Adaptive Management

USGS is identifying, testing, and verifying rapid methods for rangeland assessment and restoration monitoring. Our methods complement existing monitoring frameworks, providing land management agencies with timely information that can be used to determine if restoration investments are successful, and why. Standardization, validation, repeatability, data management, and training are at the core of...

In 2021, the Fort Collins Science Center initiated a research effort to estimate road age and annual traffic volumes across the majority of roads in Wyoming for assessing impacts to wildlife. Data on roads often focus on the ‘where’ (for example, spatial features) but neglect the ‘when’ (for example, road age) or ‘how much’ (for example, traffic volume). Knowing these characteristics is critical...

Coastal ecosystems provide critical local and national societal benefits such as coastal protection and fish nurseries but are some of the most heavily used and threatened systems on the planet. The Mangrove Science Network is a collaboration of USGS scientists focused on working with natural resource managers to develop and conduct mangrove research.

Sagebrush ecosystems and sagebrush-dependent wildlife species are likely to experience more frequent extreme drought and temperature conditions with changing climate. Greater sage-grouse ( Centrocercus urophasianus), an indicator species in sagebrush ecosystems, may experience habitat and population losses that are increasingly exacerbated by current and future climate change. However, the direct...

We are building a 21st century wildlife monitoring system to inform resource management of the impacts of drought, wildfire, land use, climate change, and other landscape level stressors. The Automated Interactive Monitoring System (AIMS) for Wildlife will provide an actionable data stream by combining enormous quantities of wildlife movement data with environmental data and delivering it to...

In 2021, the Fort Collins Science Center initiated a research effort to 1) assess how traffic in Wyoming has impacted sage-grouse population growth rates, 2) identify the spatial scales at which these effects are most evident, and 3) identify what levels of traffic result in sage-grouse population declines.

City of Rocks National Reserve and Craters of the Moon National Monument and Preserve are lands managed by the National Park Service that contain ecologically valuable stands of sagebrush and unique forest communities that are at risk due to wildfire and invasion by exotic annual grasses. We are working to determine the extent of invasion and to provide park managers with wildfire risk assessments...

We are investigating ecosystem transitions and thresholds in the sagebrush steppe, studying factors influencing the shift from native to invaded plant communities after disturbances like fire. Our research tests region-wide resistance and resilience models, focusing on real-world recovery patterns, pre-fire conditions, plant succession, and land management treatments.

Increased wildfire-induced loss of sagebrush in North American shrublands are outpacing natural recovery and leading to substantial habitat loss for sagebrush-obligate species like sage-grouse. Transplanting sagebrush ( Artemisia species) is a possible strategy for revegetating burned areas, but little is known about sage-grouse or other wildlife responses to restoration strategies.

We are studying how herbicides sprayed onto soil to prevent the establishment of exotic annual grasses such as cheatgrass may impact the health, growth resources and microbiota of soils in sagebrush-steppe, where herbicide use is an important and common tool. Our findings will help make herbicide applications more successful.

Pre-emergent herbicides applied to soil are a primary tool for reducing exotic annual grasses, such as cheatgrass, in sagebrush steppe rangelands. Effective herbicide application can allow existing perennials to grow and spread to outcompete cheatgrass, preventing reinvasion, but most perennials are slow-growing and require more years of relief from annual-grass competition than standard...

After the Soda Wildfire burned nearly 280,000 acres of public and private land in southwest Idaho, the Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) Emergency and Rehabilitation and Stabilization program (ESR) applied herbicide and seeding treatments to prevent exotic annual grass invasion and restore native vegetation. To reduce the threat of future wildfire, the BLM also constructed a network of linear...