Threatened and Endangered Species

The Bureau of Land Management’s National Landscape Conservation System seeks to conserve, protect, and restore nationally significant landscapes. Science is a critical piece of this effort. The US Geological Survey is working with the Bureau of Land Management to develop Science Plans to help prioritize and support science efforts to better understand and manage resources in these landscapes.

Resource management decisions need to be informed by up-to-date, quality science and data. However there is sometimes an overwhelming number of scientific publications for managers to consider in their decisions. This project provides concise summaries of recent, peer-reviewed science and data products about different resources and topics of management concern, integrated into a searchable tool.

The use of rare plant habitat models in land management decisions can be constrained by issues surrounding data access, model quality, and institutional capacity, among other factors. This project seeks to understand challenges associated with using habitat models and explore avenues for addressing these challenges to facilitate greater use of habitat models in public lands decision making.

Research on Guam has led to development and validation of numerous effective control tools, including the advancement of reptile control to support native species recovery.

Little is known about the role of fire in the sagebrush ecosystem within the range of the Gunnison sage-grouse ( Centrocercus minimus ), and fire has been mostly absent from these systems in the 20th century, partially owing to active fire suppression.

USGS scientists are evaluating the use of quantile regression to develop models of sage-grouse population changes across the United States.

The USGS is developing science and decision support tools to inform policy and management decisions about various aspects of the energy development life cycle.

States across the U.S. have developed Wildlife Action Plans, with the purpose of preventing future listings under the federal Endangered Species Act. Habitat loss and fragmentation are key threats to wildlife in the U.S., and housing development is a major driver of both. USGS is working to quantify the vulnerability of and threat to priority areas in State Wildlife Action Plans from future...

Recent advances in molecular biology allow us to develop and apply the tools and concepts of molecular genetics to the conservation of biological resources. Working with our partners, we design and implement studies that provide genetic and genomic information for a broad range of applications, as detailed below.

Large scale changes are occurring to our natural landscapes, often resulting in changes to the distribution and abundance of species living within these landscapes. Populations of many species affected by these natural or anthropogenic changes require focused management to ensure their conservation and sometimes recovery from the brink of extinction.

Grasslands are arguably one of the most anthropogenically stressed ecosystems of the western United States. The highly endangered black-footed ferret and prairie dogs epitomize grassland mammals of high conservation concern.

Population genetics is an area of research that examines the distribution of genetic variation and levels of genetic diversity within and between populations. This information provides insights into the level of connectedness of populations throughout a species’ range and can be used to identify unique populations or those with low levels of genetic diversity.