Unified Interior Regions
Montana
Welcome to the Midwest Region! Our region includes 18 Science Centers in 11 States from the Great Lakes to the Dakotas, south to Missouri and Kentucky. Our streamgage network is used to monitor and assess water resources across the region. Other research focuses on fisheries and aquatic ecosystems, midcontinental plant/animal species, invasive species, wildlife disease, and energy and mining.
Northern Rocky Mountain Science Center (NOROCK)
Scientists from the Center work in the northern Rocky Mountains and across the U.S. Many work throughout the world on issues as diverse as global climate change, aquatic ecology, wildlife diseases, bison ecology, and large carnivores.
Go to NOROCKWyoming-Montana Water Science Center
The Water Science Center's hydrologists, engineers, geospatial analysts, hydrologic technicians, geologists, and support staff work to provide hydrologic data and interpretive studies.
Go to CenterStates L2 Landing Page Tabs
Climate Change in Mountain Ecosystems (CCME)
Climate change is widely acknowledged to have a profound effect on the biosphere and cryosphere with many and diverse impacts on global resources. Mountain ecosystems in the western U.S., and the U.S. Northern Rocky Mountains in particular, are highly sensitive to climate change. Warming in western Montana is nearly 2 times greater than the rise in global temperatures over the last 100+ years...
Member of the Media?
NOROCK scientists enjoy interactions and engagement with the media. Please contact Todd Wojtowicz to request an interview or learn more about the Center.
Remote Sensing and Fire Science
NOROCK science has developed capabilities for the remote sensing and evaluation of burns. Working with diverse institutions and individuals in fire science and information technology, we advance mutual interests of fire science partners by undertaking relevant research, and by disseminating findings through coordination and technology transfer.
IGBST Grizzly Bear Food Synthesis Report
How to Cite: Interagency Grizzly Bear Study Team. 2013. Response of Yellowstone grizzly bears to changes in food resources: a synthesis. Report to the Interagency Grizzly Bear Committee and Yellowstone Ecosystem Subcommittee. Interagency Grizzly Bear Study Team, U.S. Geological Survey, Northern Rocky Mountain Science Center, Bozeman, Montana, USA.
Yellowstone Lake Acoustic Biotelemetry Project Home Page
Fishery biologists and managers are increasingly consumed with the recovery and restoration of native trout and salmon throughout the western United States. These fish historically inhabited a variety of freshwater habitats, but have declined due to habitat degradation, fragmentation and introduction of nonnative species. Introduced fishes constitute a major threat to the persistence of native...
Predicting Effects of Climate Change on Native Fishes in Northern Great Plains Streams
The Northern Great Plains of North America are a region of profound global importance because organisms that live in these semi-arid prairie environments have developed a unique ability to live through conditions of extreme heat, cold, floods, and drought. Prairie streams are essential components of these ecosystems because they provide critical “green lines” of habitat for both aquatic and...
Estimating Future Streamflow in Eastern Montana Using the Precipitation-Runoff Modeling System and the RegCM3 Regional Climate Model
Streams in the Northern Great Plains provide critical “green lines” of habitat for aquatic and terrestrial wildlife. However, changes in water quantity associated with global climate change may transform some prairie streams from essential refuges to habitats no longer capable of supporting fishes. Although studies have examined climate change effects on larger river basins across the United...
Drivers of Drought in the Upper Colorado River Basin
The purpose of this project is to investigate Colorado River basin droughts, and the role of temperature in influencing runoff efficiency. The project uses paleoclimatic data to extend instrumental climate and flow records, along with projected warming to assess the range of possible conditions that may be expected to occur and to determine how warming temperatures may influence river flow and...
Extinction dynamics and microrefugia of the American pika as climate changes.
Accurate projections of climate change and associated impacts on wildlife are now essential to conservation planning, but predictive models of range shifts for many species are often coarse, ignore extinction dynamics, and overestimate suitable habitat. Recent studies suggest the American pika (Ochotona princeps) is vulnerable to increasing heat stress in the Great Basin yet appears more...
Grizzly Bear Dispersal
This work has two components. First, we developed a method to use our family tree data to examine dispersal. Next, we would like to apply this method to our updated and more complete family tree to improve our understanding of how grizzly bears disperse.
Predicting changes in Bear Foods
Huckleberries are central to the diets of bears, grouse, and other animals, as well as being a cultural and food resource for humans. Approximately 15% of the diet of bears in the Whitefish range and Glacier National Park is huckleberries, and huckleberries help bears gain weight for hibernation. Changes in climate lead to changes in vegetation phenology, productivity, and quality that may...
Grizzly Bear Family Tree
Building a family tree of grizzly bears can both satisfy our natural curiosity about bear society and answer many ecologically important questions about the ways bears interact with each other and the landscape.
Chad Reese and Sean Lawlor measuring channel width
Chad Reese and Chuck Parrett measuring channel width for a small stream near Helena, MT.
Return of the Yellowstone Grizzly Bear
Yellowstone grizzly bears inhabit federal, state, tribal, and private lands, and long-term research requires careful coordination across governmental levels. The Interagency Grizzly Bear Study Team (IGBST) is an interdisciplinary group of scientists and biologists responsible for long-term monitoring and research efforts on grizzly bears in the Greater Yellowstone
Logs and Debris in the Yellowstone River
Logs and debris are a common occurrence during recent high flows in the Yellowstone River.
Releasing a Pallid Sturgeon on the Yellowstone River
Student Services contractor, Tanner, Cox releasing a pallid sturgeon on the Yellowstone River.
USGS staff ski to and from the Garden Wall weather station.
USGS staff ski to and from the Garden Wall weather station in Glacier National Park (elev. 7400 feet) to complete maintenance and examine the snowpack for avalanche research.
Grinnell Glacier in Glacier National Park - 2016
Grinnell Glacier (J Scurlock, 09/15/16) has retreated to the mostly shaded, upper confines of the basin.
USGS employees and Flathead National Forest staff dig pits in the snow
USGS employees and Flathead National Forest staff dig pits in the snow to examine snow structure and depth for avalanche research and forecasting in northwest Montana.
Logan Glacier in Glacier National Park - 2016.
Large moraines at the base of Logan Glacier (2016) mark the extent of the glacier before it began its retreat around 1850 AD.
A new research project will use bear hair to study trends in a threatened grizzly bear population in Montana.
The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) is beginning a new research project to evaluate the effectiveness of hair sampling to monitor population trends of grizzly bears in the Northern Continental Divide Ecosystem (NCDE) of northwestern Montana.
New U.S. Geological Survey research indicates that ammonia from water used in the production of natural gas from underground coal beds in Wyoming is entering the Powder River.
"High concentrations of ammonia are toxic, particularly at some of the higher pH values found in these discharged waters," said USGS scientist Richard Smith.
Striking new glacier retreat photographs created by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) visually illustrate the effects of climate change on Glacier National Park.
The glacier images reveal dramatic glacial decline over a century and are in line with predictions that all of the glaciers in Glacier National Park will disappear by 2030.
With an estimated population of 765, the genetic health of grizzly bears in northwest Montana is good, according to a study recently released in the publication Journal of Wildlife Management.
USGS Bakken expert to present findings at Energy Expo in Bismarck
U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) scientist Richard Pollastro, lead researcher on a recent study assessing the undiscovered oil resources in the Bakken Formation, will present at the Great Plains Energy Expo in Bismarck on Tuesday, November 11.
The Department of the Interior recently honored a team of USGS scientists and collaborators with the 2008 Environmental Achievement Award for the significant improvements they made to a contaminated aquifer in northeastern Montana.
A new study estimates that 765 grizzly bears make their home in the Northern Continental Divide Ecosystem, a 7.8 million acre area in northwest Montana stretching from north of Missoula, Mont., to the Canadian border.
A new research project will use bear hair to study trends in a threatened grizzly bear population in Montana.
Long-term trends in landscape conditions have significantly reduced sagebrush habitat and populations of greater sage-grouse, according to a new study examining the bird's chances of survival.
North Dakota and Montana have an estimated 3.0 to 4.3 billion barrels of undiscovered, technically recoverable oil in an area known as the Bakken Formation.
A report published by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) contains a regional map and associated database that inventory 61 locations of reported natural asbestos and fibrous amphibole occurrences in the Rocky Mountain area of the United States, including the states of Colorado, Idaho, Montana, New Mexico, and Wyoming.
People who felt the magnitude 4.6 earthquake that hit Western Montana on May 8 can report their experiences during the temblor at the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Web site, "Did You Feel It?" at http://pasadena.wr.usgs.gov/shake/STORE/X2007ccay/ciim_display.html, or go to the USGS Web site http://earthquake.usgs.gov, and click on "Did You Feel It?"
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Locations
Northern Rocky Mountain Science Center (NOROCK) Headquarters
Phone: 406-994-7544
Fax: 406-994-6556
Wyoming-Montana Water Science Center - Helena Office
Phone: (406) 457-5900
Fax: (406) 457-5990
Wyoming-Montana Water Science Center - Billings Office
Phone: 406-656-1444
Contacts
Northern Rocky Mountain Science Center (NOROCK)
Scientists from the Center work in the northern Rocky Mountains and across the U.S. Many work throughout the world on issues as diverse as global climate change, aquatic ecology, wildlife diseases, bison ecology, and large carnivores.
Go to NOROCKWyoming-Montana Water Science Center
The Water Science Center's hydrologists, engineers, geospatial analysts, hydrologic technicians, geologists, and support staff work to provide hydrologic data and interpretive studies.
Go to Center