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This is a collaborative, two-part project to compile and analyze resource data to support WLCI efforts. Part 1 entails directing data synthesis and assessment activities to ensure that they will inform and support the WLCI LPDTs and Coordination Team in their conservation planning efforts, such as developing conservation priorities and strategies, identifying priority areas for conservation actions, evaluating and ranking conservation projects, and evaluating spatial and ecological relations between proposed habitat projects and WLCI priorities. In FY2014, we helped the Coordination Team complete the WLCI Conservation Action Plan and BLM’s annual report, and we provided maps and other materials to assist with ranking...
Categories: Data,
Project;
Types: Map Service,
OGC WFS Layer,
OGC WMS Layer,
OGC WMS Service,
ScienceBase Project;
Tags: Baseline Synthesis,
Science,
Science Project
Limits on the time and financial resources available for monitoring efforts, coupled with the complexities of natural resources and stakeholders, are challenges in resource monitoring. To help address these and related challenges, the USGS Monitoring Team (MT) has linked conceptual monitoring specialists with habitat and wildlife biologists to inform and develop creative, scientifically defensible approaches for monitoring the status and trends of populations and habitats across the WLCI region. This collaboration has led to spatially balanced monitoring designs that will make it possible to interpret conditions across the WLCI region and a mechanism for integrating species’ distributions and population responses...
Categories: Data,
Project;
Types: ScienceBase Project;
Tags: Science,
Targeted Monitoring and Research
The Forest and Rangeland Ecosystem Science Center 's mission is to provide scientific understanding and the technology needed to support sound management and conservation of our nation's natural resources, with emphasis on western ecosystems. The scientists from FRESC capitalize on their diverse expertise to answer critically important scientific questions shaped by the equally diverse environments of the western United States. FRESC scientists collaborate with each other and with partners to provide rigorous, objective, and timely information and guidance for the management and conservation of biological systems in the West and worldwide. Research activities are concentrated in Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Nevada,...
This time-enabled map service depicts the infestation of the mountain pine beetle within Banff, Kootenay and Yoho National Parks between 1999 and 2007. It also contains reference boundaries for the parks, areas susceptible to the mountain pine beetle and areas of lodgepole pine.
Categories: Data;
Types: ArcGIS REST Map Service,
Map Service;
Tags: Alberta,
British Columbia,
Canada,
ESRI Canada,
Education,
The rapid expansion of natural gas development in Southwest Wyoming has raised concerns about how that development affects key wildlife species and habitats. The overall goal of this project is to determine how the presence and intensity of oil and natural gas development are affecting habitat and water quality, and how they, in turn, can influence the presence and abundance of native fish species. The project addresses the WLCI management needs to identify the condition and distribution of key wildlife species and habitats, and species habitat requirements, and to evaluate wildlife and livestock responses to development. Our approach is a comparative study examining subwatersheds affected by different levels of...
Ongoing energy development in the northern Green River structural basin necessitates information about groundwater resources that supply water to the basin’s wells. Many human activities in that area, including pumping water from the aquifers for agricultural, domestic, and industrial use, and penetration of the heterogeneous (that is, complex intertonguing of layers) aquifers (see Bartos and others, 2015) during deeper drilling for natural gas, have the potential to impact the aquifer system that supplies water to most wells in the area. We initiated this study in FY2012 as “A Retrospective Assessment of Groundwater Occurrence in the Normally Pressured Lance Formation and a Field Reconnaissance of Existing Water...
The mixed mountain shrub community is one of the WLCI priority habitat types and is associated with numerous WLCI conservation priority areas and habitat projects. The current extent and condition of mountain shrub patches is unknown in most of the WLCI region; thus, trends in their condition and mechanisms driving those conditions are also unknown. Ongoing monitoring data from selected stands indicate an overall decline in this community type. Hypotheses as to what is causing the decline range from persistent drought to herbivory and, possibly, factors associated with increased energy development. Our long-term objectives are to measure and map the current conditions and distribution of mixed mountain shrub communities...
Salinity is the sum of dissolved salts in water and can have major effects on surface-water quality in semi-arid regions such as southwestern Wyoming. High levels of salinity can make water unsuitable for wildlife or irrigation. A wide variety of processes influence the salinity of surface waters, including mobilization of salts or concentration of salts already in the water. Disturbance of soils that contain natural salts below the surface can lead to salt mobilization as the exposed salts come into increased contact with water from rain, snowmelt, or streamflow. Because soil disturbance is inevitable with energy development, increased stream salinity is a potential concern in developed watersheds. In 2005, energy...
Consistent with the National Park Service’s philosophy, Fossil Butte National Monument is managed to protect the Monument’s resources and provide opportunities for public enjoyment. Fossil Butte National Monument was created primarily to protect paleontological resources; however, the mandate of the agency’s enabling legislation “to conserve the scenery and the natural and historic objects and the wildlife therein…” also recognizes the importance of natural process, native wildlife species, and the habitats on which they depend. Sizeable herds of elk spend part of the fall and winter within the Monument’s boundaries and provide numerous viewing opportunities for visitors. Collaboration among the USGS, the National...
Addressing concerns about the types and development of energy and a secure energy future is a high priority for the current United States administration, the Department of the Interior (DOI) in particular. The BLM and other land management agencies within the DOI are charged with balancing energy development with other land uses and values. Decision-making about land uses is often controversial and complex; this necessitates easy access to useful data, literature, and other informative resources that facilitate a better understanding of how energy development affects natural resources, ecosystems, economics, and society. Although there are several valuable on-line resources that provide information about energy...
The severe disturbance that surface mining often causes has the potential to drastically alter a soil’s physical, chemical, and biological properties (Insam and Domsch, 1988). In particular, metals associated with mining deposits present obstacles to ecosystem recovery (Nielsen and Winding, 2002), as their residence time in soils can be quite extensive (Brookes, 1995). Quantifying soil quality can be useful for evaluating the impact of such disturbances and can improve the understanding of the mechanisms behind ecosystem processes. Definitions of soil quality generally involve soil function [for example, a soil’s ability to support vegetative diversity and biomass or to sustain itself through nutrient cycling (Doran...
The Little Mountain Ecosystem in southwestern Wyoming has been identified as a priority area for conservation by the BLM and the WGFD. The woodlands of the Little Mountain Ecosystem have been affected by multiple disturbance types over the last 20 years. Active management of these ecologically important woodlands has sought to rejuvenate decadent aspen stands and reduce conifer expansion in successional aspen stands through prescribed fire and mechanical thinning. The area also experienced wildfires and multiple drought years over the last decade. The BLM Rock Springs Field Office asked the USGS to conduct research that provides baseline information on the Little Mountain Ecosystem woodlands. This project is designed...
Understanding the socio-political and economic context of energy development is crucial for an accurate portrayal of the true tradeoffs of energy development. In addition to the bio-physical effects, development of oil and gas has an effect on and is affected by the surrounding communities and the region as a whole. Synthetic literature reviews can elucidate what is already known about these effects, create a common understanding of the social and economic context for energy development and habitat conservation, and provide a basis for dialogue with the public through the entire adaptive management process. For this task, literature produced prior to and during the current energy-development booms in Southwest Wyoming...
The Green River Formation that characterizes much of the Green River Basin hosts thick sequences of organic carbon-rich shale (oil shale), extractable pockets of natural gas, and bedded trona (Na3[CO3][HCO3] × 2H2O), the extraction or mining of which can mobilize elements that could potentially affect the function and health of ecosystems in the basin. In an ongoing effort to develop methods for assessing element mobility in the basin, the USGS has sampled soils from the three main members of the Green River Formation (Laney Shale, Wilkins Peak, and Tipton Shale), and contracted with XRAL Laboratory, Canada, to conduct mass spectrometry analyses of the soils for bulk and trace elements. Soils were extracted by using...
Regional curves are statistical models (one-variable, ordinary least-squares regressions) that relate bankfull discharge, bankfull cross-sectional area, bankfull width, and bankfull mean depth of streams to drainage area in settings that are expected to have similar runoff characteristics. Equations describing the regional curves can be used to estimate the discharge and dimensions of the bankfull channel when the drainage area of the watershed is known. These equations are useful for identifying the bankfull channel in areas with similar runoff characteristics. Regional curves also are used to determine channel departure from reference conditions and to plan stream restoration when using Natural Channel Design...
Climate change has the potential to affect ecosystems across the WLCI region. Future changes in seasonal temperatures, and the timing and amount of rain and snowfall, may result in significant ecosystem shifts that affect wildlife species. Information on the magnitude and rate of potential changes in climate are needed for understanding and developing responses to the potential future impacts of these changes. For example, Wyoming land managers require future climate information to inform the development of adaptive management plans for the species and ecosystems they manage. The goal of this project is to develop datasets of potential future climate and vegetation changes for southwestern Wyoming that can help...
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