Research and Publications
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This tool is designed to rapidly assess and manage perennial and intermittent lotic (flowing) water systems. Lentic, or still-water, systems, such as wet meadows, swales, seeps and marshes, are inherently different.
This guide is not an instruction manual but a decision-support tool for understanding how riparian areas such as creeks, rivers and streams should function. This guide helps managers determine whether a riparian area is functioning properly and how to restore or maintain proper function. A wide variety of natural resource professionals or land managers will find this guide helpful because it provides a framework for land managers to identify, discuss and address threats to riparian resources.
The goals of this tool are:
- Facilitate communication about riparian conditions across a broad audience of stakeholders.
- Provide an assessment that easily integrates with existing protocols and programs.
- Help users identify factors impacting stream resilience.
- Help users assess and prioritize areas that may require more detailed investigation.
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This study evaluated vegetation response to different intensities of deferred rotation cattle grazing over 16 years (2007–2022) on burned Wyoming big sagebrush steppe in eastern Oregon. Treatments were applied in a randomized complete block, which included no grazing on burned (nonuse, n = 5) and unburned (control, n = 5) steppe; and cattle grazing at low (low, n = 4), moderate (moderate, n = 4), and high (high, n = 4) intensities on burned steppe. Vegetation dynamics were evaluated by repeated measures analysis of canopy cover and density of shrub and herbaceous species and functional groups. Herbaceous functional groups were an early-season bunchgrass (one species, Sandberg bluegrass), tall perennial bunchgrasses, perennial forbs, annual grass (one species, cheatgrass), and annual forbs. Tall perennial bunchgrass, Sandberg bluegrass, and perennial forb cover and density did not differ among the treatments but did decrease over time in all treatments. The cover of several tall bunchgrass species was generally less in the high treatment, mainly, Idaho fescue and Thurber’s needlegrass. The cover of cheatgrass and annual forbs varied among years but was greater in the burned-grazed and nonuse treatments than in the control. Native plant cover in the burned treatments (grazed and nonuse) represented 77%–85% of total herbaceous cover versus the control where native plants comprised 91% of the total. Annual weather variability appears to account for most of the compositional dynamics measured in the various grazed and ungrazed treatments.
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n early October 2023, nearly fifty research scientists and technicians collaborating with the USDA Forest Service-sponsored Fire and Smoke Model Evaluation Experiment (FASMEE) gathered on the Fishlake National Forest to collect measurements from a rare stand-replacing prescribed fire. Developing new approaches to predict fire and smoke behavior, scientists representing the USDA Forest Service, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), Tall Timbers, Desert Research Institute, and universities from across the country, partnered to collect fire-related data from belowground to space. These synergistic research projects characterized fuels, measured radiant heat and energy, evaluated smoke concentrations, and documented fire effects on vegetation and even bats.
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Aims Invasion by annual grasses (IAGs) and concomitant increases in wildfire are impacting many drylands globally, and an understanding of factors that contribute to or detract from community resistance to IAGs is needed to inform postfire restoration interventions. Prefire vegetation condition is often unknown in rangelands but it likely affects variation in postfire invasion resistance across large burned scars. Whether satellite‐derived products like the Rangeland Analysis Platform (RAP) can fulfill prefire information needs and be used to parametrize models of fire recovery to inform postfire management of IAGs is a key question. Methods We used random forests to ask how IAG abundances in 669 field plots measured in the 2‐3 years following megafires in sagebrush steppe rangelands of western USA responded to RAP estimates of annual:perennial prefire vegetation cover, the effects of elevation, heat load, postfire treatments, soil moisture–temperature regimes, and land‐agency ratings of ecosystem resistance to invasion and resilience to disturbance. Results Postfire IAG cover measured in the field was % and RAP‐estimated prefire annual herbaceous cover was %. The random forest model had an R² of 0.36 and a root‐mean‐squared error (RMSE) of 4.41. Elevation, postfire herbicide treatment, and prefire estimates from RAP for the ratio of annual:perennial and shrub cover were the most important predictors of postfire IAG cover. Threshold‐like relationships between postfire IAG cover and the predictors indicate that maintaining annual:perennial cover below 0.4 and shrub cover below <10% prior to wildfire would decrease invasion, at low elevations below 1400 m above sea level. Conclusion Despite known differences between RAP and field‐based estimates of vegetation cover, RAP was still a useful predictor of variation in IAG abundances after fire. IAG management is oftentimes reactive, but our findings indicate impactful roles for more inclusively addressing the exotic annual community, and focusing on prefire maintenance of annual:perennial herbaceous and shrub cover at low elevations.
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While increased length and intensity of wildfire seasons in many places have led to more concern about wildland firefighter safety, we believe ethnography has been underutilized as a method within this domain. In response, we begin building a shared idiom for ethnographic engagement with wildland firefighter safety and similar occupations. We draw on ethnographic approaches to late industrialism to develop a method called discursive risk analysis (DRA) as an initial stage in a broader collaborative and generative research practice. By collaborative, we mean cooperation among stakeholder, disciplinary, professional, and other groups. We use DRA to analyze ethnographic data and documentary sources relevant to discussions of ‘the Big Lie’ among firefighters and agency leadership. The Big Lie is a term that both firefighters and agency leaders used to suggest that wildland firefighters are being harmed by agency discourse that says firefighters will be kept safe despite the unavoidable danger of the job. It is important to the Big Lie discussion that this harm is conceptualized by firefighters as discursively driven, necessitating a research method attentive to discourse. Discursive Risk Analysis of the Big Lie discussion suggests two discursive gaps that may result in two discursive risks. The first gap, found in agency discourse, is that ‘everyone knows the job is dangerous’ but ‘zero fatalities is a reasonable goal.’ This gap is associated with a discursive risk, a possible decrease in trust among wildland firefighters in agency leadership. The second gap, observed in firefighter discourse, is that ‘the job is dangerous’ but ‘no one will get hurt today.’ This gap is associated with another discursive risk, the possibility of decreased situational awareness. Finally, we clarify each of these gaps and risks through two anthropological concepts (the Sapir–Whorf hypothesis and the public secret) that can bring new perspectives to discussions about institutional cultures of health and safety.
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For nearly 12 years, the Field Guide for Mapping Post-Fire Soil Burn Severity has provided BAER teams with consistent methodologies, tools, and terminology to quickly and accurately identify postfire conditions. RMRS Research Engineer Pete Robichaud and colleagues created the field guide, which is now available in Spanish.
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The wildland-urban interface (WUI) is the area where structures and other human development intermingle with wildland vegetation or where housing is in the vicinity of large areas of wildland vegetation. This StoryMap provides data on two trends from 1990 to 2020: the expansion of WUI area and the growth in housing in WUI areas.
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The 2015 U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service listing determination of “not warranted” under the Endangered Species Act was in part a result of a large-scale collaborative effort to develop strategies to conserve GRSG populations and their habitat and to reduce threats to both. New scientific information augments existing knowledge and can help inform updates or modifications to existing plans for managing GRSG and sagebrush ecosystems. However, the sheer number of scientific publications can be a challenge for managers tasked with evaluating and determining the need for potential updates to existing planning documents. To assist in this process, the USGS has reviewed and summarized the scientific literature published since January 1, 2015. Our most recent GRSG literature summary was published in 2020 (Carter and others, 2020) and included products published through October 2, 2019. Here, we consider products published between October 2, 2019, and July 21, 2022. We compiled and summarized peer-reviewed journal articles, data products, and formal technical reports (such as U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Service General Technical Reports and USGS Open-File Reports) on greater sage-grouse. We first systematically searched three reference databases and three government databases using the search phrase “greater sage-grouse.” We refined the initial list of products by removing (1) duplicates, (2) publications not published as research, data products, or scientific review articles in peer-reviewed journals or as formal technical reports, and (3) products for which greater sage-grouse was not a research focus or the study did not present new data or findings about greater sage-grouse. We summarized each product using a consistent structure (background, objectives, methods, location, findings, and implications) and identified management topics addressed by each product; for example, species and population characteristics. We also identified projects that provided new geospatial data. The review process for this annotated bibliography included two initial internal colleague reviews of each summary, requesting input on each summary from an author of the original publication, and formal peer review. Our initial searches resulted in 221 total products, of which 147 met our criteria for inclusion. Across products summarized in the annotated bibliography, broad-scale habitat characteristics, behavior or demographics, site-scale habitat characteristics, habitat selection, and population estimates or targets were the most commonly addressed management topics. The online version of this bibliography, which will be available on the Science for Resource Managers tool (https://apps.usgs.gov/science-for-resource-managers), will be searchable by topic, location, and year, and will include links to each original publication. The studies compiled and summarized here may inform planning and management actions that seek to maintain and restore sagebrush landscapes and GRSG populations across the GRSG range.
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Effective wildlife management requires robust information regarding population status, habitat requirements, and likely responses to changing resource conditions. Single-species management may inadequately conserve communities and result in undesired effects to non-target species. Thus, management can benefit from understanding habitat relationships for multiple species. Pinyon pine and juniper are expanding into sagebrush-dominated ecosystems within North America and mechanical removal of these trees is frequently conducted to restore sagebrush ecosystems and recover greater sage-grouse. However, pinyon-juniper removal effects on non-target species are poorly understood, and changing pinyon-juniper woodland dynamics, climate, and anthropogenic development may obscure conservation priorities. To better predict responses to changing resource conditions, evaluate non-target effects of pinyon-juniper removal, prioritize species for conservation, and inform species recovery within pinyon-juniper and sagebrush ecosystems, we modeled population trends and density-habitat relationships for four sagebrush-associated, four pinyon-juniper-associated, and three generalist songbird species with respect to these ecosystems. We fit hierarchical population models to point count data collected throughout the western United States from 2008 to 2020. We found regional population changes for 10 of 11 species investigated; 6 of which increased in the highest elevation region of our study. Our models indicate pinyon-juniper removal will benefit Brewer’s sparrow, green-tailed towhee, and sage thrasher densities. Conversely, we predict largest negative effects of pinyon-juniper removal for species occupying early successional pinyon-juniper woodlands: Bewick’s wren, black-throated gray warblers, gray flycatcher, and juniper titmouse. Our results highlight the importance of considering effects to non-target species before implementing large-scale habitat manipulations. Our modeling framework can help prioritize species and regions for conservation action, infer effects of management interventions and a changing environment on wildlife, and help land managers balance habitat requirements across ecosystems.
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Increases in fire activity and changes in fire regimes have been documented in recent decades across the western United States. Climate change is expected to continue to exacerbate impacts to forested ecosystems by increasing the frequency, size, and severity of wildfires across the western United States (US). Warming temperatures and shifting precipitation patterns are altering western landscapes and making them more susceptible to high-severity fire. Increases in large patches of high-severity fire can result in significant impacts to landscape processes and ecosystem function and changes to vegetation structure and composition. In this synthesis, we examine the predicted climatic influence on fire regimes and discuss the impacts on fire severity, vegetation dynamics, and the interactions between fire, vegetation, and climate. We describe predicted changes, impacts, and risks related to fire with climate change and discuss how management options may mitigate some impacts of predicted fire severity, and moderate some impacts to forests, carbon, and vegetation changes post fire.