The Nearshore Assessment Tool for Alaska: Southeast (NATAK-SE) is a standardized protocol for rapidly assessing the habitat and functions of a particular marine or estuarine shore segment (intertidal zone and immediately adjoining upland) anywhere in Southeast Alaska. It consists of data forms and a spreadsheet. It has a Rapid component...
This document provides an updated perspective on the distribution of the species in the Willamette River Basin, based on new field surveys, literature review, and contacts with other biologists and landowners. It also presents recommendations for additional monitoring and research.
Because studies of forestry effects on wetlands have been so infrequent in the Pacific Northwest, each section in this report drew heavily from studies of forestry impacts to streams and riparian zones. After assembly and synthesis, that information was extrapolated, mostly in the form of hypotheses, to the very different...
The Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management propose to adopt coordinated ecosystem management direction for the lands they administer within the range of the northern spotted owl. This Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement (SETS) presents as alternatives the options, with slight modifications, developed by the Forest Ecosystem Management Assessment...
This document provides the latest science and best biological judgment to assist in making management decisions. Fortunately, recent emphasis on sage-grouse conservation has resulted in a substantial number of publications dealing with a variety of aspects of sage-grouse ecology and management, summarized in the 2010 listing petition (75 FR 13910),...
The purpose of this memorandum is to clarify the Service's perspective on the relationship between livestock grazing and the conservation of sagebrush ecosystems on private lands occurring within the range of greater sage-grouse. This document provides more specific guidance to Service staff as they carry out their conservation mission in...
This Instruction Memorandum (IM) provides guidance for prioritizing the review and processing of grazing permits and leases (permits) in Greater Sage-Grouse (GRSG) habitat as described in the Records of Decision for the Approved Resource Management Plan Amendments or the Great Basin and Rocky Mountain GRSG Regions and nine Approved Resource...
This Instruction Memorandum (IM) directs the implementation of the land use plan adaptive management process to evaluate and apply hard and soft triggers and responses, as detailed in the Greater Sage-Grouse (GRSG) Approved Resource Management Plans and Amendments (GRSG Plans), Great Basin and Rocky Mountain GRSG Regional Records of Decision...
This Instruction Memorandum (IM) provides guidance on prioritizing implementation decisions for Bureau of Land Management (BLM) oil and gas leasing and development, to be consistent with the Approved Resource Management Plan Amendments for the Rocky Mountain and Great Basin GRSG Regions and nine Approved Resource Management Plans in the Rocky...
This Instruction Memorandum (IM) provides policy on how to assess habitat for Gunnison and Greater Sage-Grouse, including the Bi-State Distinct Population Segment, (hereafter referred to as "sage-grouse") and under what circumstances the habitat assessment is required.
This report delineates reasonable objectives, based upon the best scientific and commercial data available at the time of its release, for the conservation and survival of greater sage-grouse. Individual team members contributed by providing technical information and data, participating in critical discussions, providing critical reviews and edits, or authoring sections...
This white paper outlines interim guidance for development of Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife habitat mitigation recommendations associated with renewable energy development and associated infrastructure or other landscape scale industrial-commercial developments in greater sage-grouse habitat in Oregon. This guidance is interim until empirical data are available that quantify the...
Prior to settlement in the 19th century, greater sage-grouse (Centrocercus urophasianus; hereafter referred to as ‘sage-grouse’) inhabited 13 western States and three Canadian provinces, and their potential habitat covered over 1,200,483 square kilometers (km) (463,509 square miles (mi)). Sage-grouse have declined across their range due to a variety of causes...
The purpose of this document (Framework) is to communicate some of the factors the Service is likely to consider in evaluating the efficacy of mitigation practices and programs in reducing threats to sage-grouse. The recommendations provided here are consistent with the information and conservation objectives provided in the 2013 Conservation...
The condition of the sagebrush ecosystem has been declining in the Western United States, and greater sage-grouse (Centrocercus urophasianus), a sagebrush-obligate species, has experienced concurrent decreases in distribution and population numbers. This has prompted substantial research and management over the past two decades to improve the understanding of sage-grouse and...
The greater sage-grouse, an iconic ground-dwelling bird of the West, has experienced significant population declines during the past 50 years from habitat loss. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) designated sage grouse in 2010 as a candidate for listing under the Endangered Species Act (ESA).
In September 2015, the...
This Instruction Memorandum (Instruction Memorandum No. 2016-139) provides guidance on the use of terrestrial and aquatic objectives and quantitative data to determine Resource Management Plan effectiveness. Additionally, for RMPs that include Greater Sage-Grouse (GRSG) habitat, this IM provides guidance for tracking and reporting on the implementation of decisions using the...
During the 2016 greater sage-grouse breeding season, 1,908 aerial and ground lek surveys were conducted at 768 individual lek sites comprising 501 lek complexes. Surveys were conducted at 66.0% of known lek sites in the state, which was the greatest proportion of leks ever surveyed in Oregon. Survey effort during...
During the 2017 greater sage-grouse (Centrocercus urophasianus) breeding season, 1,580 aerial and ground lek surveys were conducted at 674 individual lek sites comprising 429 lek complexes. Surveys were conducted at 58.0% of known lek sites in the state. Survey effort during 2017 declined -17.1%, -12.2%, and 14.5% from 2016 levels,...
This report documents and summarizes several decades of work on sage-grouse populations, sagebrush as habitat, and sagebrush community and ecosystem functions based on the recent assessment and findings of the USFWS under consideration of the Endangered Species Act. As reflected here, some of these topics receive a greater depth of...
This report provides a strategic approach developed by a Western Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies interagency working group for conservation of sagebrush ecosystems, Greater sage-grouse, and Gunnison sage-grouse. It uses information on (1) factors that influence sagebrush ecosystem resilience to disturbance and resistance to nonnative invasive annual grasses and...
The Integrated Landscape Assessment Project (ILAP) was a multi-year effort to produce information, maps, and models to help land managers, policy-makers, and others conduct mid- to broad-scale (e.g., watersheds to states and larger areas) prioritization of land management actions, perform landscape assessments, and estimate cumulative effects of management actions for...
This study seeks to address the following questions: What are the research practices and needs of graduate students? How can new library services and features reduce the gap between graduate student needs and current IR services and features? Semi-structured qualitative interviews were conducted with eight graduate students from different disciplines....
Continuous integration (CI) systems automate the compilation, building, and testing of software. Despite CI rising as a big success story in automated software engineering, it has received almost no attention from the research community. For example, how widely is CI used in practice, and what are some costs and benefits...
We present a methodology for creating a simulated foam microstructure for use in forward simulations of wave equations to quantitatively analyze the expected scattering phenomenon primarily responsible for the attenuation of interrogating signals in Sprayed-On Foam Insulation (SOFI). Our approach builds off of the popular use of Voronoi Tessalations for...
This document is a report on a survey of Alsea River done with the intent to determine how best to remove obstructions to make it easier for boats to pass through.
A final report on activities related to a professional development activity titled, "Professional development in data curation". The Lundeen Award enabled me to attend the ICPSR workshop "Curating and Managing Research Data for Re-Use." The objective was to build professional capacity within OSUL&P that would empower us to achieve our...
This report describes how energy is used in at the Hatfield Marine Science Center, and includes recommendations on cost effective steps that could be taken to reduce energy and waste costs. The contents are based on a recent visit to the facilities in Newport, Oregon.
In 1892, the bar at the entrance of Yaquina Bay was 14 feet deep at low tide. Requests to deepen the entrance to 25 feet came from local residents, including supporters of T. Egenton Hogg's Oregon Pacific Railroad, which had its terminus on the bay at Yaquina. The request to...