WLCI tour participants included wildlife and range specialists, habitat biologists and partner specialists, hydrologists, and program managers from the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) field and state offices, the Wyoming Game and Fish Department, the US Fish and Wildlife Service, and a PhD student at the University of Wyoming specializing in process-based restoration.  

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Lead researchers Jason Alexander and Cheryl Miller (USGS Wyoming-Montana Water Science Center) selected multiple locations along both creeks to discuss the following science discoveries and long-term research projects:

• Changing grazing practices and land management restoration efforts on Muddy Creek influenced channel stability across the Muddy Creek Basin between 1938 to 2019. 

• The use of streamgages in Muddy Creek to analyze long-term water quality trends. 

• The use of fluvial fine sediment source tracking and video cameras to study fluvial events and sediment distribution in the Littlefield Creek headwaters.  

• The development of the PRObability of Streamflow PERmanence (PROSPER) model to evaluate how drought and other landscape drivers affect water permanence and temperature, and to identify and predict stream reach permanence at high spatial (30 meters) and annual temporal resolutions. 

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The Wyoming Landscape Conservation Initiative (WLCI) is a long-term science-based effort to assess and enhance aquatic and terrestrial habitats at a landscape scale in southwest Wyoming, while facilitating responsible development through local collaboration and partnerships. The USGS WLCI science team supports WLCI by conducting research to understand cumulative effects of development and other drivers of ecosystem change at landscape scales.