Restoration

Introduced rats are notorious predators of birds and their nests worldwide, but especially on remote islands. Rats ( Rattus exulans) first arrived in Hawai‘i with Polynesian colonists about 1,000 years ago, resulting in deleterious consequences for native birds and ecosystems. Since Western contact in 1778, two additional rat species have become established in Hawai‘i, including the highly...

The Platte River Recovery Implementation Program (PRRIP) partnered with Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center (NPWRC) to study demographics of least terns and piping plovers at the Central Platte River in Nebraska. Due to water management and other alterations, riverine habitat for least terns and piping plovers has become degraded. Least terns and piping plovers, however, have begun breeding...

Midcontinent sandhill cranes occupy a large geographic area of central and western North America and northeastern Asia during breeding, winter, and migration. They are a species representing a unique convergence of multiple user groups with an interest in the continued health of this population. Tens of thousands of people view cranes during spring staging at the Platte River Valley in Nebraska...

This web mapping application is a repository for data and tools that support the Monarch Conservation Science Partnership.

This research theme informs adaptive management and siting decsions in relation to bats at wind and solar power-generation facilities.

Dr. Kathleen Longshore’s goal is to understand how predator/prey relationships, disease and human-caused disturbance work separately and synergistically to impact bighorn sheep populations under variable ecological stress. Information from this project will provide managers with an understanding of specific and regional impacting factors that contribute to impact variation in population trends.

Riparian woodlands are highly productive ecosystems that support a disproportionately high fraction of regional biodiversity. They are also one of the most endangered terrestrial systems in temperate North America, and have been reduced to just 5% of their former extent in California and throughout the American southwest. These losses have been accompanied by steep declines in numerous plant and...

Dr. Josh Adams and his science team at WERC study seabird health and support adaptive management by quantifying abundance patterns and behaviors associated with habitats at sea, where seabirds spend the overwhelming majority of their lives. Adams’s team also employs conservation science to support resource managers on land, where seabirds are obligated to nest. His group provides scientific...

The San Francisco Bay is designated as a site of hemispheric importance to shorebirds and annually supports over one million waterbirds. Within the USGS WERC waterbird breeding ecology program, Dr. Josh Ackerman and partners are studying habitat selection, movements, and factors influencing waterbird nest success and chick growth and survival.

This research theme addresses several issues important in deriving accurate and precise estimates of fatality at wind and solar power-generation facilities.

Biological production represents the total amount of living material (biomass) that was produced during a defined period of time. This production is important because some of it is used for food and some is valued for recreation, it is a direct measure of total ecosystem processes, and it sustains biological diversity. Production is a measure of energy flow, and is therefore a natural currency for...

As resource managers balance the needs of humans and wildlife, WERC’s Dr. Berry provides the necessary science to inform decisions on shared lands. Visit the “Science” tab to delve into specific projects.