The Red River Basin is a transboundary river basin that supplies water for nearby metropolitan areas (such as Oklahoma City and Dallas-Fort Worth), crop irrigation, and industrial use. Western areas of this drought-prone basin are more arid while areas further east receive more than 50 inches of...

Beaver conflict management programs help landowners live with beavers while minimizing the property damage caused by their dam building. In 2019, the Clark Fork Coalition partnered with Defenders of Wildlife and the National Wildlife Federation to pilot a Beaver Conflict Resolution (BCR) Program in...

Buffelgrass poses a serious threat to native Sonoran Desert ecosystems by crowding areas of naturally sparse vegetation and by creating a highly flammable fuel source for disastrous wildfires. The native plant and animal species of the Sonoran Desert do not have the adaptations to withstand fire....

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s (USFWS) Partners for Fish and Wildlife Program (PFW) is a national cost-share program that works with private landowners to restore degraded habitat to benefit species of conservation concern. The PFW Missouri Private Lands Office (MOPLO) tested camera traps as...

The Saline Valley Monarch Count (SVMC) is a citizen science effort that monitors monarch populations in Saline Valley. The SVMC continues surveys that were initiated in 1976 by Derham Giuliani. This work provides insights about monarch migration that will lead to a greater understanding of monarch...

Candidate Conservation Agreements with Assurances (CCAAs) support voluntary conservation efforts for 3 endemic species of freshwater mussels in Central Texas. Additional research efforts in Texas included Texas A...

The Arizona Game and Fish Department (AZGFD) has created several Candidate Conservation Agreements (CCA’s) with federal partners and CCA’s with Assurances (CCAAs) with non-federal partners like private landowners to gather data on Arizona springsnails and talussnails. These conservation partners...

The Ogallala Land...

University of Arizona’s Water Resources Research Center (WRRC) and Northern Arizona University’s Watershed Ecohydrology Program created the Desert Flows Database which contains high-quality information to help resource managers better understand environmental flows in desert streams of the U.S. and...

In the face of increased precipitation variability across the Red River Basin, the Chickasaw Nation and Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma worked with Aqua Strategies Inc. to evaluate sustainable water availability, using a RiverWare model to identify drought-vulnerable communities and provide data for...

Salmonid species, including endangered Middle Columbia River steelhead and bull trout, have declined within the Yakima River Basin due to fish passage barriers and widespread habitat degradation. The Schaake Habitat Improvement Project, completed by the Bureau of Reclamation (Reclamation) in...

Lassen Volcanic National Park (LAVO), located in northern California, is the convergence of four watersheds dominated by mixed conifer and red fir forests. State and federal fire suppression policy has displaced natural and cultural burning and increased the density of fuels. As a result, LAVO...

Backyard Farms, a farm with multiple sites throughout southern New Mexico, freeze dries the crops of local farmers to decrease the food lost to extreme weather. Now, farmers can sell crops that would have otherwise been lost, and local rural communities gain increased access to nutritious foods for...

Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) funding, through the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative (GLRI), led to the creation of the Pollinator Task Force (PTF), an interagency collaborative that is led by the Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS). The PTF supports efforts that increase the acres of on-the-...

Increased salinity of the Pecos River has become a major concern among water users and water managers. In 2015, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and partners assessed the major sources of salinity throughout the basin to identify potential areas of elevated salinity and evaluate how the salinity...

Using long-term monitoring data from 2011, ’14, and ’17, University of Arizona researchers wanted to learn which plants grow best under mesquite canopies and how canopies impact abundance of Lehmann lovegrass at the Santa Rita Experimental Range (SRER) in southern Arizona.

Changes in erosion and runoff may prevent establishment of grasses allowing shrub dominance. Herbicides leave shrub skeletons in place and may not cause increased runoff and erosion, however, this remains largely untested. Researchers at the University of Arizona and the Agricultural Research...

In 2016, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) partnered with McConnell AFB to integrate native plants onto the base, a nature-based solution, to both support pollinators, reduce maintenance costs resulting from stormwater damage, and increase resilience to flooding. To achieve project success...

Land degradation is worsening and the lack of accessible information about landscape characteristics and past management methods can hinder future management efforts. Thus, the BLM and USGS developed the Land Treatment Exploration Tool (Exploration Tool) to synthesize complex datasets, making them...

With guidance from CAPA, the Oklahoma City Office of Sustainability designed a city-wide campaign to capture temperature and air quality data. On August 12, 2023, citizen scientists attached sensors to their vehicles and followed a set route during one of three shifts. CAPA processed the data and...

Grassland birds are persistently declining and negatively affected by droughts, but the variability in species’ responses at different scales is not well known. Researchers from Oklahoma State University paired data on bird occurrence and drought indicators to study how drought intensity alters...

Great Dismal Swamp National Wildlife Refuge (GDS) is one of the only places in Virginia with pocosins–wetland bogs that contain peat soil and woody shrubs. Historical drainage has disrupted the hydrology of the swamp. In response, the USFWS has undertaken hydrologic restoration to rewet the peat...

Waccamaw National Wildlife Refuge created the Minor Boundary Modification land acquisition technique to allow removal of unsuitable land from acquisition boundaries and replacement with land appropriate for conservation to strategically adapt to climate change impacts.

Over 5,000 acres of the tidal salt marsh at Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge have been lost to sea level rise, subsidence, erosion, and vegetation destruction from an invasive rodent. In 2013, the refuge worked with multiple partners to develop Blackwater 2100, a predictive modeling plan to help...

The owners of C-B Ranch and Esquibel Ranch are implementing keyline design, a land management practice that uses the natural ridges and contours of a property’s topography to slow, spread, and sink rainwater to restore vegetation and soil organic matter. The ranches are sharing the equipment and...

Parker River National Wildlife Refuge (NWR) protects 4,662 acres of barrier island habitat, including 2,660 acres of salt marsh. Historic land management practices have altered the marsh’s ability to periodically flood and drain with the tides. To restore the marsh’s hydrology, refuge staff and...

The Johnson-Su bioreactor can process food waste to generate a fungal dominant compost that can be used as a microbial soil inoculant and a fertilizer and pesticide replacement. Recognizing the potential that Johnson-Su bioreactors hold, the Upper Gila Watershed Alliance (UGWA) founded the New...

The USFWS developed a Comprehensive Conservation Plan to restore 4,000 acres of tidal marshes at Prime Hook National Wildlife Refuge after coastal storms and Hurricane Sandy resulted in saltwater intrusions on freshwater impoundments, gaps in dunes, and flooding on refuge roads. With disaster...

To improve boating recreation opportunities, the Bureau of Reclamation (Reclamation) simulated a sediment wall in the Horseshoe Bend Marina to model its potential effects on sediment accumulation within the reservoir in 2017. Results from this modeling study can support future management planning...

The USFS used prescribed fire, hand and mechanical thinning to reintroduce fire to ponderosa pine, pinyon-juniper, sagebrush and mountainbrush ecosystems and create a mosaic of burns across the landscape to increase resilience to changes in fire and climate.

Since 1991, the San Juan River Basin Recovery Implementation Program (SJRBRIP) has been removing Channel Catfish and stocking native fish in the river. However, researchers are unsure of the impacts of these actions. Therefore, in 2016 the SJRBRIP began research to quantify the effects of catfish...

Oatman Farms® is a food company that works with chefs and bakers to create products from regenerative organic certified® (ROC) heritage crops, including grains grown at Oatman Flats Ranch, and sell them directly to consumers. Together, Oatman Flats Ranch and Oatman Farms® work to find profitable,...

To better understand how pollinators and the plants that depend on them respond to the presence or removal of invasive plant species, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center conducted several research projects throughout Badlands National Park that identified the...

The San Carlos Apache Forest Resources Program (SCAFRP) strives to return the San Carlos Apache Reservation land to historical pre-reservation (pre-1872) conditions. Limited data about landscape conditions impedes the development of quantitative management goals. The Western Geographic Science...

Researchers from the US Geological Survey (USGS) and partner universities are working with land managers on a network of field trials called “RestoreNet”. RestoreNet tests seed-based restoration techniques and mixes across the southwestern US, including the Colorado Plateau, and shares findings and...

Focusing on the mottled duck (Anas fulvigula), researchers from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, U.S. Geological Survey, Texas Parks and Wildlife, Ducks Unlimited, Delta Waterfowl Association, Louisiana State University and Texas A...

Researchers from the University of Texas at Brownsville (now University of Texas Rio Grande Valley) partnered with The Peregrine Fund and USFWS to evaluate several nature-based strategies for grassland management to address honey mesquite and huisache shrub encroachment in the Bahia Grande coastal...

In 2022, Utah’s Division of Water Resources implemented a landscape incentive program to provide homeowners with rebates when they install water-wise landscapes. A water-wise landscape remains healthy with minimal irrigation. To promote water-wise design, Utah State University’s Landscape...

The Carson National Forest has implemented various management strategies, including thinning, prescribed fire, and managing wildfire for resource benefit, to improve forest health, resilience to fire and climate change, and protect communities. The 2022 Midnight Fire demonstrated the benefits of...

River managers stock Razorback Sucker (RS; Xyrauchen texanus) and Colorado Pikeminnow (CP; Ptychocheilus lucius) as part of the species’ recovery plans. The San Juan River Basin Recovery Implementation Program (SJRRIP) moved stocked CP and RS upstream of the waterfall, then implanted them with...

The Bureau of Reclamation (Reclamation) conducted a survey of eight major basins and twelve reservoirs in the western U.S. as part of a West-Wide Climate Risk Assessments project. This study used computer modeling to better understand historical and future crop irrigation demands and reservoir...

To restore the health of fire-adapted forests, the U.S. Forest Service (USFS) engages in forest restoration projects, including forest thinning, through initiatives such as the Four Forest Restoration Initiative (4FRI). In 2018, the USFS began conversations with the Hopi Tribe and Navajo Nation to...

Waccamaw National Wildlife Refuge created the Minor Boundary Modification land acquisition technique to allow removal of unsuitable land from acquisition boundaries and replacement with land appropriate for conservation to strategically adapt to climate change impacts.