Fish and Wildlife

Coproduction is a highly collaborative approach to conducting science that focuses on producing actionable products that are used to inform natural resource management decisions. This project will develop an informational toolkit to facilitate coproduction between resource managers and science providers in the context of federal public land management.

Wildlife management boundaries frequently lack biological context, such as information on habitat resource availability and wildlife movements. To address this, we developed multiple levels of biologically relevant and hierarchically nested greater sage-grouse ( Centrocercus urophasianus ) population units that could facilitate management and conservation of populations and habitats.

Researchers from the U.S. Geological Survey, the U.S. Department of Agriculture-Agricultural Research Service, and Oklahoma State University are studying the distribution of grassland bird communities across the western Great Plains to anticipate how species distributions may respond to a changing climate.

USGS is working closely with partners in the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS), and the Intermountain West Joint Venture (IMJV) to collect and summarize spatial datasets that describe measurable aspects of invasive annual grasses (e.g., biomass or presence) across the western United Stated and beyond. The products developed through this project provide...

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is committed to using science-informed decision making for the public lands and resources that it manages. Uses on these lands are varied, and decisions are complex. USGS and BLM are working together to identify specific needs for data, science, methods, and mitigation actions that can strengthen the science foundation for BLM planning and management decisions.

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) manages a large area of public lands in the western U.S. for multiple uses and values. Because some of these uses and values may conflict, the agency’s decisions can be controversial and are often challenged. We analyzed public legal records to help identify priority information needs that could strengthen science-based decision-making in the BLM

USGS researchers, in collaboration with the Wyoming Landscape Conservation Initiative and other partners, are developing a statistically based prioritization tool that will aid agencies in their management decisions.

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) manages for conditions that sustain land health on over 1 million acres of public rangelands. The BLM has traditionally assessed rangelands using small-scale data, but agency guidance suggests assessment of land health standards at watershed scales. We are exploring methods to integrate remotely sensed data into BLM land health processes.

The National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) requires federal agencies to assess potential impacts of proposed actions as part of their decision-making processes. Assessing potential cumulative effects is a challenging component of NEPA analyses. We are working with the Bureau of Land Management to develop a process that staff can use to strengthen cumulative effects analyses.

The Bureau of Land Management Recreation and Visitor Services Program regularly conducts recreational visitor satisfaction surveys. The USGS Social and Economic Analysis Branch is assessing the visitor survey effort and recommending updates to the current effort.

As part of the Values Mapping for Planning in Regional Ecosystems project, also known as VaMPIRE, USGS scientists are developing a public participatory GIS application that aids in gathering information about visitors’ values for public lands and waters.

Research on Guam has led to development and validation of numerous effective control tools, including the advancement of reptile control to support native species recovery.