Images

Distribution of free embryos to boats in preparation for mass release.

Pre-deployment briefing for the Upper Missouri River Pallid Sturgeon Drift Study. Fish biologists and physical scientists from Montana Fish Wildlife and Parks, US Geological Survey, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, University of Montana, Nebraska Game and Parks Commission, and US Army Corps of Engineers go over the sample design and assignments.

Simultaneous mass release of 700,000 free embryos from boats distributed across the channel of the Upper Missouri River.

Student Contractor Garrett Cook processes a drift sample collected on June 27 shortly after the free embryos and beads were released. Note the small cluster of pallid sturgeon free embryos and green beads in the lower portion of the sorting tray. These embryos and beads were elements of the Upper Missouri River drift experiment.

USGS scientists prepare to mix rhodamine-WT dye for the dye trace experiment.  The suits are to keep the harmless dye off of clothing.

Monitoring riparian vegetation along the Colorado River downstream of Glen Canyon Dam

Macro photo of a developing pallid sturgeon embryo. Developing embryo appears light gray

Developing pallid sturgeon embryo.

Led by Dr. Al Zale with the Montana Cooperative Fishery Research Unit at Montana State University, researchers Michael Lance and T. David Ritter are working closely with Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks personnel, local landowners, and engineers to study salmonid movements in the popular Smith River system in central Montana.

The USGS monitors water quality at the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore in Empire, Michigan. 

The USGS monitors water quality at the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore in Empire, Michigan. 

River channel mapping boats on a sandbar beach on the Colorado River, in Grand Canyon, 2016. USGS photo, public domain.

A piping plover adult standing over a nest scrape with four eggs. Photo was taken on the Garrison Reach of the Missouri River, North Dakota

A piping plover adult stands on a sandbar on the Garrison Reach of the Missouri River, North Dakota. The yellow alphanumeric leg flag and color bands that identify it are clearly visible.

Two banded piping plover adults stand near a nest with a small video camera pointed at it on a sandbar on the Garrison Reach of the Missouri River, North Dakota. The yellow alphanumeric leg flag and color bands that identify it are clearly visible. Video cameras were used to identify adults attending nests. 

A pink-footed shearwater in flight.

NPS/USGS remote den camera. Fisher family denning in a mountain beaver burrow. Look carefully! Two fisher kits in front of their den site in a mountain beaver burrow (foreground) with mom (background left) watching on. The kits are about 4-5 months old.

A USGS grizzly bear researcher snapped this picture of a mother grizzly bear and her cub in Yellowstone National Park. Adult females are the most important segment of the grizzly bear populations because they are the reproductive engine.

A female Agassiz's desert tortoise at Joshua Tree National Park lounges in the entrance of her burrow, wearing a USGS radio.

Biological soil crusts, or biocrusts, are lichens, mosses, and cyanobacteria that grow on the soil surface and are common in the spaces between native plants in arid and semi-arid systems. Biocrusts reduce soil erosion, contribute to nutrient and water cycling, and reduce evaporation and invasion by exotic plants.

Researcher wearing blue gloves holds a northern long-eared bat during a field trip to Rock Creek Park in Washington, D.C.