Cooperative Ecosystem Studies Unit, Rocky Mountain CESU

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The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Fort Collins Science Center (GLSC) is offering a funding opportunity to a CESU partner for on the interactions of land-use, development, management, habitats and wildlife populations to inform planning and management at the landscape-level. Public agencies manage important wildlife habitats and a wide array of land-uses, including energy development, grazing and energy development across the western U.S. and the diversity of uses, management actions and natural processes affect the condition of these lands. Changing conditions lead to variations in the services these lands provide, the quality of wildlife habitats, and the number and distribution of wildlife populations. Furthermore, planning at the landscape-level presents unique challenges associated with ownership and management unit boundaries. Priorities and conservation and management mandates may vary across large areas, and the effects of management strategies on wildlife and habitat conditions are also variable when large, diverse areas are considered. Characterization of habitat trends, i.e., changes due to management, fire, climate, development and restoration, that affect habitat dynamics, domestic grazing, and wildlife populations dynamics, is important to inform adaptive management and planning. We solicit research that directly supports and informs management decisions related to landscape and development patterns that affect landscape-level planning, habitat restoration and management, in the grasslands, shrublands and woodlands across the western U.S. Concerns about native wildlife, including grouse, songbirds, ungulates and small mammals, expressed by both Federal and State agencies, indicates that analyses addressing how development, restoration, treatments and fires interact to affect multiple species is needed.

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