioners, and NGO's can come together to discuss challenges and develop creative solutions.

USGS, National Park Service, BLM and a rancher discuss a rangeland drought experiment in Canyonlands National Park.

USGS discusses grassland drought research with the National Park Service, BLM and a rancher at Canyonlands National Park.

Water flowing into a pool in a desert canyon tributary near the Colorado River and Grand Canyon. Bats fly above the surface of the pool, drinking and catching insects. Video by Anya Metcalfe, USGS, SBSC.

The iconic Sonoran Desert is home to many species of cactus, vascular plants, and wildlife, including the giant saguaro, cholla, and prickley pear cacti seen here. Plants and animals have adapted to living in such a harsh dry environment.

A male southwestern pond turtle (Actinemys pallida) in riparian vegetation in the sun next to water, Mojave River, CA. This turtle is missing its left foot. Photo by Shellie (Michelle) Puffer, 2017.

The USGS Southwest Biological Science Center discusses rangeland conditions and our research on drought with managers and partners on the Colorado Plateau. Photo courtesy of Mike Duniway, USGS.

Taken 94 years apart, these side by side photographs of river mile 91.7 (looking upstream) show the increase in vegetation along the Colorado River corridor after the opening of the Glen Canyon Dam in 1963. F.C. La Rue (1923 photo) on left; H.C. Fairley and A.H. Fairley (2017 USGS photo) on right.

The San Rafael grasslands are a diverse ecosystem in southern Arizona along the U.S./Mexico border region, a part of the Madrean Archipelago ecoregion.

USFWS, BLM, and USGS examining a large, newly reclaimed oil or gas well pad near Vernal, Utah, July 2017. 

Sarah Waldo conducts greenhouse gas analysis with analyzer and floating chamber on Lake Powell as part of an SBSC, Grand Canyon Monitoring and Research Center study. Photo taken in 2017.

USGS ecologists Molly McCormick (left) and Katie Laushman (right) conducting a seeding experiment that is a part of RAMPS, a new USGS-led initiative to improve restoration outcomes in

Landscape view of the arid southwest in the four-courners region.