Technical assistance to our State and Federal cooperators is an integral part of the mission of the CRU program. The scientific and technical expertise of CRU scientists in areas such as natural resource management, experimental design, data analysis, modeling, and spatial statistics.
Explore a few Technical Assistance Highlights below!
Restoring Burbot in the Kootenai River: A Collaborative Conservation Effort
Once abundant in the Kootenai River of northern Idaho, burbot (Lota lota) have faced decades of decline. Today, Tribal nations, the state of Idaho, and Canadian management partners are working together to rebuild this culturally important and economically valuable fishery. Effective conservation depends heavily on understanding how burbot survive and move throughout the system—knowledge that directly informs sustainable harvest opportunities.
Joshua Heishman, a student funded by the Idaho Department of Fish and Game and mentored through the USGS Idaho Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit, recently completed a major step forward for this effort. Through extensive data analysis, Joshua developed an interactive online decision‑support tool designed to help managers evaluate harvest scenarios while protecting long‑term burbot population health. Following the project’s completion, Joshua accepted a position as a quantitative fisheries scientist with a federally recognized Tribal nation—continuing to support fisheries stewardship across the region.
Technical assistance from the Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Units plays a crucial role in advancing fisheries management by ensuring that partners have access to state‑of‑the‑art science and decision‑support tools. By working directly with agencies, Unit scientists help translate complex ecological data into practical guidance that supports sustainable harvest, species recovery, and long‑term ecosystem health. This collaborative model strengthens management capacity and empowers partners to make informed, science‑driven decisions that benefit both fish populations and the communities that depend on them.
PopEquus: Technical Assistance that Powers Better Wild Horse & Burro Decisions
Scientists at the Nevada Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit built a predictive modeling tool to help Bureau of Land Management (BLM) staff evaluate management scenarios that can reduce wild horse and burro population growth and lower costs. The peer‑reviewed description of the approach—PopEquus: A predictive modeling tool to support management decisions for free‑roaming horse populations—documents the management actions and trade‑offs the tool can simulate (e.g., removals, fertility‑control methods), providing managers with transparent, science‑based decision support.
PopEquus is a web‑based application that allows collaborators to compare “what‑if” scenarios and immediately see expected outcomes for population size, animal handling, and direct costs. The underlying methods were developed by USGS scientists in partnership with BLM and are detailed in the PopEquus article, ensuring the tool’s assumptions, inputs, and outputs are clear and reproducible for managers.
How We Support Collaborators and Managers
- Hands‑on tutorials and onboarding. After the science article and web tool launched in 2023, our team provided guided tutorials for BLM staff, focusing on data entry, scenario design, and interpretation of model outputs for budget and compliance planning.
- Ongoing maintenance and expertise. The tool has been maintained in recent years by staff with the Nevada Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit, including Brian Folt, ensuring updates reflect current management practices and user feedback.
- Science that’s mission‑aligned. Delivering technical assistance is a core mission element of the Cooperative Research Units program—connecting applied research to real‑world management needs for partners like BLM.
Since release, the PopEquus site has received more than 2,500 visits, with over 500 users running simulations and downloading results—evidence that managers and collaborators are actively using the tool to inform planning and operations.
Understanding Hunter Participation Through Data-Driven Insights
In collaboration with the Michigan Department of Natural Resources, Dr. Steven Gray and his team conducted a comprehensive analysis of hunting license sales in relation to multiple environmental and agricultural variables. This work integrates farm characteristics, crop prices, winter weather severity, and indices of upland gamebirds across two states—Michigan and Illinois—to better understand the factors shaping hunter participation.
Because Michigan and Illinois differ substantially in their landscape composition, comparing these states allowed researchers to examine how ecological and agricultural contexts may contribute to hunter attrition. By evaluating trends across these variables, identifiable patterns can help resource managers diagnose declines in hunting activity with greater clarity and technical precision.
The findings provide actionable insights that can help agencies and partners:
• Develop targeted strategies to sustain and grow hunting participation
• Improve land access to support hunting and outdoor recreation
• Enhance conservation outcomes for key upland game species across the Midwest
• Inform adaptive management using data‑driven, state‑specific trends
This analysis underscores the importance of integrating biological, ecological, and socioeconomic datasets to guide future decision‑making. By approaching hunter participation through a technical, evidence‑based lens, Dr. Gray and his team aim to support sustainable recreation opportunities and long‑term stewardship of wildlife resources.
Technical assistance to our State and Federal cooperators is an integral part of the mission of the CRU program. The scientific and technical expertise of CRU scientists in areas such as natural resource management, experimental design, data analysis, modeling, and spatial statistics.
Explore a few Technical Assistance Highlights below!
Restoring Burbot in the Kootenai River: A Collaborative Conservation Effort
Once abundant in the Kootenai River of northern Idaho, burbot (Lota lota) have faced decades of decline. Today, Tribal nations, the state of Idaho, and Canadian management partners are working together to rebuild this culturally important and economically valuable fishery. Effective conservation depends heavily on understanding how burbot survive and move throughout the system—knowledge that directly informs sustainable harvest opportunities.
Joshua Heishman, a student funded by the Idaho Department of Fish and Game and mentored through the USGS Idaho Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit, recently completed a major step forward for this effort. Through extensive data analysis, Joshua developed an interactive online decision‑support tool designed to help managers evaluate harvest scenarios while protecting long‑term burbot population health. Following the project’s completion, Joshua accepted a position as a quantitative fisheries scientist with a federally recognized Tribal nation—continuing to support fisheries stewardship across the region.
Technical assistance from the Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Units plays a crucial role in advancing fisheries management by ensuring that partners have access to state‑of‑the‑art science and decision‑support tools. By working directly with agencies, Unit scientists help translate complex ecological data into practical guidance that supports sustainable harvest, species recovery, and long‑term ecosystem health. This collaborative model strengthens management capacity and empowers partners to make informed, science‑driven decisions that benefit both fish populations and the communities that depend on them.
PopEquus: Technical Assistance that Powers Better Wild Horse & Burro Decisions
Scientists at the Nevada Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit built a predictive modeling tool to help Bureau of Land Management (BLM) staff evaluate management scenarios that can reduce wild horse and burro population growth and lower costs. The peer‑reviewed description of the approach—PopEquus: A predictive modeling tool to support management decisions for free‑roaming horse populations—documents the management actions and trade‑offs the tool can simulate (e.g., removals, fertility‑control methods), providing managers with transparent, science‑based decision support.
PopEquus is a web‑based application that allows collaborators to compare “what‑if” scenarios and immediately see expected outcomes for population size, animal handling, and direct costs. The underlying methods were developed by USGS scientists in partnership with BLM and are detailed in the PopEquus article, ensuring the tool’s assumptions, inputs, and outputs are clear and reproducible for managers.
How We Support Collaborators and Managers
- Hands‑on tutorials and onboarding. After the science article and web tool launched in 2023, our team provided guided tutorials for BLM staff, focusing on data entry, scenario design, and interpretation of model outputs for budget and compliance planning.
- Ongoing maintenance and expertise. The tool has been maintained in recent years by staff with the Nevada Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit, including Brian Folt, ensuring updates reflect current management practices and user feedback.
- Science that’s mission‑aligned. Delivering technical assistance is a core mission element of the Cooperative Research Units program—connecting applied research to real‑world management needs for partners like BLM.
Since release, the PopEquus site has received more than 2,500 visits, with over 500 users running simulations and downloading results—evidence that managers and collaborators are actively using the tool to inform planning and operations.
Understanding Hunter Participation Through Data-Driven Insights
In collaboration with the Michigan Department of Natural Resources, Dr. Steven Gray and his team conducted a comprehensive analysis of hunting license sales in relation to multiple environmental and agricultural variables. This work integrates farm characteristics, crop prices, winter weather severity, and indices of upland gamebirds across two states—Michigan and Illinois—to better understand the factors shaping hunter participation.
Because Michigan and Illinois differ substantially in their landscape composition, comparing these states allowed researchers to examine how ecological and agricultural contexts may contribute to hunter attrition. By evaluating trends across these variables, identifiable patterns can help resource managers diagnose declines in hunting activity with greater clarity and technical precision.
The findings provide actionable insights that can help agencies and partners:
• Develop targeted strategies to sustain and grow hunting participation
• Improve land access to support hunting and outdoor recreation
• Enhance conservation outcomes for key upland game species across the Midwest
• Inform adaptive management using data‑driven, state‑specific trends
This analysis underscores the importance of integrating biological, ecological, and socioeconomic datasets to guide future decision‑making. By approaching hunter participation through a technical, evidence‑based lens, Dr. Gray and his team aim to support sustainable recreation opportunities and long‑term stewardship of wildlife resources.