Management and Restoration

Greater sage-grouse ( Centrocercus urophasianus) are at the center of state and national land use policies largely because of their unique life-history traits as an ecological indicator for health of sagebrush ecosystems. Researchers within the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and Colorado State University (CSU) worked with the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and state wildlife agencies to develop a...

Scientific information is fundamental to understanding how proposed actions on public lands may impact the environment. Development of new science is occurring at rates that can make it challenging for biologists, resource managers, decision makers, private landowners, and other stakeholders to ensure they are using up-to-date, high-quality science information to inform their decisions. Further...

Wildlife movement and distribution can be influenced by local conditions like topography and landscape features, and the distances within which species respond to their landscape – scales of effect – can vary over space and time. We are estimating scales of effect for wildlife population trends to help land managers determine the distance within which wildlife will respond to landscape change.

Land and resource managers are increasingly aware of the contribution of biocrusts to ecological functions and have expressed interest in training and resources to recognize biocrusts in the field. This knowledge will help enable managers to address biocrusts in carrying out analyses under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). WERC scientists have drafted a single page, easy guide to...

Land and resource managers are increasingly interested in up-to-date information for biocrust conservation and management. To facilitate the use of evolving science by land managers, WERC scientists are compiling a synthesis of recent work on biocrusts related to their ecology and management. This knowledge will help enable managers to address biocrusts in carrying out analyses under the National...

The Greater Sage-grouse Population Monitoring Framework fills a prominent information gap to help inform current assessments of sage-grouse population trends at nested spatial and temporal scales. It is centered on four objectives: (1) create a standardized database of lek counts; (2) develop spatial population structures by clustering leks; (3) estimate spatial trends at different temporal...

The Greater Sage-grouse Population Monitoring Framework fills a prominent information gap to aid current assessments of sage-grouse population trends across spatial and temporal scales. It centers on four objectives: 1) create a standardized database of lek counts; 2) cluster leks to develop spatial population structures; 3) estimate spatial trends across temporal extents; and 4) develop a system...

The Greater Sage-grouse Population Monitoring Framework fills a prominent information gap to aid current assessments of sage-grouse population trends across spatial and temporal scales. It centers on four objectives: 1) create a standardized database of lek counts; 2) cluster leks to develop spatial population structures; 3) estimate spatial trends across temporal extents; and 4) develop a system...

The Greater Sage-grouse Population Monitoring Framework fills a prominent information gap to aid current assessments of sage-grouse population trends across spatial and temporal scales. It centers on four objectives: 1) create a standardized database of lek counts; 2) cluster leks to develop spatial population structures; 3) estimate spatial trends across temporal extents; and 4) develop a system...

USGS is developing a decision support tool to help managers quantify the impact of wetland restoration on carbon sequestration in wetland reserve easements in Kentucky and Tennessee.

Biological soil crusts (biocrusts) are a community of living organisms, like moss, lichen, and algae, covering soils in arid and semi-arid ecosystems, providing important ecological functions like carbon cycling and soil stabilization. Analyses show that biocrusts are negatively associated with the abundance of invasive annual grasses that are responsible for increasing fire across the Great Basin...

Western Ecological Research Center (WERC) scientists provide valuable support to management agencies as they work toward recovery of the threatened Stephens’ kangaroo rat (Dipodomys stephensi). The Stephen’s kangaroo rat (SKR) occupies a limited range of habitat within southern California. WERC’s long-term monitoring of SKR at several sites has revealed local trends in distribution and abundance...