Images

Thinning rangelands by removing trees such as juniper is a common mangement action done across the intermountain west. The goals of this type of vegetation treatment typically are to increase forage and habitat for grazing animals, improve soil conditions, and/or reduce risks of catastrophic fire.

An example of mowed linear fuel breaks along both sides of a gravel road in southwestern Idaho

A USGS scientist spreads moss fragments for a study to test the restoration potential of moss, an important component of biological soil crust. A jute net, foreground, helps stabilize the moss fragments as they adhere to the soil.

The Wildcat experimental treatment site in southwest Idaho at the base of the Owyhee Mountains. The brown square was treated with pre-emergent herbicide and is free of cheatgrass, a few native perennial bunchgrasses were able to establish. This image was taken the first Spring after treatment.

Cover photo for Shinneman, D.J., Welty, J.L., Arkle, R.S., Pilliod, D.S., Glenn, N.F., McIlroy, S.K., Halford, A.S., 2018, Fuels guide and database for intact and invaded big sagebrush (Artemisia tridentata) ecological sites—User manual: U.S. Geological Survey Data Series Report 1048, p.

This remote area along the southern Idaho-Oregon border was affected by the 2015 Soda Fire, which burned nearly 400 square miles of sagebrush habitat important to many species of wildlife, as well as federal and private ranchlands.

Scientists are studying several weed suppressive bacteria to see if they can be used as a biological control on invasive exotic grasses, such as cheatgrass.

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.

Sagebrush around Granby and Willow Creek Reservoirs.             

Mangrove forest, Rhizophora mangle tunnel, Charlotte Harbor Preserve State Park, Florida. 

Pinyon-juniper and sagebrush on Juniper Mountain, Nevada.                  

Sagebrush ecosystem in the winter.                      

Sagebrush after juniper removal in Utah.                       

The copious rocks carried by the September 2013 Colorado floodwaters pulverized and diluted non-floatable materials from the built environment on the Left Hand Canyon.

While sampling the sediments deposited by the September 2013 Colorado floods, the scientists observed that roads (Left Hand Canyon highway) and houses built on the outside bends of river meanders were particularly vulnerable to flood damages.

Map of historic and current sage-grouse range in 2000, provided as a download from the old USGS Sagemap website.

Greater sage-grouse male, in flight.                         

Leking Greater sage-grouse and pronghorn male, Twin Springs lek, Nevada.            

Sagebrush in the Great Basin, Utah                           

Sagebrush-dominated ecoregions in the western United States (sagebrush cover types shown in various shades of yellow, pink, and blue-grey).