Reports

Introduction In September 2021, National Park Service staff, U.S. Geological Survey scientists, and an international team of researchers revealed evidence in the form of human footprints at White Sands National Park, New Mexico, that showed people were present in North America between 23,000 and 21,000 years ago. This time was during the Last Glacial Maximum, when large ice sheets...

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), in cooperation with the Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development, collected water-withdrawal and water-use data from a 2020 inventory of water withdrawals in Louisiana. In 2020, approximately 8,700 million gallons per day (Mgal/d) of water was withdrawn from groundwater and surface-water sources in Louisiana, which represented a 0.22...

This is a description of survey procedures for short term vegetation monitoring at Natural Infrastructure in Dryland Stream (NIDS) structure sites and control sites a ranch in the Los Planes, La Paz, Baja California Sur. This study design was modified from USGS Short Term Vegetation Response Study (Wilson et al. 2021) with the goal to quantify changes in species abundance/cover...

The giant gartersnake (Thamnophis gigas) is a semi aquatic snake endemic to the Central Valley of California. After losing 95 percent of its historic wetland habitat (Frayer and others, 1989), giant gartersnakes became state and federally listed as a threatened species (California Fish and Game Commission, 1971; U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service 1993, 1999). Continued monitoring of current

Using a geology-based assessment methodology, the U.S. Geological Survey estimated undiscovered, technically recoverable mean resources of 3 million barrels of oil and 343.5 trillion cubic feet of gas in reservoirs of the Bossier Formation within the onshore United States and State waters of the Gulf Coast region.

As the population of New Jersey continues to remain dense, the need for water supply will likely continue to be high, which can lead to water managers needing to make difficult decisions about managing drinking-water supply. Streamgaging weirs like the ones used by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) play a critical role in providing accurate and stable streamflow data, but their presence...

Introduction New bedrock and surficial geologic mapping in the Sparta East, Sparta West, and parts of the Glade Valley and Whitehead 7.5-minute quadrangles, North Carolina and Virginia, investigates the geologic framework and causative mechanisms of the August 9, 2020, Mw 5.1 earthquake near Sparta, North Carolina. The mapping documents (1) the coseismic surface rupture from the 2020...

Introduction Currently (2026), many of the about 25,000 roadway crossing structures over rivers and streams in Massachusetts are undersized. Undersized culverts and bridges can be detrimental to fish and wildlife movement, habitat continuity, and the health of aquatic organisms. Undersized culverts also can lack the resiliency needed to withstand large floods, which could be worsened by...

Water-supply managers in the Colorado River Basin are tasked with balancing consumptive water use with natural water supply. Decisions associated with water-supply policy can include where and how much water consumption occurs, where water could be stored, and how to operate reservoirs. Water-supply decisions often affect other resources including energy production, recreation and...

The Geochemical Geodatabase of Sedimentary Strata (Coal, Coal-adjacent Rocks, Tuffaceous Oil Shale, Phosphate-rich Rocks) and Produced Water in the Uinta Region, Utah and Colorado, consists of compiled datasets acquired as part of the Carbon Ore, Rare Earth, and Critical Mineral (CORE-CM) Uinta Region assessment funded by the U.S. Department of Energy (DEFE0032046, 2021–2024; Birgenheier...

Droughts impact water availability and quality, agriculture, energy production, ecosystem health, cultural resources, and wildfire risk. In an average year, nearly 15% of the US experiences significant drought, and in some recent years, drought conditions have impacted more than a third of the nation (U.S. Drought Monitor). The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Climate Adaptation Science...

This report details the development and analysis of single nucleotide polymorphic loci to understand population genetic structure and diversity among local populations of the Harbison’s dun skipper, Euphyes vestris harbisoni, primarily in San Diego County, California, USA. We developed a set of 2984 SNPs. Local populations were clustered into two to three regional genetic clusters...