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US Fish & Wildife Service

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Assessing annual grass management effectiveness in the sagebrush biome
Invasive annual grasses are a primary, severe, and challenging threat to habitat conservation and restoration for sage-dependent wildlife across federal, state and private lands. Successful management solutions for sagebrush rangelands are likely to be multiphasic, involving some sequence of interventions such as herbicides, seeding of competitive natives that also create habitat, and temporarily altering land use, in an adaptive-management approach. The proposed work tests different herbicides and options for applying them with different seeding and land uses, across a gradient of climate and soils in Interior Regions 5 and 7.This research will examine the efficacy of management options for controlling cheatgrass...
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Evaluating patterns of long-term system change and demographic response for grassland nesting ducks in the US Prairie Pothole Region
The US Prairie Pothole Region (PPR) has experienced some of the highest rates of grassland loss in North America over a time that coincides with dramatic declines in grassland songbird populations yet increasing abundance of most grassland-nesting duck species except for northern pintail. To provide more insight into this contradiction, we propose to capitalize on long-term databases to evaluate how a key population driver nest survival for North American ducks has responded to system changes in the region including landscape and climatic factors. Outcomes of these analyses will contribute to testing primary conservation planning assumptions for the PPJV a vital component of the PPJV Strategic Habitat Conservation...
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Assessing Traditional and Emerging Grazing Strategies for Creating a Mosaic of Diverse Habitat Patches for Grassland- and Sagebrush Associated Birds
Using a solutions-oriented, multi-agency collaboration, we propose to pilot a large-scale assessment of an alternative (herding, electric- and virtual-fence) grazing strategy designed to mimic pre-colonial grazing patterns by bison, to ascertain their value for local- and regional-scale assemblages ofsagebrush- and grassland-associated birds in Montana. A fundamental goal of most wildlife-based grazing programs is to foster a mosaic of patches that represent the broadest possible spectrum of habitat types that benefits different sagebrush- and grassland-associated birds in different parts of the landscape (for example, western meadowlarks, vesper sparrows, and thick-billed longspur in open, heavily grazed areas;...
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Wetland Mask to Improve Woody Cover Mapping
Grassland loss to woody encroachment is widespread and ongoing. Mechanical removal of Eastern Red Cedar (ERC) is the most cost-shared practice to address this threat. Cost-share is provided based on acres with different levels of infestation. Delineation of the different levels of infestation is time consuming butrequired to ensure the appropriate amount of cost-share is provided and contractors are not over/under compensated. The Rangeland Brush Estimation Toolbox(RaBET) is geospatial tool that can accurately automate this process. Unfortunately,wet-meadows and other wetland features cause the tool to overestimate woody cover. This project will provide funds to finish the National Wetlands Inventory (NWI). This...
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Walker River Paiute Tribe TEK Project
FY2014The goals for the project are1) Develop a Walker River Vision document which will include Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) of the traditional plants, wildlife, fish and water located on the reservation and traditional hunting/ gathering areas of the Agai Dicutta Numa (Walker River Paiutes) for use in future resource management planning and cultural sustainability..2) Develop a pilot project along the Walker River on the reservation by planting willows and other traditional plants to determine best practices for re-vegetation.This project will focus on GBLCC Goal 2: Focus science and management actions to sustain natural resources in the context of changing environmental conditions.The proposed project...
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