Montana

The USGS will fly airborne geophysical surveys in areas of interest with support from Rio Tinto during 2022 as part of its Earth Mapping Resources Initiative (Earth MRI). This is the first time the USGS has partnered with a resources company for the Earth MRI program, allowing it to double the area being surveyed in …

Read moreUSGS and Rio Tinto Partner to Survey for Critical Minerals in Southwest Montana

This image shows a research raft on Spider Lake, Wind River Indian Reservation, Wind River Range, Wyoming. (Credit: Bryan Schuman, University of Wyoming) Scientists with the U.S. Geological Survey, Montana State University and the University of Wyoming studied climate change in the Greater Yellowstone Area (GYA) from 1950-2018. They evaluated how these changes could progress …

Read moreGreater Yellowstone Area Expected to Become Warmer, Drier

Two banded piping plover adults stand near a nest with a video camera pointed at it on a sandbar in the the Missouri River. Video cameras were used to identify adults attending nests.  Piping plovers are small-bodied, short-distance migratory shorebirds. The Northern Great Plains population has been listed as a threatened species under the U.S. …

Read morePiping Plovers Breed Less and Move More in the Northern Great Plains

A team of 94 scientists and specialists from 34 federal and state agencies, universities and non-governmental organizations contributed to the comprehensive assessment of the sagebrush ecosystem, which covers 14 western states and two Canadian provinces. The effort was coordinated by the Western Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies (WAFWA) with support from the U.S. Fish …

Read moreNew Report Highlights Declining Sagebrush Ecosystem, Provides Foundation for Next Generation of Conservation and Management

A veterinarian takes hair samples from a prairie dog that’s under anesthesia before scientists release the animal back into the wild. Portions of hair from sylvatic plague-vaccinated animals turn the color of the vaccine-laiden bait under UV light. (Credit: Marisa Lubeck, USGS) Sylvatic plague can decimate prairie dog populations, which in turn affects the recovery of endangered black-footed …

Read moreMajority of Prairie Dogs Are Consuming Plague Vaccine

Coal is loaded into trucks at the Trapper Mine in northwest Colorado.(Credit: David C. Scott, USGS. Public domain.) For instance, in just one part of the energy sector—coal—the United States consumed just under 800 million short tons in 2015, which supplied a little over 30 percent of the Nation’s electricity. Those numbers come from the …

Read moreGeologic Groundwork-How USGS Coal Assessments Assist EIA’s Coal Forecasts

This is thanks to a new modeling framework by the U.S. Geological Survey that lays out how to use available, site-specific data within a proven modeling approach to understand how selenium may move and build up in the Lake Koocanusa ecosystem. “I’m excited for the release of this modeling framework,” said USGS scientist Karen Jenni, …

Read moreUSGS Releases Selenium Modeling Framework for Montana and British Columbia’s Lake Koocanusa

As a number of previous peer-reviewed studies have shown, the area burned annually by wildfires has increased in recent decades and is expected to continue to increase this century. Many growing cities and towns rely on water from rivers and reservoirs that originates in watersheds where wildfire and sedimentation are projected to increase. Increased sedimentation could …

Read moreIncreases in Wildfire-Caused Erosion Could Impact Water Supply and Quality in the West

Fortunately, in an effort with needlepoint detail, the U.S. Geological Survey has stitched together geologic maps of the Lower 48 States, providing a seamless quilt of 48 State geologic maps that range from 1:50,000 to 1:1,000,000 scale. The new product, called the USGS State Geologic Map Compilation, is a database compilation based on the Preliminary …

Read moreStitching Together the New Digital Geologic Quilt of the United States

“we found a number of carcases [sic] of the Buffaloe [sic] lying along the shore, which had been drowned by falling through the ice in the winter and lodged on shore by the high water when the river broke up about the first of this month. we saw also many tracks of the white bear …

Read moreReturn of the Yellowstone Grizzly Bear

U.S. Geological Survey scientists will inject a harmless, bright red fluorescent dye into the Yellowstone River during the week of June 26, 2017, weather permitting. The study is being done in cooperation with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Bureau of Reclamation. The goal of the dye study is to understand how larval …

Read moreRed Dye Study Will Examine Water Flow in Yellowstone River near Glendive, Montana

FORT COLLINS, Colo. – The U.S. Geological Survey and the Bureau of Land Management today released a collaborative report with new information and tools to support effective management of millions of acres of BLM public lands.  The report underscores the value of a landscape approach to management, and shows that the BLM manages some of …

Read morenew science-based tools support Bureau of Land Management’s landscape approach

Christian Schmidt is the Deputy Director of the Idaho Water Science Center (Public domain.) BOISE, Idaho — The U.S. Geological Survey has selected Christian Schmidt as the Deputy Director of its Idaho Water Science Center, headquartered in Boise. Schmidt comes to Idaho from Helena, Montana, where he served as the Water Quality Division Administrator for the …

Read moreSchmidt is New Deputy Director of USGS Idaho Water Science Center

A scientist is working to collect alpine insects by picking through moss below tiny, cold, alpine streams. This spot was below a small seep on a slope above a tributary to the Dry Fork, North of the Two Medicine area in Glacier National Park. Public domain The 20-year study provides the first comprehensive evaluation of the current status, distribution …

Read moreSmall Alpine Insects are Big Messengers of Climate Change

A new study providing an unprecedented regional view of the earth’s crust beneath Yellowstone National Park will begin with a helicopter electromagnetic and magnetic (HEM) survey on November 7, 2016. Scientists from the U.S. Geological Survey, University of Wyoming and Aarhus University in Denmark hope to distinguish zones of cold fresh water, hot saline water, …

Read moreStudy to Uncover Yellowstone’s Subsurface Mysteries

USGS has completed a comprehensive assessment and inventory of potential mineral resources covering approximately 10 million acres of Federal and adjacent lands in Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, Utah and Wyoming. The assessment, conducted at the request of the Bureau of Land Management, ranked the mineral potential in select areas of these states along a gradient …

Read moreUSGS Assesses Mineral Potential for Sagebrush Habitats in Six Western States

Claudia Regan begins work this week as Director of the U.S. Geological Survey’s Northern Rocky Mountain Water Science Center, headquartered in Bozeman.Claudia Regan, USGS, Public domain. BOZEMAN, Mont. — Claudia Regan begins work this week as Director of the U.S. Geological Survey’s Northern Rocky Mountain Science Center, headquartered in Bozeman. “Please join me in welcoming Claudia …

Read moreClaudia Regan Takes the Helm as Director of the U.S. Geological Survey’s Northern Rocky Mountain Science Center in Bozeman

Note the bright red patch on the wolf’s hindquarters in this thermal image of a captive wolf at the Grizzly and Wolf Discovery Center in West Yellowstone. This is where fur was shaved to replicate the loss of fur associated with sarcoptic mange. The fur will eventually grow back. USGS scientists are examining thermal imagery …

Read moreStudy Shows Cold and Windy Nights Physically Drain Mangy Wolves

A new approach to ranking copper resources could result in identifying future supplies of copper while saving both time and money, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. This technique has been used to evaluate 10 areas of the world where undiscovered copper resources in sedimentary rock could be found. The areas are in addition to five, higher …

Read moreNew Method for Ranking Global Copper Deposits Saves Time and Money

CORVALLIS, Ore. — Ecosystem restoration is complex and requires an understanding of how the land, plants, and animals all interact with each other over large areas and over time. Today, the U.S. Geological Survey published part two of a three-part handbook addressing restoration of sagebrush ecosystems from the landscape to the site level. “Land managers do not …

Read moreRestoration Handbook for Sagebrush Steppe Ecosystems, Part 2

BOZEMAN, Mont. – Genetic data show the grizzly bear population in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem has grown since the 1980s with no loss in genetic diversity, according to a report by the Interagency Grizzly Bear Study Team. Results indicate that the effective population size of Yellowstone grizzly bears, or the number of individuals that contribute offspring …

Read moreGenetic Study Confirms Growth of Yellowstone Grizzly Bear Population

The term crepuscular describes events relating to, resembling, or occurring during twilight, meaning morning and evening hours. An animal described as crepuscular is active during twilight. EarthWords is an on-going series in which we shed some light on the complicated, often difficult-to-pronounce language of science. Think of us as your terminology tour-guides, and meet us …

Read moreEarthWord: Crepuscular

Three tiny fish larvae that were captured by U.S. Geological Survey scientists in May 2014 have just been confirmed to be pallid sturgeon. These new genetic identifications add to mounting evidence that critically endangered pallid sturgeon spawned successfully in the Lower Missouri River downstream of Gavins Point Dam, South Dakota.   Although successful spawning by the endangered fish …

Read moreNew Evidence Shows Endangered Pallid Sturgeon Spawned in Lower Missouri River