Cooperative Ecosystem Studies Unti, Rocky Mountian 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 on the effects of disturbances, such as fire, habitat treatments, fuel treatments, energy development, restoration and other land-uses, on the dynamics of habitats and species to support regional planning and local management decisions in the sagebrush ecosystem, shrublands, semi-arid rangelands and woodlands. Public lands are part of a network of important wildlife habitats distributed across the western U.S. and a diversity of uses and management actions and natural processes affect the condition of these lands. For example, recent decision by Fish and Wildlife Service regarding Greater Sage-grouse (2016), and pending re-evaluation of the species¿ status (2021) has led to revisions to dozens of land-management plans (federal agencies) and wildlife management plans (state agencies), elevating the information needs of planners and managers for improved, practical information regarding the ecology and management of the sagebrush ecosystem and focal wildlife populations which utilize this resource. Public agencies manage important wildlife habitats and a wide array of land-uses, including energy development, grazing, resource extraction and recreation 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 abundance and distribution of wildlife populations. Better understanding and interpretation of these dynamic patterns and cycles is needed to connect scientific understanding with management applications, especially differentiating the effects of fires, restoration and habitat treatments on habitat conditions and ecosystems services on different parts of the landscape. 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 restoration, fire and fuels management, and habitat treatments that affect planning and implementation of actions in the grasslands, shrublands and woodlands across the western U.S. Understanding the relations between natural patterns and processes (such as soils, geology, topography, fire, climate) and human activities (such as fuel breaks, energy development, restoration, conifer removal and habitat management) is applicable to the development of ecological knowledge and critical for successful management of public lands and wildlife. 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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