Images

This is an overlay of three images showing new gage installations in Utah. 

Cinnamon teal with a GPS tracking backpack that weighs 10 grams, making it much more successful in staying on longer than heavier tracking devices. 

Lake Abert, Oregon is one of the 20 terminal lakes identified by USGS partners as priority ecosystems for study by the Saline Lakes Ecosystems IWAA.

USGS Director, David Applegate visits Great Salt Lake with Rocky Mt Region Director, Peter Griffiths, UT WSC Director, David O'Leary, UT WSC scientists, and many cooperators.

Goose Lake, on the Oregon-California border, is one of the 20 terminal lakes identified by USGS partners as priority ecosystems for study by the Saline Lakes Ecosystems IWAA. 

Summer Lake, Oregon is one of the 20 terminal lakes identified by USGS partners as priority ecosystems for study by the Saline Lakes Ecosystems IWAA.

Salt deposits outside Moab, UT. USGS scientists are studying how salinity in the Upper Colorado Basin has changed over time and how factors like irrigation and climate influence salinity.

The Dolores River, CO, a tributary of the Colorado River. USGS scientists are studying salinity in the Upper Colorado Basin.

The Saline Lake Ecosystems IWAA Waterbird Movement Project began tagging American Avocets in March 2023 to track their movements across the landscape. Tracking data from these birds will help scientists better understand why these birds choose to use the terminal lake and wetland habitats they do in the Great Basin.

Lake Abert, Oregon is one of the 20 terminal lakes identified by USGS partners as priority ecosystems for study by the Saline Lakes Ecosystems IWAA.

American Avocet are a bird that relies heavily on the Saline Lakes ecosystem during their spring migration periods. Over 50% of these birds exist here. Part of their use includes using the terminal lakes there to breed. 

Eared grebes in a courtship behavior in the Great Salt Lake. They are one of many migratory birds in the Great Basin that rely on terminal lakes and wetlands in the area to stop rest and feed. 

Photograph of Summer Lake Wildlife Area, an important stopping spot for migratory birds on their spring and fall migration flights. 

USGS boat approaches water-quality platform. Technicians prepare to pull anchor and remove for lake for winter.

USGS prepares to connect with water-quality platform to service instrumentation and prepare to remove from lake for winter.

Scientists prepare to remove water-quality platform from the lake for the winter. 

Photographer, Jake Seawolf, captured an aerial view of Bear Lake, USGS boat, and employees on a water-quality platform on a cold and blustery November day using a drone. Jake volunteered his time and talents with the USGS. He is a full-time professional photographer for the US Army.

Title page from the Federal Standards and Procedures for the National Watershed Boundary Dataset (WBD), Techniques and Methods 11-A3, Fifth Edition, 2022.This document establishes Federal standards and procedures for creating the WBD as seamless and hierarchical hydrologic unit data, based on topographic and hydrologic features at a 1:24,000 scale (Alaska at 1:

Looking east on Bullgate Pond at sunrise with lone tule white-fronted goose (Anser albifrons elgasi) in upper right, Summer Lake Wildlife Area, near Summer Lake, Oregon.

These brine flies are an important fuel source for migratory birds, giving them energy for long flights. 

These scientists are working on The Great Salt Lake to determine the amount of water and qualities of it. This will help them in developing better management techniques that will work to support the migratory birds that frequent the area.