Landscape Conservation

Initiative

Conserving world-class wildlife resources

Facilitating responsible energy development

WYOMING

Scientific Investigations Report 2008-5195

U.S. Department of the Interior

U.S. Geological Survey

U.S. Geological Survey 

Science Strategy for the Wyoming 

Landscape Conservation Initiative

By Zachary H. Bowen, Cameron L. Aldridge, 

Patrick J. Anderson, Geneva W. Chong, Mark A. Drummond, 

Collin Homer, Ronald C. Johnson, Matthew J. Kauffman, 

Steven T. Knick, John J. Kosovich, Kirk A. Miller, Tom Owens, 

Sarah Shafer, and Michael J. Sweat
U.S. Department of the Interior

KEN SALAZAR, Secretary

U.S. Geological Survey

Suzette M. Kimball, Acting Director

U.S. Geological Survey, Reston, Virginia: 2009

This and other USGS information products are available at http://store.usgs.gov/

U.S. Geological Survey

Box 25286, Denver Federal Center

Denver, CO 80225

To learn about the USGS and its information products visit http://www.usgs.gov/

1-888-ASK-USGS

Any use of trade, product, or firm names is for descriptive purposes only and does not imply endorsement by the 

U.S. Government.

Although this report is in the public domain, permission must be secured from the individual copyright owners to 

reproduce any copyrighted materials contained within this report.

Suggested Citation:

Bowen, Z.H., Aldridge, C.L.., Anderson, P.J., Chong, G.W., Drummond, M.A., Homer, C., Johnson, R.C., 

Kauffman, M.J., Knick, S.T., Kosovich, J.J., Miller, K.A., Owens, T., Shafer, S., and Sweat, M.J., 2009, 

U.S. Geological Survey Science Strategy for the Wyoming Landscape Conservation Initiative: 

U.S. Geological Survey Scientific Investigations Report 2008-5195, 26 p.
iii

Contents

Abstract...........................................................................................................................................................1

Executive Summary.......................................................................................................................................1

Introduction ....................................................................................................................................................3

Purpose and Organization of This Report.........................................................................................3

Background and Scope of the Issues ...............................................................................................3

Energy Development in Wyoming.............................................................................................3

Importance of Natural Resources in Southwest Wyoming..................................................4

WLCI Goal and Strategies Will Complement Existing Conservation Efforts ...............................5

WLCI Implementation and Science Strategy Development ..........................................................5

USGS WLCI Science Team Goals, Philosophy, and Basic Premises ..................................7

Major Components and Review of the USGS WLCI Science Strategy...............................7

Description of the WLCI Area .....................................................................................................................8

Geographic Area...................................................................................................................................8

Ecosystems and Habitat Types...........................................................................................................8

Sagebrush Steppe .......................................................................................................................8

Mixed-Foothill Shrubland ...........................................................................................................8

Aspen ...........................................................................................................................................9

Riparian........................................................................................................................................10

Aquatic.........................................................................................................................................10

Ecosystem Dynamics .........................................................................................................................10

Natural Change ..........................................................................................................................10

Anthropogenic Change.............................................................................................................10

The Interactive Effects of Natural and Anthropogenic Changes ......................................10

WLCI Management Needs for Evaluating Cumulative Environmental 

Effects of Development Activities in Southwest Wyoming ...................................................11

1. Identify Key Drivers of Change............................................................................................11

Objectives for Addressing Management Need 1 ........................................................12

Short-Term Activities for Meeting Objectives..............................................................12

Long-Term Activities for Meeting Objectives...............................................................13

2. Identify Condition and Distribution of Key Wildlife Species, 

Habitats, and Species Habitat Requirements..........................................................13

Objectives for Addressing Management Need 2 ........................................................13

Short-Term Activities for Meeting Objectives..............................................................14

Long-Term Activities for Meeting Objectives...............................................................14

3. Evaluate Wildlife and Livestock Responses to Development ........................................14

Objectives for Addressing Management Need 3 ........................................................15

Short-Term Activities for Meeting Objectives..............................................................15

Long-Term Activities for Meeting Objectives...............................................................15
iv

4. Evaluate the Effectiveness of Restoration, Reclamation, and 

Mitigation Activities.....................................................................................................15

Objectives for Addressing Management Need 4 ........................................................16

Short-Term Activities for Meeting Objectives..............................................................16

Long-Term Activities for Meeting Objectives...............................................................16

5. Develop an Integrated Inventory and Monitoring Strategy............................................17

Objectives for Addressing Management Need 5 ........................................................17

Short-Term Activities for Meeting Objectives..............................................................18

Long-Term Activities for Meeting Objectives...............................................................18

6. Develop a Data Clearinghouse and Information-Management 

Framework.....................................................................................................................18

Objectives for Addressing Management Need 6 ........................................................18

Short-Term Activities for Meeting Objectives..............................................................19

Long-Term Activities for Meeting Objectives...............................................................19

Research and Monitoring Approaches ...................................................................................................19

Range of Approaches Proposed for WLCI Science......................................................................19

Retrospective Studies...............................................................................................................19

Treatment and Control Studies ................................................................................................19

Monitoring...................................................................................................................................19

Process Studies .........................................................................................................................19

Modeling......................................................................................................................................19

Optimizing Adaptive Management Through a Coordinated Research 

and Monitoring Program......................................................................................................20

Developing a Framework for Conducting WLCI Science.............................................................21

Implementation of the USGS WLCI Science Strategy ..........................................................................22

Anticipated Products for 2008–09 ....................................................................................................23

Coordination and Cooperative Research................................................................................................23

Education, Outreach, and Community Involvement ..............................................................................24

References Cited .........................................................................................................................................24

Figures

1. Graph showing past, present, and projected gas production 

in Wyoming...............................................................................................................................4

2. Map of the Wyoming Landscape Conservation Initiative area 

showing surface jurisdiction.................................................................................................9

3. Illustration of the adaptive management cycle. .......................................................................20

4. Illustration showing a three-phase approach to monitoring 

ecosystem components. ......................................................................................................21
Conversion Factors

Inch/Pound to SI

Multiply By To obtain

Length

 inch (in.) 2.54 centimeter (cm)

 foot (ft) 0.3048 meter (m)

 mile (mi) 1.609 kilometer (km)

Area

 acre 0.4047 hectare (ha)

 acre 0.004047 square kilometer (km2)

Volume

 cubic foot (ft3) 0.02832 cubic meter (m3) 

Acronyms

BLM — U.S. Bureau of Land Management

BMP — Best management practice

CWCS — Wyoming’s Comprehensive Wildlife Conservation Strategy

DOI — Department of the Interior

FGDC — Federal Geographic Data Committee

FWS — U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service

I&M — Inventory and monitoring

JIO — Jonah Interagency Mitigation and Reclamation Office

NEPA — National Environmental Policy Act

NPS — National Park Service

NSSI — North Slope Science Initiative

SGCN — Species of Greatest Conservation Need

STAC — Science and Technical Advisory Committee (of WLCI)

USFS — U.S. Forest Service

USGS — U.S. Geological Survey

WBEA — Wyoming Basins Ecoregional Assessment

WGFD — Wyoming Game and Fish Department

WLCI — Wyoming Landscape Conservation Initiative

v
Acknowledgments

vi

Linda J. Jacobsen, with the U.S. Geological Survey 

Office in Reston, Va., provided advice on linking the WLCI 

Science Strategy to USGS budget documents for the WLCI.

Comprehensive reviews were provided by Ken Henke, Bureau 

of Land Management ,Wyoming State Office; Lee Lamb, U.S. 

Geological Survey Biological Resources Discipline, Fort Collins 

Science Center; Jon Kolak, U.S. Geological Survey Geology 

Discipline, Reston Headquarters; Don DeLong, U.S. Forest 

Service, Grey’s River Ranger District; Joy Owen, Friends of the 

Red Desert, Wyoming; and Vito Nuccio, U.S. Geological Survey, 

Central Region Director’s Office. Cynthia P. Melcher assisted 

with formatting and editing.
By Zachary H. Bowen1

, Cameron L. Aldridge1, Patrick J. Anderson1, Geneva W. Chong2, Mark A. Drummond1, 

Collin Homer3, Ronald C. Johnson4, Matthew J. Kauffman5, Steven T. Knick6, John J. Kosovich7, Kirk A. Miller8, 

Tom Owens9, Sarah Shafer10, and Michael J. Sweat8

1

 U.S. Geological Survey, Fort Collins Science Center, Fort Collins, Colo.

2

 Natural Resource Ecology Laboratory, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, Colo.

3

 U.S. Geological Survey, Northern Rocky Mountain Science Center, Jackson, Wyo.

4

 U.S. Geological Survey, Earth Resources Observation and Science Data Center, Sioux Falls, S.D.

5

 U.S. Geological Survey, Central Energy Resources Team, Lakewood, Colo.

6

 U.S. Geological Survey, and Wyoming Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit, University of Wyoming, Laramie, Wyo.

7

 U.S. Geological Survey, Forest and Rangeland Ecosystem Science Center, Snake River Field Station, Boise, Idaho

8

 U.S. Geological Survey, Central Region Geospatial Information Office, Lakewood, Colo.

9

 U.S. Geological Survey, Wyoming Water Science Center, Cheyenne, Wyo.

10 U.S. Geological Survey, Rocky Mountain Geographical Science Center, Denver, Colo.

11 U.S. Geological Survey, Central Region Earth Surface Processes Team, Corvallis, Oreg.

U.S. Geological Survey Science Strategy for the 

Wyoming Landscape Conservation Initiative

Abstract 

Southwest Wyoming’s wildlife and habitat resources 

are increasingly affected by energy and urban/exurban 

development, climate change, and other key drivers of 

ecosystem change. To ensure that southwest Wyoming’s 

wildlife populations and habitats persist in the face of 

development and other changes, a consortium of public 

resource-management agencies proposed the Wyoming 

Landscape Conservation Initiative (WLCI), the overall goal of 

which is to implement conservation actions. As the principal 

agency charged with conducting WLCI science, the U.S. 

Geological Survey (USGS) has developed a Science Strategy 

for the WLCI. Workshops were held for all interested parties 

to identify and refine the most pressing management needs for 

achieving WLCI goals. Research approaches for addressing 

those needs include developing conceptual models for 

understanding ecosystem function, identifying key drivers of 

change affecting WLCI ecosystems, and conducting scientific 

monitoring and experimental studies to better understand 

ecosystems processes, cumulative effects of change, and 

effectiveness of habitat treatments. The management needs 

drive an iterative, three-phase framework developed for 

structuring and growing WLCI science efforts: Phase I entails 

synthesizing existing information to assess current conditions, 

determining what is already known about WLCI ecosystems, 

and providing a foundation for future work; Phase II entails 

conducting targeted research and monitoring to address 

gaps in data and knowledge during Phase I; and Phase III 

entails integrating new knowledge into WLCI activities and 

coordinating WLCI partners and collaborators. Throughout all 

three phases, information is managed and made accessible to 

interested parties and used to guide and improve management 

and conservation actions, future habitat treatments, best 

management practices, and other conservation activities. 

Executive Summary

Southwest Wyoming has tremendous wildlife and 

habitat resources that are increasingly affected by multiple 

factors, including energy development, urban and exurban 

development, and climate change. The direct and interactive 

effects of these and other key drivers of ecosystem change 

must be understood thoroughly if land managers are to 

implement effective management and conservation actions in 

the region. In response to this need, a group of Federal and 

State agencies (hereafter, “partners”) proposed the Wyoming 

Landscape Conservation Initiative (WLCI), a long-term, 

science-based effort. Additional WLCI participants (hereafter, 

By Zachary H. Bowen1, Cameron L. Aldridge1, 2, Patrick J. Anderson1, Geneva W. Chong3, Mark A. Drummond1, 

Collin Homer4, Ronald C. Johnson5, Matthew J. Kauffman6, Steven T. Knick7, John J. Kosovich8, Kirk A. Miller9, 

Tom Owens10, Sarah Shafer11, and Michael J. Sweat9
2 U.S. Geological Survey Science Strategy for the Wyoming Landscape Conservation Initiative

“collaborators”) include many public, nonprofit, and private 

organizations, and private landowners. The overall goal of 

the WLCI is to ensure that southwest Wyoming’s wildlife 

populations and habitats persist in the face of increasing 

energy development and other land-use changes. The issues 

and goals associated with the WLCI effort align well with the 

U.S. Geological Survey’s (USGS) science strategy directions 

of understanding ecosystems, climate variability and change, 

and energy and mineral resources, as well as conducting a 

water census of the United States (U.S. Geological Survey, 

2007).

The principal goals of USGS WLCI science are to 

provide multidisciplinary scientific and technical support 

to WLCI partners and advance the overall scientific 

understanding of southwest Wyoming’s ecosystems. 

Accomplishing these goals will entail (1) evaluating the 

effectiveness of habitat treatments implemented by WLCI 

partners and collaborators, and (2) assessing the cumulative 

effects of energy development and other land-use changes 

in the WLCI area. Information gained from both areas of 

research will then be used to guide and improve future habitat 

treatments, best management practices, and other conservation 

activities. Most of the WLCI science will be developed and 

conducted by a team of USGS scientists, who will provide 

multidisciplinary scientific and technical support to the WLCI 

partners. The purpose of this report, therefore, is to outline 

the USGS WLCI team’s strategy (hereafter “Strategy”) for 

conducting WLCI science. Each fiscal year (FY), the detailed 

scopes of work and expected products for WLCI science will 

be outlined in a separate document.

To help build an effective science program of research 

and monitoring for the WLCI, workshops were held for 

WLCI partners and collaborators to identify and refine the 

most pressing needs for implementing effective management 

and conservation actions. The six management needs are 

to (1) identify the key drivers of change; (2) identify the 

condition and distribution of key wildlife species, habitat, 

and species habitat requirements; 

(3) evaluate wildlife and livestock 

responses to energy and associated 

development; (4) identify the 

most effective and needed 

restoration, reclamation, and 

mitigation activities, as well as 

locations where conservation 

benefits may be maximized; (5) 

develop an integrated inventory 

and monitoring strategy; and (6) 

develop a data clearinghouse and 

information management framework. 

In the discussion provided for each 

management need, associated 

objectives and both the short- and 

long-term research needs for 

achieving those objectives are 

described.

Research approaches for addressing WLCI management 

needs will include developing conceptual models for 

understanding ecosystem function, identifying key drivers 

of change affecting WLCI ecosystems, and conducting 

experimental treatment and control studies, as well as 

retrospective analyses, process studies, and monitoring. An 

iterative, three-phase framework was developed for structuring 

and growing WLCI science efforts. Phase I of the framework 

entails conducting a baseline synthesis to determine what 

is already known about WLCI ecosystems and providing 

a foundation for future work. Phase II entails conducting 

targeted research and monitoring to address gaps in data and 

knowledge that builds on the foundation developed through 

the baseline synthesis. Phase III involves integrating new 

knowledge into WLCI activities and coordination among 

WLCI partners and collaborators. The three phases are 

intended to be iterative, building continuously upon what has 

already been learned.

The human-dimension aspects of WLCI also are 

crucial to the program’s overall success. Whereas detailed 

approaches to coordinating WLCI as a whole are discussed 

in other documents (see http://www.wlci.gov/), the Strategy 

summarizes USGS approaches for ensuring cooperation 

and coordination among WLCI partners and collaborators; 

informing WLCI partners, collaborators, and the general 

public about WLCI activities; and providing opportunities for 

involvement with respect to WLCI science. These approaches 

entail taking full advantage of electronic media (the Internet 

in particular) for cataloging, displaying, and communicating 

WLCI results and products, as well as public presentations 

and various publication outlets. In addition, there have been 

and will continue to be frequent meetings and workshops to 

gather the full spectrum of perspectives and ideas, provide 

educational opportunities, and foster involvement. These 

efforts will go a long way towards achieving the overall goal 

of the WLCI program as well as the USGS WLCI science 

goals.
Introduction

Purpose and Organization of This Report

The recent surge of energy development in southwest 

Wyoming and its potential effects on the region’s wildlife 

led the U.S. Bureau of Land Management and the Wyoming 

Department of Game and Fish to conceptualize a landscapelevel initiative to address their concerns. This initiative is 

the Wyoming Landscape Conservation Initiative (WLCI; see 

http://www.wlci.gov/) for southwest Wyoming. WLCI partners 

(agencies that signed a memorandum of understanding [MOU] 

regarding their roles and intent in the WLCI) include the U.S. 

Bureau of Land Management (BLM), U.S. Geological Survey 

(USGS), U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS), Wyoming 

Game and Fish Commission, Wyoming Department of 

Agriculture, U.S. Forest Service (USFS), southwest Wyoming 

county commissioners, and southwest Wyoming conservation 

districts. Additional collaborators (interested organizations and 

parties not part of the WLCI partner MOU) providing support 

to the WLCI effort include many public, nonprofit, and private 

entities, including the National Park Service (NPS), U.S. 

Department of Agriculture Natural Resources Conservation 

Service, U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, Wyoming Department 

of Environmental Quality, Wyoming State Land Board, Jonah 

Interagency Mitigation and Reclamation Office (JIO), private 

industry, landowners, and nongovernment organizations and 

conservation groups.

This report, the USGS WLCI Science Strategy 

(hereafter the “Strategy”), presents the USGS strategy for 

WLCI science to be developed and conducted by a team of 

USGS scientists in collaboration with other WLCI partners 

and collaborators. Alaska’s North Slope Science Initiative 

(NSSI; Krummel and LaGory, 2004) served as a model for 

the Strategy in terms of implementing a landscape-scale, 

science-based, long-term, cooperative program to ensure 

persistence and viability of world-class wildlife resources 

and habitats in the face of increasing energy development and 

other land-use changes. Unlike the NSSI, however, the WLCI 

has the added component of on-the-ground conservation 

activities, which will be refined and improved as new 

knowledge is gained through science and applied via adaptive 

management. The principal goals of USGS WLCI science 

are to provide multidisciplinary scientific and technical 

support to WLCI partners and collaborators, and to advance 

the overall scientific understanding of southwest Wyoming’s 

ecosystems. Achieving goals will entail evaluating both (1) 

the effectiveness of habitat treatments implemented by WLCI 

partners and collaborators, and (2) the effects of energy 

development and other land-use changes. The knowledge 

and expertise gained from these science activities will be 

used to guide and improve the effectiveness of future habitat 

treatments, best management practices, mitigation activities, 

and placement of conservation areas. The Strategy also 

exemplifies the role that USGS plays on regional, national, and 

international levels in providing information on ecosystems 

and resource development, as outlined in the agency’s overall 

science strategy document, Facing Tomorrow’s Challenges

(U.S. Geological Survey, 2007).

The Strategy is organized into six sections: (1) 

background information regarding the goal, strategies, and 

implementation that pertain specifically to the WLCI, as 

well as the goals, philosophies, and basic premises of USGS 

science for the WLCI; (2) a description of the WLCI area; (3) 

details of the six most pressing management needs identified 

by WLCI partners and collaborators; (4) proposed approaches 

to research and monitoring; (5) strategies for WLCI 

implementation, including cooperation and coordination 

among WLCI partners and collaborators; and (6) approaches 

for conducting education, outreach, and community 

involvement for the WLCI. Overall, the management needs are 

designed to focus WLCI science efforts and facilitate analyses 

of the cumulative effects associated with energy development 

and other land-use changes. Sections four through six make 

up the bulk of the Strategy. The annual plans or scopes of 

work proposed by USGS for WLCI science will be outlined 

in a separate document each fiscal year (FY) to provide a 

framework for the following year and build on information 

gained in prior years. The Strategy, also a living document, 

will be updated and amended as needed.

Background and Scope of the Issues

Energy Development in Wyoming

The Greater Green River Basin, which encompasses most 

of southwest Wyoming, as well as portions of northwestern 

Colorado and northeastern Utah, is one of five geologic 

basins that contain the majority of natural gas reserves 

in the 48 contiguous United States (U.S. Departments of 

Interior, Agriculture, and Energy, 2006). The 15-million-acre 

southwest Wyoming portion of the basin—roughly the size of 

Connecticut, Delaware, Massachusetts, and New Hampshire 

combined—contains an estimated 85 trillion cubic feet of 

recoverable natural gas, making it one of the Nation’s largest 

concentrations of this resource and capable of contributing 

significantly to the demand for approximately 23 trillion cubic 

feet of natural gas used annually in the United States (U.S. 

Department of Energy, 2004). By the early 2000s, enough 

natural gas was being produced annually from the Greater 

Green River Basin to heat four million homes.

Development of energy resources in Wyoming began 

in the late 19th century (Mackey, 1997) and continued 

Introduction 3
sporadically through the 20th century. By early 2007, there 

were more than 49,000 producing wells in the State, with 

another 17,000 forecasted to be drilled by 2010 (depending on 

Environmental Impact Statement processes; from Wyoming 

Oil and Gas Conservation Commission at http://wogcc.state.

wy.us/). A substantial number of these forecasted energy 

developments will occur in the Greater Green River Basin 

of southwest Wyoming. Although Wyoming has long been a 

provider of the Nation’s energy, the recent and projected pace 

of energy development is unprecedented in Wyoming’s history 

(fig. 1).

Combined with increased residential and industrial 

development, fast-paced energy development is resulting 

in notable habitat loss and degradation, including habitat 

fragmentation due to road construction, increased traffic 

(industrial and residential), drilling rigs and well pads, service 

units, pipelines, power lines, fencing, water pits, water wells, 

increased human activity, and dust, among other impacts 

(Sawyer and others, 2006). Although studies are currently 

underway to address potential direct and indirect effects of 

energy development on terrestrial and aquatic wildlife species 

and habitats in Wyoming, in general little is known about the 

cumulative effects of intensive energy-extraction activities on 

the integrity of habitats or population viability of sagebrush 

obligates and species of concern, or how those activities alter 

agricultural practices, human population demographics, local 

governance, or recreation activities. Land-use planning and 

decisionmaking become increasingly complex when energy 

developments are considered along with other significant landuse activities, such as livestock grazing and recreation, and 

the effects of invasive plant species and climate change. Given 

the large proportion of publicly owned lands, the pattern of 

private land ownership, and the spatial distribution of existing 

and projected oil and gas development, decisions on landuse management in southwest Wyoming will substantially 

influence the persistence of the region’s fish and wildlife, 

with regard to both species in general and species with special 

status.

Importance of Natural Resources in Southwest 

Wyoming

Southwest Wyoming encompasses some of the highestquality terrestrial and aquatic wildlife habitats in the 

Intermountain West (Sawyer and others, 2005). Sagebrush, 

mountain shrub, aspen, riparian, and aquatic habitats are 

crucial for a diversity of game and nongame species. The 

extensive landscapes dominated by sagebrush in this area 

support some of the largest extant populations of sagebrush0

500

1,000

1,500

2,000

2,500

3,000

3,500

4,000

Billions of cubic feet

1950 1960 1970 1980 1990 2000 2010 2120 2030

YEAR

Figure 1 . Gas production in Wyoming from 1950-2007, with projections to 2035. Figure courtesy of Rod DeBruin, Wyoming State 

Geological Survey Oil and Gas Group.

4 U.S. Geological Survey Science Strategy for the Wyoming Landscape Conservation Initiative
associated species in the United States, including greater 

sage-grouse (Centrocercus urophasianus) and pronghorn 

(Antilocarpa americana; Clark and Stromberg, 1987; 

Connelly and others, 2004). Estimated populations of wildlife 

in southwest Wyoming include 100,000 pronghorn and the 

highest density of greater sage-grouse within the species’ 

range, as well as 100,000 mule deer (Odocoileus hemionus), 

40,000 elk (Cervus elaphus), 8,000 moose (Alces alces), 

and 140 bighorn sheep (Ovis canadensis). The area also 

supports 151 native species, including three subspecies of 

native cutthroat trout (Oncorhynchus clarki bouvieri, O. c. 

pleuriticus, and O. c. utah), designated as “Species of Greatest 

Conservation Need” because their populations and habitats 

are declining or there is a lack of information about their 

status and distributions (see http://gf.state.wy.us/wildlife/

CompConvStrategy/SectionI.pdf and http://gf.state.wy.us/

wildlife/CompConvStrategy/CWCSSpeciesList050505.pdf for a 

species list and methods used to rank species; Wyoming Game 

and Fish Department, 2005). Climate change models for the 

sagebrush ecosystem predict that the largest area of sagebrush 

to persist in the future is the area between the northern and 

central Rocky Mountains in southern Wyoming (Neilson and 

others, 2005). 

Southwest Wyoming’s vast open spaces also support an 

important livestock industry represented by 1,400 familyowned farms and ranches, 119,000 cattle, and 95,000 sheep. 

These ranching and agricultural holdings help conserve 

these vast open spaces, which provide essential seasonal 

habitats and migration corridors for wildlife. Lands and 

water in southwest Wyoming also offer some of the country’s 

most sought-after recreational opportunities, providing an 

important economic asset by attracting anglers, hunters, 

wildlife watchers, and other visitors seeking open spaces, 

majestic scenery, and outdoor recreation in natural settings. 

Based on average expenditures per recreational visitor day in 

Sublette, Sweetwater, and Lincoln Counties combined, the 

total annual revenue generated for outdoor recreation is $9.4 

million (TRC Mariah Associates, Inc., 2005; U.S. Bureau of 

Land Management, 2008). For many small rural communities, 

money spent by people seeking outdoor recreation is essential 

for long-term economic stability.

WLCI Goal and Strategies Will Complement 

Existing Conservation Efforts

To achieve the overall WLCI goal of ensuring that 

southwest Wyoming’s terrestrial and aquatic habitats 

and wildlife populations persist in the face of increasing 

developments, WLCI partners and collaborators have proposed 

and are pursuing many strategies, including

•	 identifying areas of high wildlife-conservation value;

•	 developing and implementing effective monitoring 

strategies and protocols;

•	 applying adaptive management as indicated by 

monitoring trends and research results;

•	 facilitating data and information sharing between and 

among WLCI partners;

•	 providing guidelines for cooperating agencies, 

nongovernmental organizations, and other 

collaborators, including energy and livestock 

industries;

•	 making full use of interactive workshops, meetings, 

and electronic technologies to facilitate active 

involvement by public agencies, nongovernmental 

organizations, and the energy and livestock industries;

•	 establishing criteria for project selection and funding;

•	 implementing projects to help ensure that populations 

of important game and nongame species (including 

the Species of Greatest Conservation Need [SGCN] 

listed by Wyoming Game and Fish Department [http://

gf.state.wy.us/wildlife/CompConvStrategy/SectionI.

pdf]; species designated by the FWS as Threatened or 

Endangered; and species considered economically or 

socially important) are sustained or improved; and

•	 developing best management practices (BMPs).

The WLCI is designed to help ensure that partners 

responsible for managing Wyoming’s fish and wildlife and 

their habitats have the necessary information and resources 

for assessing the cumulative effects of anthropogenic 

activities and sustaining or improving habitat conditions, 

species distributions, and population viability at the landscape 

scale. It is not intended as an alternative or substitute for 

reclamation and mitigation actions required of industry, nor 

is it a replacement for existing efforts within the geographical 

area represented by the Strategy outlined in this report. Rather, 

development and implementation of WLCI strategies will 

complement and enhance existing efforts, including (but not 

limited to) those of local sage-grouse working groups, the 

Wyoming Basin Ecoregional Assessment (WBEA; Rowland 

and others, 2006), the Western Association of Fish and 

Wildlife Agencies’ Greater Sage-Grouse and Sagebrush 

Habitats Conservation Strategy, BLM’s National Assessment 

Inventory and Monitoring Strategy, and the FWS’s Partners for 

Fish and Wildlife Program.

WLCI Implementation and Science Strategy 

Development

Implementation of all WLCI components, ranging from 

on-the-ground habitat projects (including, but not limited to, 

prescription burns, seeding, adding/removing/altering fences, 

and establishing conservation easements) to science (both 

Introduction 5
6 U.S. Geological Survey Science Strategy for the Wyoming Landscape Conservation Initiative

research and monitoring), will require long-term funding for 

maintaining the necessary staff, as well as for planning and 

implementing the work. The WLCI partners identified four 

elements as critical for successful implementation of the 

initiative:

1. funding, staffing, and organizational planning to 

provide the means for supporting and implementing 

this effort;

2. a science strategy that identifies existing and 

additional information required for fish and wildlife 

habitat enhancement, species monitoring, and 

conservation work, as well as the research needed to 

determine whether reclamation projects successfully 

restore disturbed habitats to their predisturbance 

condition and processes/functions at various spatial 

and temporal scales;

3. an information management plan to facilitate data 

and information exchange within and amongst 

partners; and

4. a communication plan to share information with 

interested parties.

Although much of the background material, ideas, and 

approaches discussed herein will serve the broader planning 

needs of the WLCI, the Strategy is designed to address the 

second critical element listed above and briefly describe 

approaches to information management and communications, 

with an emphasis on USGS’s role as a WLCI partner. It 

focuses on the management issues and related questions 

identified by WLCI partners and on expertise gained by 

USGS scientists from long-term experience working with 

land managers in Wyoming. Documents important to early 

development of the WLCI and the Strategy include the 

WLCI Concept Paper (Interagency Wyoming Landscape 

Conservation Initiative Planning Group, 2006), Wyoming’s 

Comprehensive Wildlife Conservation Strategy (CWCS; 

Wyoming Game and Fish Department, 2005), the Wyoming 

Greater Sage-Grouse Conservation Plan (Wyoming Game and 

Fish Department, 2003), local working group plans, multiple 

BLM Planning documents, the WBEA (Rowland and others, 

2006), and the overall science strategy developed for USGS 

(U.S. Geological Survey, 2007).

Efforts to define the most critical management needs 

associated with the WLCI included a series of meetings and 

workshops held in late 2006 and early 2007. Groups involved 

in these meetings included the WLCI Executive Committee 

(composed of government executives and elected officials to 

provide guidance and decisionmaking authority for the WLCI) 

and the WLCI Coordination Team (composed of interagency 

personnel responsible for managing the daily operations of the 

WLCI and maintaining regular contact with WLCI partners 

and collaborators at the field level; see http://www.wlci.gov/

docs/WLCI_MOU_Signed.pdf). In addition, there were open 

house meetings at BLM field offices and meetings with 

multiple WLCI partners and collaborators in the WLCI area. 

Through these interactions, participants developed and refined 

the six most pressing WLCI management needs for evaluating 

the cumulative effects of anthropogenic activities in southwest 

Wyoming:

(1) identify the key drivers of change; 

(2) identify the condition and distribution of key wildlife 

species, habitat, and species’ habitat requirements; 

(3) evaluate wildlife and livestock responses to 

development; 

(4) identify the most effective and needed restoration, 

reclamation, and mitigation activities, as well as 

locations where conservation benefits may be 

maximized; 

(5) develop an integrated inventory and monitoring 

strategy; and 

(6) develop a data clearinghouse and informationmanagement framework.

The Strategy focuses on these management needs, which 

are detailed in the WLCI management needs section, their 

objectives for addressing the management needs, and the 

priority short- and long-term activities (research and technical 

assistance) for meeting those objectives. 

To gain additional perspectives on and information for 

the WLCI and associated management needs, a WLCI science 

workshop was held at the University of Wyoming in May 2007 

and attended by 140 individuals representing over 35 different 

agencies or groups. Comprehensive notes and a workshop 

summary were compiled by the Ruckelshaus Institute (http://

www.uwyo.edu/ENR/IENR/) to provide information useful for 

developing the USGS WLCI Science Strategy, subsequently 

published as a USGS Scientific Investigations Report 

(D’Erchia, 2008). The management needs (with the exception 

of number 4 above, which was added after the workshop) 

were deliberated during six plenary sessions and associated 

breakout sessions. There were several overlapping findings 

from the six sessions, which included the need to

•	 create a long-term, accessible information database; 

•	 identify key habitats, indicator species, and umbrella 

species; 

•	 identify gaps in baseline data and fill those gaps;

•	 begin on-the-ground projects (for example, fencing, 

planting, or other habitat improvements) as soon as 

possible; and
Introduction 7

•	 implement a monitoring program that provides 

information applicable to adaptive management goals.

Several overlapping concerns also expressed during the WLCI 

science workshop included 

•	 how to secure adequate and long-term funding; 

•	 how to manage the WLCI workload with understaffed 

agencies; 

•	 how best to approach cumulative-effects assessment;

•	 the value and effectiveness of offsite mitigation;

•	 transitioning to on-the-ground adaptive management; 

and 

•	 too much emphasis on research.

The WLCI science workshop affirmed the importance 

of the WLCI management needs, and participants provided 

additional expertise, experience, and many new ideas useful 

for enhancing the original management needs. Although some 

of the ideas and concerns identified fell outside the scope 

of the Strategy, all comments and ideas presented during 

the workshop and captured in the workshop proceedings 

provided important context for the Strategy. Whereas the 

Strategy embodies that larger context, it also provides enough 

specificity to direct near-term activities and refine plans as the 

initiative evolves; however, to distinguish the Strategy from 

the more detailed scope of work planned, annual scopes of 

work will be published separately.

USGS WLCI Science Team Goals, Philosophy, 

and Basic Premises

During its first meeting, the USGS WLCI Science 

Team (hereafter “Science Team”) had the overall goals of 

developing (1) a research strategy for evaluating the effects 

of land-use change on ecosystems in southwest Wyoming, 

with an emphasis on energy development and how it interacts 

with other major drivers, such as climate, and (2) projects 

that provide information to support management decisions 

and promote an understanding of how to maintain ecosystem 

processes and function. To guide development of these 

Strategy elements and successfully integrate science with the 

overall WLCI effort, the group first established its science 

philosophy and a set of basic premises, both of which arose 

from the intersection of ideas that generated the WLCI and the 

mission and capabilities of USGS, as described in the overall 

USGS science strategy (U.S. Geological Survey, 2007). They 

represent important themes and considerations regarding the 

research and technical assistance projects in which USGS 

should engage. The philosophy adopted for WLCI science and 

technical assistance is that projects must integrate multiple 

collaborators and disciplines across various spatial and 

temporal scales. Basic premises include

•	 focusing on management needs;

•	 integrating existing data provided by WLCI partners 

and building on that knowledge;

•	 coordinating all plans and work activities with WLCI 

partners and collaborators;

•	 developing research and monitoring products suitable 

for adaptive management;

•	 advancing scientific understanding; and

•	 developing an applied research approach that is broadly 

applicable to other geographic areas.

Major Components and Review of the USGS 

WLCI Science Strategy

The subsequent sections of the Strategy, and the intent of 

each, are summarized below.

•	 Description of the WLCI Area delineates the 

WLCI boundaries and sets the stage for WLCI 

science by briefly describing the habitat types of 

southwest Wyoming identified as WLCI priorities 

and summarizing southwest Wyoming’s ecosystem 

dynamics, both natural and anthropogenic, and their 

combined effects.

•	 WLCI Management Needs for Evaluating Cumulative 

Environmental Effects of Development Activities in 

Southwest Wyoming details the six most pressing 

management needs identified by WLCI partners and 

collaborators; it also lists the objectives for addressing 

each management need and the short- and long-term 

research and technical assistance activities proposed 

for meeting those objectives. The research objectives 

were identified during meetings of the Science Team 

and during the May 2007 WLCI science workshop 

(D’Erchia, 2008).

•	 Research and Monitoring Approaches briefly describes 

the spectrum of research and monitoring approaches 

that will be employed for the WLCI, including the 

development of conceptual models for identifying 

and illustrating key drivers of ecosystem change. It 

also describes an iterative, three-phase framework for 

developing and implementing specific WLCI research 

and technical assistance activities. The framework 

was based on a convergent set of ideas presented in 

documents on ecoregional assessment, research, and 

monitoring (summarized in Kotliar and others, 2008).
8 U.S. Geological Survey Science Strategy for the Wyoming Landscape Conservation Initiative

•	 Implementation of the USGS WLCI Science Strategy

indicates that a full-time USGS employee has been 

dedicated to the WLCI Coordination Team to assist 

with ongoing needs for technical assistance and to 

participate in selecting and coordinating BLM habitatimprovement projects implemented in 2007 and 

beyond.

•	 Coordination and Cooperative Research discusses how 

the set of USGS science activities described in prior 

sections will be linked to ongoing work by USGS and 

other entities.

•	 Education, Outreach, and Community Involvement

provides a brief discussion of important tools, 

approaches, and activities needed to communicate 

findings and involve the public in the science of the 

WLCI.

The Strategy has undergone review for content, relevance 

to WLCI, and technical feasibility by the WLCI Science and 

Technical Advisory Committee (STAC; an interagency team 

set up to prioritize WLCI science and help apply science to 

on-the-ground management and conservation actions), the 

WLCI Executive Committee, and additional outside reviewers. 

All comments were considered carefully and incorporated 

to the extent possible. The Strategy was written for a 5-year 

research program; thus, it will be reviewed and refined as the 

WLCI evolves. It is also anticipated that the accompanying 

scope of work document will be reviewed annually by the 

STAC and updated.

Description of the WLCI Area

Geographic Area

The WLCI area, which encompasses the Wyoming 

portion of the Greater Green River Basin and the Great 

Divide Basin, is bounded by the northern edges of Wyoming’s 

Lincoln and Sublette Counties, the Continental Divide, 

Colorado, Utah, and Idaho (fig. 2). The major basins 

encompassed by the WLCI boundaries are those of the Green, 

Snake, Bear, and White-Yampah Rivers, as well as the Great 

Divide Closed Basin. This geographic area was chosen 

primarily for two reasons: (1) it has tremendous resource 

values in terms of energy, habitat and wildlife, livestock 

grazing, and recreation; and (2) the pattern of land ownership 

includes large, contiguous blocks of public lands. The high 

value of natural resources combined with large areas of 

publicly managed lands provides unique opportunities for 

planning, resource use, and resource conservation across a 

large and diverse landscape affecting numerous public and 

private stakeholders.

Ecosystems and Habitat Types

Sagebrush Steppe 

Sagebrush steppe, which dominates the semiarid 

intermountain basins of the Western United States, is 

characterized by sagebrush (Artemisia spp.), other shrub 

species, and native grasses. In southwest Wyoming, basin and 

Wyoming big sagebrush (A. tridentata Nutt. ssp. tridentata

and A. tridentata Nutt. ssp. wyomingensis Beetle & Young, 

respectively) are the dominant sage species, although five 

other sagebrush species also occur in the area, and significant 

amounts of mountain big sagebrush (A. tridentata Nutt. ssp. 

vaseyana (Rydb.) Beetle) occur at the higher elevations and 

in areas with greater moisture availability (Knight, 1994). In 

general, sagebrush ecosystems achieve maximum productivity 

in areas where most of the precipitation falls in the winter and 

where water becomes limiting in mid- to late summer.

Sagebrush provides significant habitat (food and shelter) 

for species such as mule deer, elk, pronghorn, and sage-grouse. 

Sagebrush shrubs may contribute to system productivity by 

trapping wind-blown organic material and snow on the lee 

sides of shrubs, thus enhancing conditions for both existing 

nearby shrubs and the establishment of additional shrubs. 

Historically, natural disturbances that led to ecosystem change 

in sagebrush steppe included fire and drought. More recently, 

disturbances also have included intensive livestock grazing 

(and accompanying chemical or mechanical treatments to 

remove sage), invasions of nonnative plant species (such as 

cheatgrass [Bromus tectorum]), and atypical fire behavior due 

to changes in plant community structure and composition (for 

example, throughout the sage-steppe biome, the presence of 

cheatgrass has altered fire regimes and intensities).

Mixed-Foothill Shrubland 

Mixed-foothill shrubland refers to the vegetation that 

occurs in the transition zones between the sagebrush steppe 

and the higher-elevation mountains and escarpments at 

approximately 4,900–7,500 feet in elevation. In these locations 

it is cooler and wetter than it is in the sagebrush steppe, 

and mountain big sagebrush is the dominant sage species. 

Other shrubs in this habitat type include antelope bitterbrush 

(Purshia tridentata (Pursh) DC.), chokecherry (Prunus 

virginiana L.), serviceberry (Amelanchier alnifolia (Nutt.) 

Nutt. ex M. Roemer), skunkbush sumac (Rhus trilobata Nutt.), 

snowberry (Symphoricarpos spp.), snowbrush ceanothus 

(Ceanothus velutinus Dougl. ex Hook), and wild rose (Rosa

spp.) (Knight, 1994). Other plant species commonly include 

the grasses and forbs that associate with sagebrush and foothill 

grasslands, such as bluebunch wheatgrass (Pseudoroegneria 

spicata (Pursh) A. Löve), junegrass (Koeleria macrantha

(Ledeb.) J.A. Schultes), arrowleaf balsamroot (Balsamorhiza 

sagittata (Pursh) Nutt.), hairy goldenaster (Heterotheca villosa

(Pursh) Shinners), and lupine (Lupinus spp.) (Knight, 1994). 
Description of the WLCI Area 9

Evanston

Kemmerer

Pinedale

Rock Springs

111°W 110°W 109°W 108°W 107°W

43°N

42°N

41°N

0 25 50

Kilometers

Surface Total

administration acres

U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM).....7,985,500

Private...........................................................4,262,200

U.S. Forest Service.......................................2,306,800

Wyoming State Land........................................559,900

U.S. Bureau of Reclamation.............................220,600*

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service............................16,400*

National Park Service...........................................8,400*

Surface Water

WYOMING

191

80

Data provided by the Bureau of Land Management

*Depicted in black in the pie graph

Knight (1994) pointed out the similarities of this type to 

riparian zones in terms of their contributions to plant species 

diversity and the crucial wildlife habitat—particularly winter 

habitat—that it provides. 

Aspen 

Aspen (Populus tremuloides Michx.) foothill woodlands, 

which differ from montane aspen forests, often occur in 

foothill riparian zones, moist ravines, and in snowdrift areas 

or seeps, which are wetter and cooler than surrounding 

foothill habitats. Understory vegetation can be similar to 

that of mountain meadows and aspen forests, and may 

include alpine bistort (Polygonum viviparum L.), shrubby 

cinquefoil (Pentaphylloides floribunda (Pursh) A. Löve 

nom. superfl.), and tufted hairgrass (Deschampsia caespitosa

(L.) Beauv.) (Knight, 1994). Aspen management has been 

controversial because the species is undergoing sharp decline 

in some regions (and a general declining trend across the 

landscape) that has been attributed to overbrowsing (aspen 

represent an important food source for ungulates in winter 

and spring) and fire suppression. Remedying these problems 

requires management changes likely to be unpopular with 

some affected publics. Aspen’s clonal nature, its limited 

establishment from seed, and its palatability to cattle and 

wildlife are important characteristics that need consideration 

when managing aspen ecosystems. For example, although 

fire may be necessary to reduce conifer cover and allow aspen 

clones to regain dominance (which may last for 75–100 years), 

excessive browsing on aspen shoots may preclude aspen 

recruitment, maturation, and the characteristics that typify 

aspen ecosystems.

Figure 2. The Wyoming Landscape Conservation Initiative area, including surface jurisdiction.
10 U.S. Geological Survey Science Strategy for the Wyoming Landscape Conservation Initiative

Riparian 

Riparian ecosystems are found along the margins of 

creeks and rivers. Lowland riparian areas in southwest 

Wyoming are characterized by willows (Salix spp.), sedges 

(Carex spp.), and other species adapted to wetlands, including 

narrowleaf (Populus angustifolia) and plains (P. deltoides) 

cottonwoods in areas influenced by dependable streamflow 

and episodic flooding that together provide surfaces suitable 

for willow and cottonwood establishment (Knight, 1994). 

Although riparian zones represent 1 percent (or less) of 

the Wyoming landscape, approximately 80 percent of the 

native animals depend on them at some time during the year 

for water, food, and shelter, and many species use them as 

seasonal migration routes. Anthropogenic water use (for 

example, irrigation, livestock, industry, household) and 

developments that alter the quantity, quality, and timing of the 

hydrologic regime result in significant changes to associated 

riparian ecosystems.

Aquatic

In southwestern Wyoming, aquatic habitats are 

represented by rivers, streams, lakes, and ponds, including 

beaver ponds and off-channel pools along rivers and streams. 

The region encompasses headwaters for three of the Nation’s 

major drainage systems: the Colorado and Columbia Rivers 

and the Bonneville Basin. The associated aquatic habitats are 

shaped primarily by topography and climate. Those occurring 

on valley floors, where elevations range from more than 5,000 

feet to nearly 8,000 feet, are frequently ice-covered for 4–5 

months of the year. The Green and Bear River Basins receive 

only 10–15 inches of precipitation annually, the majority 

occurring as snowfall, whereas the Wyoming and Salt River 

Ranges and the Uinta and Wind River Mountains receive 

significantly greater amounts of annual precipitation. At 

lower elevations, snowmelt contributes the majority of water 

to these systems; thus, aquatic habitat types on valley floors 

are generally confined to the main river channels and nearby 

off-channel areas. In mountainous areas, however, lakes, 

ponds, and streams are more common, reflecting the relative 

abundance of water provided by snowmelt in those areas. In 

the Wyoming and Salt River Ranges, streams are held in wide, 

willow-covered valley floors characterized by highly sinuous 

channels and deeply undercut banks. The major drainages 

of southwest Wyoming support 17 native fish species, 

12 of which the CWCS identifies as Species of Greatest 

Conservation Need (Wyoming Game and Fish Department, 

2005; see http://gf.state.wy.us/wildlife/CompConvStrategy/

SectionI.pdf).

Ecosystem Dynamics

Natural Change

Ecosystems are dynamic entities that vary across time 

and space in response to a variety of natural processes 

(such as climate). Change is an important component of 

ecosystems, resulting from interactions between disturbance 

(such as fire) and subsequent successional processes. The 

paleoenvironmental record illustrates the magnitude and 

variability of past ecosystem changes, such as the expansion 

and contraction of species ranges on timescales ranging from 

centuries to millennia (Davis and Shaw, 2001). Understanding 

the past, present, and future dynamics of ecosystems in the 

WLCI study area and how changes resulting from recent/

current land use differ from those generated by previous 

patterns of disturbance and succession is a fundamental 

component of the Strategy that will be addressed and 

repeatedly refined through retrospective studies, modeling 

future scenarios, and conducting long-term monitoring. 

Anthropogenic Change

The natural dynamics of ecosystems have been modified 

by human activities—more so as human populations have 

grown and technologies have advanced (Turner and others, 

1990). Human activities, including land uses such as 

agriculture, directly modify ecosystems. Other anthropogenic 

changes, such as fire suppression, indirectly alter ecosystems 

by changing disturbance regimes. Ecosystems of the WLCI 

study area have been influenced by many anthropogenic 

activities, including development of energy and housing, 

livestock grazing, recreation, and other land uses. Improving 

the understanding of how these activities, including their 

human dimensions components, affect ecosystem function 

is necessary for successful conservation and management of 

WLCI ecosystems.

The Interactive Effects of Natural and 

Anthropogenic Changes

The interactions between natural ecosystem dynamics 

and human activities can have large impacts on ecosystems; 

thus, it is crucial to consider these effects when planning 

and developing research and conservation activities. In 

addition to direct effects (for example, land-use conversion), 

indirect effects of human activities also may amplify natural 

environmental changes and accelerate rates of change 

beyond those that ecosystems have undergone in the recent 

past. Understanding the combined effects of natural and 

anthropogenic changes, including the socioeconomics that 

drive anthropogenic change, is important to land managers, 
WLCI Management Needs 11

particularly since these factors could influence the suitability 

of management activities. For example, NPS managers have 

tried to identify and re-create fire regimes of pre-European 

settlement eras in national parks; however, it may not be 

possible to reestablish historical fire regimes because of 

potential interactive effects of climate change (anthropogenic 

or natural), changes to vegetation communities (for example, 

invasion of cheatgrass), and human land uses that are 

incompatible with fire, such as developments of housing and 

energy infrastructure.

WLCI Management Needs for 

Evaluating Cumulative Environmental 

Effects of Development Activities in 

Southwest Wyoming 

By definition, cumulative effects are those that 

accumulate over time because of multiple independent 

decisions and development actions that affect—positively 

and(or) negatively—the physical, biotic, and human 

environments in a given geographic region of interest (Orians 

and others, 2003). If the cumulative effects of all decisions 

affecting a given ecosystem are not considered or understood, 

then the true patterns of change over large areas and long 

periods cannot be factored into the decisionmaking process. 

Therefore, the focus of the six management needs identified 

by WLCI partners and collaborators—and the overall goal 

of USGS WLCI science—is to evaluate, monitor, and assess 

the cumulative effects of development activities and identify 

drivers of change on terrestrial and aquatic habitats and 

wildlife populations in southwest Wyoming.

During the past several decades, there has been extensive 

research to address various effects of oil and gas exploration 

activities on wildlife populations and their habitats in areas 

that overlap the WLCI study area. Some of these efforts have 

focused on individual species, such as sage-grouse (Holloran, 

2005), mule deer (Sawyer and others, 2002), and pronghorn 

(Berger, 2004). Other studies have entailed an ecosystem 

approach, including the development of landscape-scale 

conservation plans (Freilich and others, 2001; Neely and 

others, 2001; Noss and others, 2001), conducting ecoregional 

assessments for addressing anthropogenic footprints, and 

evaluating habitat needs for multiple species of conservation 

concern (Rowland and others, 2006). Both previous and 

ongoing work within the WLCI study area will be used 

to help address the WLCI management needs and assess 

the cumulative effects of development and other activities. 

Whereas none of the previous studies within the WLCI study 

area have taken a landscape-scale approach to address all the 

cumulative effects of anthropogenic activities in that region, 

the WBEA (Rowland and others, 2006), which overlaps the 

entire WLCI area, represents the most comprehensive analysis 

to date. The WBEA, therefore, will serve as a foundation for 

developing a comprehensive and interdisciplinary assessment 

of cumulative effects across the diverse and complex WLCI 

region.

In this section, each of the six management needs 

identified for the WLCI is briefly described then followed by 

a list of objectives for addressing that management need; also 

provided are lists of priority short-term (immediate) and longterm (several years) research and technical assistance activities 

for meeting the objectives. Components of the research 

priorities will be integral to the larger cumulative effects 

assessment for southwest Wyoming. As science begins to 

address research questions implicit in the management needs 

and objectives, it will simultaneously build the foundation 

for assessing known and probable cumulative impacts of 

anthropogenic activities and identify the drivers of change 

affecting aquatic and terrestrial wildlife species and their 

habitats.

1. Identify Key Drivers of Change

There are numerous driving forces that directly and 

indirectly cause ecosystem change, such as energy and 

urban development, climate change, fire, invasive species, 

and livestock grazing. The WLCI impetus is concern about 

the potential effects of energy development on terrestrial 

and aquatic wildlife and habitats in southwest Wyoming. 

Although there is little information on the actual effects 

of energy development—predominantly the extraction of 

natural gas—visible changes to the landscape are obvious and 

ongoing. Indeed, energy development is repeatedly identified 

in the WLCI Concept Paper (Interagency Wyoming Landscape 

Conservation Initiative Planning Group, 2006), planning 

documents from the U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI), 

WLCI informational materials, and in various USGS and 

stakeholder meetings and workshops as a key driver of change 

in the southwest Wyoming region.

Climate also has been identified repeatedly as a key 

driver of change in the WLCI region. For example, drought 

conditions since 2000—as measured by streamflowgaging stations—have been among the most severe, in both 

duration and magnitude, recorded since the early 1900s. 

Streamflow and precipitation records constructed as proxies 

for paleoclimates of the Upper Colorado River Basin indicate 

that droughts of even greater frequency, duration, and 

magnitude occurred prior to those measured by instruments 

and documented in the records. Both short- and long-term 

climate variability can change WLCI ecosystems directly, 

as may the interactive effects of climate change and other 

drivers of change. For example, the combined effects of 

drought and grazing could be far more pronounced than those 

of either driver alone; thus, drought is a consideration when 

establishing stocking rates for livestock grazing which, in turn, 
12 U.S. Geological Survey Science Strategy for the Wyoming Landscape Conservation Initiative

affects ranching operations. Similarly, drought may affect the 

size of areas required for conservation efforts.

The Science Team will identify key drivers of change 

affecting WLCI ecosystems, describe the changes (including 

their spatial and temporal occurrences), and qualify their 

relative significance in terms of the urgency for addressing and 

the potential for reversing them. In preparation, the Science 

Team has compiled a working list of potentially important 

drivers of change (in alphabetical order).

•	 Agricultural practices

Livestock grazing

Irrigation

•	 Air quality

•	 Climate variability

•	 Disease

•	 Energy development

Biomass

Coal

Natural gas

Oil

Oil shale

Uranium

Wind

•	 Fire

Natural

Prescribed

•	 Infrastructure development

•	 Invasive species

•	 Policy (public land management)

Interpretation of multiple-use mandates

Prescribed fire

Seeding and other vegetation treatments

Land conservation and preservation actions

•	 Recreation (including off-road vehicles)

•	 Sprawl (urban/suburban development)

•	 Vehicles (traffic)

•	 Water use

Diversion

Extraction

Storage

Initial science efforts will focus on the two key drivers 

of change cited most often: energy development and climate 

variability. Historical data on energy leasing, exploration, 

and drilling, as well as mining, will be compiled, and maps 

characterizing the distribution and pace of development will 

be generated annually (or more frequently). In addition, 

paleoclimate proxies will be refined or developed for the 

WLCI area, and maps characterizing basin-scale climate 

variability will be generated. Available plant and animal 

occurrence and distribution data will be compiled from 

multiple sources to provide a perspective of changes to 

date in the context of the energy development and climate 

variability time series. In addition to providing resource 

managers with a historical framework leading up to current 

landscape conditions, these initial efforts will provide the 

foundation for predictive modeling of future landscapes based 

on various energy-development scenarios, other land uses, 

and climate change. Efforts also will include prioritizing and 

characterizing other potential drivers of change and addressing 

spatial and temporal data needs identified by the initial efforts.

Objectives for Addressing Management Need 1

•	 Identify, quantify, and prioritize key drivers of change 

in southwest Wyoming ecosystems, including multiple 

drivers that interact and historically were measured 

inadequately (for example, energy footprints over 

time—including initial surficial disturbance and 

associated short- and long-term disturbances, fire, 

invasive species, and livestock grazing).

•	 Develop new methods or improve/refine models for 

predicting potential changes in key drivers over time 

and projecting probable future responses to those 

changes.

•	 Improve the predictive capabilities of future scenario 

models and update scientific understanding of the 

origin and occurrence of energy and mineral resources 

based on the most current information on viable 

deposit types and assessments units.

•	 Develop methods to assess the full costs (including 

exploration, extraction, and use) of energy and mineral 

development.

Short-Term Activities for Meeting Objectives

•	 Obtain and compile all available information on 

historical energy leasing, exploration, and drilling, as 

well as mining, on at least an annual basis.

•	 Obtain and compile historical climate data and 

projected drought conditions for southwest Wyoming.

•	 Develop time-series maps of energy development and 

climate to quantify changes and analyze patterns from 

1900 to 1950.

•	 Combine models of key drivers and other stressors 

with habitat and species data (see activities under 

Management Need 2) to examine relations between 

drivers and biological responses over time.
WLCI Management Needs 13

•	 Obtain and begin compiling available information 

on socioeconomic drivers of ecosystem change in 

southwest Wyoming.

Long-Term Activities for Meeting Objectives

•	 Refine estimates for energy-resource maps that depict 

development “hotspots.”

•	 Use historical data, improved petroleum-resource 

maps, leasing information, and other ancillary data, 

and engage industry experts to improve the resolution 

(grain) of this information for generating future 

energy-development scenarios.

•	 Develop a logical method for model averaging or 

model refinement to allow down-scaling of models 

for more precise prediction of climate change in 

southwest Wyoming.

•	 Use the improved models of energy development and 

climate change to improve predictions of habitat and 

species responses.

•	 Expand analyses of energy development and climate 

change to generate full ecosystem and economic cost 

estimates for different development scenarios.

•	 Conduct analyses to quantify the socioeconomic 

drivers of ecosystem change, then build these drivers 

into the models for assessing biological responses to 

key drivers of change.

•	 Develop cost:benefit analyses of energy and 

mineral exploration and development in terms of 

socioeconomics and loss or gain of ecosystem goods 

and services. 

2. Identify Condition and Distribution of Key 

Wildlife Species, Habitats, and Species Habitat 

Requirements

Sagebrush steppe, mixed-foothill shrubland, aspen, 

riparian, and aquatic community types in southwest Wyoming 

are among the most intact native ecosystems remaining in 

the Intermountain West. Each provides valuable and unique 

habitats; however, increasing development and landscapelevel changes are threatening many of these already impacted 

systems and the species they support. Rigorous science 

designed to identify and delineate key habitats for wildlife 

species, especially species with special status, is required for 

making informed management decisions, including where to 

conduct restoration and enhancement projects. In addition, 

results of scientific studies will provide the foundation for 

developing BMPs to address potential consequences of 

existing and landscape-level changes. Before science can 

address important management needs for wildlife and habitats, 

however, key data gaps, baseline conditions, and several broad 

research objectives need to be addressed (summarized in the 

next section). Conducting the short-term science activities will 

help guide on-the-ground management, making these activities 

a priority. Many of these activities will overlap with those 

conducted for other management needs, and all will assist with 

the overall WLCI science goal of evaluating the cumulative 

environmental effects of development activities.

Objectives for Addressing Management Need 2

•	 Identify key aquatic and terrestrial species (including 

indicator, umbrella, socially and economically 

important species, and species with special status) or 

groupings of species.

•	 Assess baseline conditions and determine landscapelevel habitat requirements for important aquatic 

and terrestrial species (defined as those with special 

status, keystone species, and(or) those considered 

economically and socially important).

•	 Using the Wyoming Game and Fish Department’s 

(WGFD) Strategic Habitat Plan and CWCS (Wyoming 

Game and Fish Department, 2005) as a foundation, 

delineate spatial and temporal distribution of habitats, 

mapping key and high-quality habitats for key species 

or groups of species. 

•	 Identify key areas of conservation concern/priority 

by mapping important, sensitive, and rare habitats, 

as well as critical habitats required for the long-term 

persistence of one or more key wildlife species (these 

could include important nesting, rearing, wintering, 

spawning, or migration habitats). This activity will 

require a thorough understanding of how resources 

and drivers of change (for example, climate, energy 

development, urban expansion, livestock grazing) 

affect both the occurrence (where animals go) and 

fitness (survival and reproduction) of wildlife.

•	 Identify the vulnerability and sensitivity of key 

habitats/areas to the key drivers of change. This 

activity will require a spatial understanding of 

where developments/disturbances currently occur, 

assessing wildlife and habitat responses to key drivers 

associated with development and disturbance, and 

understanding—spatially and temporally—how and 

where future developments will occur, and their 

potential impact on wildlife and habitats.
14 U.S. Geological Survey Science Strategy for the Wyoming Landscape Conservation Initiative

•	 Relate habitat characteristics to animal distribution 

and population dynamics (for example, some index of 

habitat quality for a given species) to assess the effects 

of key drivers of change on aquatic and terrestrial 

wildlife and habitats.

Short-Term Activities for Meeting Objectives

•	 Identify data gaps regarding key species, including 

life history, spatial and temporal distribution, and 

population status.

•	 Gather empirical data for key species of concern (see 

WBEA [Rowland and others, 2006] and the Wyoming 

Natural Heritage Program’s Natural Diversity Database 

at http://uwadmnweb.uwyo.edu/wyndd/).

•	 Gather detailed spatial data on infrastructure (see 

Wyoming Oil and Gas Conservation Commission data 

at http://wogcc.state.wy.us/, and USGS infrastructure 

mapping project for southwest Wyoming at http://

sagemap.wr.usgs.gov/).

•	 Gather spatial habitat-data layers, including new spatial 

habitat maps (see USGS SAGEBRUSH at http://

sagemap.wr.usgs.gov/ and “Multiscale sagebrush 

range land habitat modeling in southwest Wyoming 

at http://pubs.usgs.gov/of/2008/1027, LANDFIRE 

products at http://www.landfire.gov/products_overview.

php, and Wyoming Geographic Information Science 

Center at http://www.wygisc.uwyo.edu/data.htm) to be 

used in (1) mapping key habitats, and (2) developing 

spatial models that depict key resources/areas for 

wildlife species of concern (see WBEA [Rowland 

and others, 2006] and Marxan conservation planning 

software—a tool for identifying sites/areas that 

meet a broad range of conservation criteria [http://

www.uq.edu.au/marxan/]; see an example of how 

this software has been used in Kiesecker and others 

[2009]; also see http://www.wy.blm.gov/jonah_office/

newsletter/2007/08e.htm). This activity will provide 

information for managers regarding where key 

conservation/preservation areas should be placed, as 

well as assist with identifying key areas for mitigation.

•	 Map bedrock, surficial deposits, and soils in priority 

areas to aid in determining baseline conditions for the 

various habitats.

•	 Determine the landscape geochemistry (soil 

geochemistry) of undisturbed priority and disturbed 

areas to aid in determining baseline conditions, the 

effects of development, and implications to mitigation 

and restoration.

Long-Term Activities for Meeting Objectives

•	 Identify key areas of future energy development (see 

BLM and USGS mapping efforts at http://sagemap.

wr.usgs.gov/).

•	 Spatially map livestock grazing across the landscape: 

allotments, animal unit months (AUMs; permitted and 

billed), BLM’s Land Health Standards, and so on (see 

USGS-BLM Grazing Project at http://www.fort.usgs.

gov/Research/research_tasks.asp?TaskID=2320).

•	 Assess effects of climate change on habitats across 

the landscape (see USGS EFFECTS Project at http://

esp.cr.usgs.gov/info/effects/ and USGS Global Change 

Science at http://www.usgs.gov/global_change/). (See 

activities for Management Need 1.)

•	 Develop plausible future-scenario maps within the 

sites identified as key habitats and resource areas for 

wildlife species of concern or surface development, 

livestock grazing, and climate change.

•	 Apply current spatial wildlife models described in 

the WBEA (Rowland and others, 2006) to future 

landscapes, and assess the effects of various scenarios 

on key wildlife species of concern. 

•	 Using WGFD’s CWCS (Wyoming Game and Fish 

Department, 2005) as a foundation, develop data 

collection strategies relevant to key species for which 

data are insufficient to develop complete assessments.

•	 Refine models identifying key resources/areas as new 

spatial data layers (wildlife, habitats) become available.

•	 Establish long-term monitoring of mitigation 

treatments and wildlife species potentially affected 

by current and future developments (see activities for 

Management Need 5).

•	 Apply the principles of adaptive management to allow 

for successful implementation of conservation science.

3. Evaluate Wildlife and Livestock Responses to 

Development

Much research has been conducted on the impacts to 

aquatic and terrestrial wildlife species caused by development, 

particularly the direct influence of habitat loss. In southwest 

Wyoming, some species, such as sage-grouse, mule deer, 

and cutthroat trout, have been well studied, and for these 

species we are beginning to understand the effects of energy 

development, the spatial and temporal scale at which these 

effects are manifested, and some of the mechanisms that lead 

to these effects. Relatively little is known, however, about 

the influence of energy development on most of southwest 
WLCI Management Needs 15

Wyoming’s aquatic and terrestrial habitats and wildlife 

populations, including both socially and economically 

important species, and the vast majority of Wyoming’s SGCN. 

There are similar concerns regarding the effects of energy 

development on livestock grazing systems. In addition to 

habitat conversion, energy development generates excessive 

dust levels, alters hydrology in such a way that forage 

production may be diminished, and inhibits rancher abilities 

to manage livestock appropriately. Although dust and altered 

hydrology have been identified as potential effects of energy 

development, they have yet to be quantified and evaluated.

Research conducted for this management need will focus 

on the effects of energy development, climate change, and 

other drivers identified as affecting wildlife and livestock and 

will entail process or mechanism studies that typically require 

multiple years to complete. Efforts will involve assessing 

both individual (for example, physiology, stress responses) 

and population (such as demographics) responses of wildlife 

and livestock to development. Additional work will entail 

measuring population and stock performance across habitats 

and disturbance levels and will help identify suites of wildlife 

habitat or livestock-rangeland conditions most likely to 

provide conservation value.

Objectives for Addressing Management Need 3

•	 Evaluate the direct effects of energy development and 

other major drivers on the physiology and demographic 

performance of wildlife (both individual species and 

species groups) and livestock.

•	 Evaluate indirect effects of habitat alteration on 

wildlife and livestock that are due to invasions of 

nonnative plants, changes in disturbance regimes, 

increased susceptibility to disease, altered social 

dynamics, or other changes.

•	 Assess the different patch-size needs and edge effects 

that influence the behavior, population structure, and 

population growth of wildlife.

•	 Develop methods for assessing the influence of energy 

development on livestock-management systems.

Short-Term Activities for Meeting Objectives

•	 Identify, collect, and synthesize existing information 

for species of concern as a foundation for individual 

and population studies (see activities proposed for 

Management Need 2).

•	 Initiate research addressing individual- and populationlevel effects on important wildlife species of concern.

•	 Identify priority areas for key life stages of livestock, 

including lambing and calving, trailing, and wintering 

areas.

•	 Identify priority areas for key life stages of wildlife, 

including production and rearing of young, migration 

corridors, and crucial seasonal ranges (see activities 

proposed for Management Need 2).

•	 Determine the availability and content of livestockproduction data for southwest Wyoming.

•	 Collect information on livestock grazing leases, 

including allotted use and actual use.

Long-Term Activities for Meeting Objectives

•	 Evaluate both demographic and population-level 

responses to development and develop models that can 

project population growth and viability under different 

levels of energy development and management 

scenarios.

•	 Identify connections between habitat configuration 

(broadly defined) and commensurate wildlife response 

in terms of behavior, physiology, migration/movement, 

demography, and population numbers.

•	 Identify areas of high conservation value.

•	 Identify the species that are most vulnerable to 

development and for which WLCI partners and 

managers have the greatest information need.

•	 Assess the relationship between levels of energy 

development and quality and availability of forage.

•	 Evaluate the physiological costs of increased stress 

generated by development on wildlife and livestock.

•	 Develop methods for evaluating the influence of energy 

development on livestock management systems.

4. Evaluate the Effectiveness of Restoration, 

Reclamation, and Mitigation Activities

The BLM is cooperating with other partners and 

collaborators to evaluate, develop, and implement large-scale, 

focused habitat protection and restoration projects on BLMmanaged lands and adjoining State and private lands that 

are not directly affected by energy development. Additional 

habitat-improvement projects include those on private lands 

funded by the FWS Partners for Fish and Wildlife Program, as 

well as projects on lands administered by the USFS. Project 

types might include planting or seeding; fencing important 
16 U.S. Geological Survey Science Strategy for the Wyoming Landscape Conservation Initiative

wetlands, altering fence heights/types, or removing fencing; 

or developing conservation easements. Common objectives 

for these projects include addressing habitat fragmentation, 

assessing the quality and suitability of native vegetation to 

support fish and wildlife species, documenting the occurrence 

of invasive plant species, and protecting high-quality habitat. 

Improving wildlife habitat will promote its sustainability, 

improve the potential for species recoveries, and help preclude 

many species from becoming jeopardized.

Monitoring and research are needed to serve as the 

basis for selecting, implementing, and refining or improving 

the effectiveness of restoration, reclamation, and mitigation 

actions. The Science Team will focus on monitoring and 

research studies designed to evaluate the effectiveness of 

these activities, document species responses to treatments, 

and assess the performance of implemented reclamation 

approaches. In turn, these results will be used to assist 

WLCI partners in developing and guiding improvement and 

restoration projects, ensuring that projects are implemented 

in the most appropriate locations, improving and adapting 

reclamation strategies, and facilitating the development, 

incorporation, and refinement of BMPs.

Monitoring the performance of restoration and habitatimprovement projects and reclamation efforts is essential to 

determine the success of implemented treatments and improve 

on BMPs. Monitoring alone, however, does not identify 

the primary drivers responsible for the observed responses. 

Carefully designed research studies must be implemented 

to determine the relationships between observed resource 

responses and management treatments. When appropriate, 

hypothesis-based, comparative monitoring strategies will be 

designed based on the three-phase approach described in the 

Research and Monitoring Approaches section. Observational 

monitoring in conjunction with hypothesis-based experimental 

research will support quantitative biotic and abiotic 

assessments of completed treatments and contribute to 

adaptive management. Information and data derived from new 

and extant sources combined with planned synthesis activities 

(also described in the Research and Monitoring Approaches 

section) will be used to maximize the utility and relevance of 

experimental designs and the interpretability of their results. 

The Science Team will collaborate with WLCI 

members and other resource managers to identify critical 

information needs and collect information about recent and 

current projects. In addition, the Science Team will develop 

appropriate sampling designs, assess response variables, 

and interpret findings as feedback to help guide adaptive 

management and help optimize reclamation, restoration, and 

wildlife conservation projects.

Objectives for Addressing Management Need 4

•	 Evaluate the effectiveness of specific habitatimprovement and restoration practices in different 

habitat types and precipitation zones.

•	 Evaluate and guide the refinement of BMPs.

•	 Evaluate the relationships between observed resource 

responses and management activities, including 

restoration, reclamation, and habitat-improvement 

projects.

•	 Design a framework for objectively developing the 

most effective restoration and enhancement projects on 

a landscape scale.

Short-Term Activities for Meeting Objectives

•	 Collect and review available information on wildlife 

and habitat conservation, restoration, and reclamation 

projects from WLCI partners (BLM, WGFD, JIO), 

industry operators, and others (Wyoming Wildlife 

Trust). 

•	 Incorporate locations of wildlife and habitat 

conservation, restoration, and reclamation projects into 

a Web-based mapping application.

•	 Identify (FY 2007 and 2008) projects that lack 

adequate pretreatment and posttreatment assessments.

•	 Evaluate and prioritize suitable projects for application 

of pretreatment and posttreatment assessments. 

•	 Document the responses of key plant and wildlife 

species to reclamation approaches.

•	 Document the geochemical response of soils to 

disturbance and reclamation.

Long-Term Activities for Meeting Objectives

•	 Develop a framework for annual evaluations of all 

proposed wildlife habitat-improvement projects, 

and, in collaboration with the resource-management 

agencies, use these evaluations to develop priorities for 

subsequent actions.

•	 Design and implement monitoring protocols for 

tracking changes to aquatic and terrestrial biota 

associated with reclamation, restoration, and wildlife 

conservation projects.

•	 Collect information on species and habitats, and 

assess current habitat-suitability indices, to quantify 

the effects of alternative management plans and land 

treatments over time.

•	 Develop models capable of integrating data across 

various spatial and temporal scales to answer key 

questions about reclamation, restoration, and wildlife 

conservation projects. 
WLCI Management Needs 17

•	 Design comparative experiments to evaluate the 

relative effectiveness of reclamation, restoration, 

and wildlife conservation projects and assess their 

contribution toward the sustainability of important 

species and habitats.

5. Develop an Integrated Inventory and 

Monitoring Strategy

Inventory and monitoring (I&M) is an essential tool 

for understanding the status and trends of plant and animal 

populations and ecosystem health and for evaluating the 

effectiveness of management actions and conservation 

projects. The Science Team is committed to conducting 

inventories of species and habitats, monitoring natural 

resources and species, synthesizing habitat and energy 

information, and building on existing and ongoing studies. For 

the WLCI study area, the USGS will develop I&M strategies 

that efficiently and effectively measure the aquatic and 

terrestrial conditions that will aid resource managers in their 

decisionmaking. If at some point any given land-management 

agency adopts standard protocols for monitoring, they will be 

taken into consideration. USGS I&M activities will focus on 

(1) cumulative effects and ecosystem monitoring, (2) project 

monitoring, and (3) adaptive monitoring/early warning.

Assessing cumulative effects and monitoring ecosystems 

entails long-term, large-area monitoring designed to address 

complex processes over large spatial scales. Oil and gas 

development may be the most rapidly evolving land-use 

activity in the WLCI region; thus, mapping and monitoring 

the evolution of that development and its impacts is a priority. 

Also fundamental to monitoring trends among species of 

concern or other natural resources is understanding how 

agriculture, drought, water development and use, urban and 

exurban expansion, energy development and its infrastructure, 

and other human activities are affecting natural resources 

at landscape and regional scales. For example, energy 

development, agricultural use, water development, and climate 

variability (drought) may affect water quantity/quality and the 

timing of streamflow in streams miles away from the land-use 

activities in question. The cumulative effects of several types 

of land-use activities may have substantial impacts on land 

cover, wildlife habitats, water resources, and other factors. 

A primary objective of the WLCI is to minimize effects 

of development and other land-use activities on terrestrial 

and aquatic wildlife and important habitats. To meet this 

challenge, WLCI partners and collaborators will implement 

on-the-ground projects designed to restore, enhance, protect, 

and conserve habitats used by sensitive or important species. 

Whereas these habitat projects will be conducted in all habitat 

types, the WLCI focus is on sagebrush, mountain shrub, 

aspen, and riparian communities. Habitat-improvement 

projects also may focus on areas where other habitat 

improvements are taking place (such as those conducted 

by WGFD and Wyoming Wildlife and Natural Resource 

Trust) but, for obvious reasons, they will not be conducted 

where major future developments (such as housing and 

other permanent developments) are expected (reclamation of 

recoverable industrial sites is to be conducted by industry). 

USGS scientists will work with DOI, WLCI partners, the 

WLCI STAC, and the WLCI monitoring subcommittee to 

monitor the effectiveness of these habitat improvements. 

Monitoring habitat projects in conjunction with baseline and 

cumulative-effects monitoring will help focus and prioritize 

where and how to implement future habitat projects. 

Monitoring protocols are implemented to measure 

specific conditions or processes. Given future uncertainties, 

however, managers and monitoring protocols must be 

adaptable. Examples of uncertainties include extreme 

weather events—such as droughts, floods, or unseasonable 

temperatures—and atypical fire events, disease outbreaks, or 

introductions/range expansions of invasive species. Monitoring 

protocols also must be flexible enough to adapt to changes 

in socioeconomic drivers. Examples include changes in the 

price of fossil fuels that can influence the rate of energy 

exploration and development or changes in technology that 

allow exploitation of reserves or alternative resources (such 

as oil shale) that previously were not economically feasible 

to exploit. Appropriate monitoring may enable detection of 

subtle changes in conditions or processes that otherwise would 

not be detected. These subtle changes can serve as an early 

warning, allowing resource managers to make changes to their 

resource management plans.

Objectives for Addressing Management Need 5

•	 Develop an inventory and monitoring approach 

designed to evaluate the overall effectiveness of 

the WLCI, including the effectiveness of habitat 

improvement and restoration projects, and support the 

analysis of cumulative effects.

•	 Coordinate with WLCI partners to help establish 

monitoring strategies and protocols to be implemented 

at a landscape scale.

•	 Integrate inventory and monitoring programs developed 

for the WLCI with other local, State, and Federal 

efforts.

•	 Make inventory and monitoring information accessible 

to WLCI partners and resource managers through a 

data-management framework and data clearinghouse.

•	 Integrate inventory and monitoring efforts into an 

adaptive management framework.
18 U.S. Geological Survey Science Strategy for the Wyoming Landscape Conservation Initiative

Short-Term Activities for Meeting Objectives

•	 In the WLCI study area, continue to operate existing 

USGS monitoring networks (water quantity and 

quality, terrestrial habitats and species) that employ 

existing, published, and well-accepted protocols and 

methods.

•	 Continue current USGS interdisciplinary remotesensing and mapping applications, such as the 

inventory of sagebrush communities throughout 

Wyoming; the mapping of sagebrush species and 

measuring of their abundance and structure; and 

developing baseline predictive models applicable 

across the project area. Begin to build species and 

habitat models for future assessments.

•	 Develop strategies and protocols for long-term 

monitoring of priority species and habitats, including 

sensitive and sage-obligate species. 

•	 Review existing Federal, State, and other 

organizational monitoring programs (drought, 

climate) at local, regional, and national scales and 

integrate and synthesize past and current biologic, 

geologic, geographic, and hydrologic data to identify 

information gaps and to prioritize short-term and longterm management needs. 

•	 Collect and review available information on wildlife 

and conservation projects from WLCI partners (BLM, 

WGFD, JIO), industry operators, and others (Wyoming 

Wildlife Trust). Evaluate data gaps and prioritize 

treatments conducted during 2008 and 2009.

•	 Inventory information on land status, land use, land 

cover, vegetation, wildlife species, livestock-grazing 

management practices and associated allotments, 

anthropogenic disturbances, and landscape or 

ecosystem features not currently being inventoried 

by USGS and WLCI partners. This activity will be 

accomplished by collecting information from WLCI 

partners and collaborators (The Nature Conservancy, 

Wyoming Wildlife Trust, Wyoming Natural Diversity 

Database) and with tools such as remote sensing and 

modeling.

•	 Incorporate current inventory and monitoring 

information from WLCI partners and collaborators into 

the WLCI data/information-management system and 

clearinghouse.

Long-Term Activities for Meeting Objectives

•	 Evaluate the adequacy and robustness of existing 

monitoring and inventory protocols.

•	 Develop and implement consistent protocols across 

agencies, jurisdictions, and ownerships.

•	 Design and implement a basin-wide monitoring 

network for water quantity and quality and air quality.

•	 Conduct long-term monitoring of land use, land cover, 

vegetation, energy development, and socioeconomic 

drivers of change. 

•	 Design and implement monitoring to understand 

current conditions for specified species and habitats, 

and identify and track changes to aquatic and terrestrial 

biota and habitats by using existing, published, and 

valid protocols and methods.

•	 Design and implement monitoring of priority species 

and habitats for status and trends related to human 

disturbance and restoration activities.

6. Develop a Data Clearinghouse and 

Information-Management Framework

In cooperation with other WLCI partners, especially 

those providing relevant information, USGS scientists will 

build the geospatial and project-management framework for 

accessing and sharing information between Science Team 

members and other partners. Partners will retain ownership, 

and in most cases maintenance responsibility, of their 

respective information; USGS will provide centralized data 

hosting and linking to partner databases, GIS and datavisualization support, and project-management services. 

USGS also will ensure compliance with the Federal 

Geographic Data Committee (FGDC) metadata standards, 

including maintaining security of confidential, sensitive, 

or proprietary information. Where feasible, work will be 

accomplished by leveraging existing professional services, 

expertise, and resources. The result of this effort will be a 

sustainable resource of scientific information, knowledge, 

and tools to ensure that future decisions regarding land and 

natural-resource use, management practices, and energy 

development are based on a solid understanding of how 

biologic, geologic, hydrologic, and geographic processes 

relate to changes on the landscape. 

Objectives for Addressing Management Need 6

•	 Develop an integrated, Web-based WLCI 

information clearinghouse with the capability to 

protect confidential, sensitive, and(or) proprietary 

information (http://my.usgs.gov/websites/wlci_revised/

dataclearinghouse.html).

•	 Develop and implement a project tracking and database 

system to provide summary reports on habitatimprovement projects that include spatial data display 
Research and Monitoring Approaches 19

mechanisms (maps, spatial queries) and spatially 

filtered reports.

•	 Provide data-management, visualization, and decisionsupport tools for the WLCI.

•	 Provide public information and outreach on WLCI 

habitat improvement and science activities.

Short-Term Activities for Meeting Objectives

•	 Identify the existing state of knowledge applicable to 

this effort.

•	 Develop basic data-hosting capability and prioritization 

tools, and identify data gaps.

•	 Produce general reference map for educational 

overview purposes.

•	 Organize protocols for assembling data into the WLCI 

clearinghouse from different monitoring sources.

•	 Develop a spatially explicit project tracking tool 

(investigate existing efforts).

•	 Provide user-friendly education and outreach Web site.

Long-Term Activities for Meeting Objectives

•	 Assess costs for future upkeep of this development as a 

sustainable resource.

•	 Evolve basic data-hosting capability into more a 

permanent data serving and archiving system.

•	 Facilitate information contributions of partners by 

developing a suitable business model.

•	 Maintain a dynamic information site for partner and 

public access into the foreseeable future.

Research and Monitoring Approaches

Range of Approaches Proposed for WLCI 

Science

There are a number of common research approaches 

used for studying ecosystems. The approaches described 

below represent the spectrum of those proposed for the WLCI 

research program.

Retrospective Studies—Retrospective studies 

are commonly used to reconstruct past ecosystem conditions 

and for understanding ecosystem variability over time. They 

range in temporal scale from paleoenvironmental studies of 

climate and ecosystem changes over millennia to studies that 

examine changes over recent time periods (Russell, 1997). 

Retrospective studies are also important for identifying 

ecosystem trends, and they can be used to evaluate responses 

of organisms to past land-management practices.

Treatment and Control Studies—These 

approaches entail experiments in which similar units are 

subjected to different levels of treatment in an attempt to 

isolate the response relative to untreated units. These studies 

are most typically employed in agricultural research, as 

they are difficult to implement across large study areas like 

southwest Wyoming due to the difficulty of finding replicate 

landscapes and applying treatments across large areas. When 

feasible, however, experimental approaches can produce 

definitive and highly credible results.

Monitoring—Monitoring ecosystems is critical 

for documenting current conditions and identifying the 

magnitude and rate of subsequent changes, such as those 

driven by climate change. Monitoring also provides baseline 

data for evaluating the performance of models that describe 

ecosystem function, and it is a critical component of adaptive 

management, whereby the response to a land-use action guides 

future management. Monitoring techniques range from on-theground measurements to remote sensing.

Process Studies—In attempts to understand 

ecosystem function, researchers often find that ecological 

processes are poorly understood. Empirical, experimentally 

based studies are fundamental to understanding how systems 

function and respond to specific conditions. The processes to 

be studied may be based on knowledge gaps identified as part 

of a conceptual model analysis or model-based simulation of 

ecosystem dynamics.

Modeling—Models are useful tools for investigating 

ecosystem responses to a range of conditions. They range from 

qualitative conceptual models to complex quantitative models 

of ecosystem function, species-habitat relationships, and 

population viability. Models often are used to test hypotheses 

for which empirical studies cannot easily be carried out. 

They are particularly useful for simulating conditions over 

large areas or long time frames for which empirical data are 

not available. Models are also important for extrapolating 

ecosystem responses to future changes, such as forecasting the 

potential impacts of future climate change.
20 U.S. Geological Survey Science Strategy for the Wyoming Landscape Conservation Initiative

Conceptual models are qualitative models used to 

describe a system—its component parts and processes. They 

can take many forms, including network and system diagrams, 

which identify the key components and processes of a system 

by using combinations of boxes and arrows. Such models can 

be used to identify possible cause-and-effect relationships, 

whereby changes to one part of the system affect another part 

of the system, and they are commonly used in cumulativeeffects analyses. Conceptual models are particularly useful 

for facilitating interdisciplinary communication about how a 

given system is believed to function (Heemskerk and others, 

2003) and for identifying important knowledge gaps that can 

help guide future research. New conceptual models that will 

be developed to describe WLCI ecosystems will promote these 

and other basic understandings among scientists and resource 

managers involved in WLCI-based research.

Optimizing Adaptive Management Through a 

Coordinated Research and Monitoring Program

Establishing coordinated research coupled with an 

effective monitoring program can be challenging. Well-defined 

research and monitoring objectives often are unavailable, 

information is incomplete or inaccessible, and(or) new 

information is not used in evaluations of decisions and 

management actions; moreover, research on landscapes is 

complicated by the lack of control over numerous variables 

that can influence results at different spatial and temporal 

scales. Frequently, research and monitoring are not clearly 

linked to management and policies, resulting in research 

being conducted without any application to land management 

and(or) with poor definition of targets and thresholds. 

Involvement of multiple agencies often further confounds 

these issues; therefore, developing an effective and efficient 

monitoring approach and integrating it directly with adaptive 

management actions is a high priority in southwest Wyoming 

as it will help to ensure compliance with required regulations 

and coordination among multiple agencies. In addition, the 

emphasis on landscape-scale syntheses of new and existing 

information to address multiscale ecological and management 

questions demands a well-coordinated effort to ensure the 

overall success of the WLCI program.

Nichols and Williams (2006) described the key 

components of successful adaptive management and its 

relevance to monitoring. Adaptive management is a sequential 

decisionmaking process that is especially useful when 

there is a high degree of uncertainty about the outcome of 

management actions. Management decisions are informed 

through a process that includes developing management 

objectives, identifying potential management actions, 

developing or adapting models of system response to such 

actions, measuring confidence in the models, and using 

monitoring data and models that provide estimates of system 

states. At each decision point, alternative management 

actions are evaluated for specific management objectives; 

the appropriate action is based on estimates constantly 

updated by the latest knowledge of system responses and the 

system’s predicted responses to management actions. Once 

the management action is implemented, monitoring is used 

to test the model’s predictions. This approach is iterative and 

implemented at each subsequent decision point based on new 

estimates of system states and updated models (fig. 3).

Because it is USGS that will be conducting most of the 

science, but it is principally the participant land management 

agencies that will have to take both the ecological and human 

dimensions aspects into consideration and make the necessary 

management

objective

achieved?

alternative

management

resource

objective

monitor

resource

yes

no

es

o

Figure 3. The adaptive management cycle (Elzinga and others, 2001).
Research and Monitoring Approaches 21

adjustments to management actions, interagency coordination 

will be essential; thus, USGS will endeavor to conduct 

research that can provide direct assistance to land managers 

who must evaluate potential management actions. Likewise, 

WLCI land management agencies will need to be flexible 

and responsive to research results for effective integration 

of science and management (adaptive management) to be 

achieved.

Many Federal, State, and local agencies, as well as 

nongovernmental organizations, have developed assessment 

and monitoring frameworks to quantify change and support 

adaptive management. In a recent project designed to develop 

an efficient and effective process for monitoring the health 

of lands administered by the BLM, Kotliar and others (2008) 

reviewed agency (BLM, FWS, USFS, NPS, and others) 

approaches to assessment and monitoring. The authors went 

on to develop a three-phase research and monitoring plan 

that has been coopted herein as the research and monitoring 

approach for the WLCI. Questions subsequently addressed by 

that plan are consistent with the WLCI management needs, 

including the need to evaluate the effects of anthropogenic 

and natural changes, energy development, and management 

actions.

Developing a Framework for Conducting WLCI 

Science

For WLCI science, an iterative three-phase approach is 

proposed, with successive stages building on the information 

and experience gained from earlier stages. With each phase, 

the research and monitoring program will be gradually 

expanded, beginning with an initial emphasis on greater use 

of existing data, spatial analysis, and predictive modeling, 

and ending with a fully integrated and coordinated program 

in the third phase. This three-phased approach allows for 

rapid implementation of a program to identify gaps and assess 

status and trends while gradually expanding the scope through 

feedback from an adaptive monitoring framework linked to 

WLCI objectives (fig. 4).

Information Management

Phase I

Baseline Synthesis

Phase II

Targeted Research

and Monitoring

Phase III

Integration and

Coordination

Management Needs

Decisionmaking and Evaluation

Phase I

Baseline Synthesis

Phase II

Targeted Research

and Monitoring

Phase III

Integration and

Coordination

Phase I

Baseline Synthesis

Phase II

Targeted Research

and Monitoring

Phase III

Integration and

Coordination

Figure 4. A three-phase approach to researching and monitoring ecosystem components that employs successive stages to build on 

information gained from earlier stages. The approach may be used iteratively and allows for stages to overlap.
22 U.S. Geological Survey Science Strategy for the Wyoming Landscape Conservation Initiative

In Phase I, a baseline synthesis will be conducted by 

(1) capitalizing on existing data that are not being used 

currently, or are being used but may not be fully integrated; 

(2) incorporating existing habitat models into management 

decisionmaking and research design; (3) addressing landscapelevel cumulative effects of surface disturbance by using 

spatial analysis and GIS capabilities; and (4) identifying 

critical information gaps that require additional surveys, 

models, and(or) research. Phase I also will provide an 

initial assessment of the current status and trends of energy 

development and other stressors, their cumulative effects 

on wildlife, an indepth evaluation of the current state of 

knowledge and data quality, and a literature review to better 

understand the human dimensions of southwest Wyoming.

Phase II will entail the data collection process, relying 

on information provided in Phase I to refine management 

objectives and provide a linkage to management decisions 

through targeted monitoring, adaptive management, and 

research. Additionally, Phase II will expand the predictive 

modeling component developed in Phase I by modifying or 

creating habitat models for priority species based on new 

data, and by adding or expanding surveys and research to 

test predictions, assumptions, and critical information gaps 

identified in Phase I.

Phase III will help establish regional, State, and national 

priorities, strategies, and guidelines for monitoring that will 

be based, in part, on information derived from the application 

of Phases I and II to determine common priorities among 

WLCI partners. Combined effort of WLCI partners and 

collaborators will improve the efficiency and effectiveness of 

research and monitoring programs by reducing duplication 

of efforts and creating standard monitoring protocols for 

priority management issues that span multiple jurisdictional 

boundaries (for example, field offices, agencies) and provide 

for landscape-scale analyses.

Collectively, the three phases are designed to ensure 

that data and knowledge gaps are addressed, quality 

information is available to meet monitoring objectives and 

requirements for program assessment, and a framework for 

coordination among many agencies is employed. Each phase 

is designed to be implemented based on the best available 

information, yet considerable uncertainty will continue to 

exist. Consequently, each phase should be viewed as an 

iterative step to be repeated, refined, updated, and expanded 

as knowledge improves. The phases were designed to build 

on the preceding phase(s) and complement one another; 

thus, the activities associated with each are not necessarily 

mutually exclusive, and it is recognized that work activities 

associated with different phases may occur simultaneously. 

For example, sage-grouse conservation programs may be in 

development at the national level while being implemented at 

State and local levels. In addition, because each phase follows 

the same framework, there is overlap in the types of activities 

(modeling, for example) used to achieve the objectives of each 

phase.

The iterative process will facilitate the rapid 

implementation of high-priority work while allowing for a 

gradual expansion of research and monitoring with subsequent 

iterations. Additionally, it will avoid prohibitive startup 

costs and time-consuming background preparation required 

to implement a complex and comprehensive research and 

monitoring program; thus, a particular effort may address only 

the highest priority objectives in the initial implementation 

of the Strategy if there are constraints on funding, time, and 

knowledge. This approach is designed to allow maximum 

flexibility to meet a variety of resource-management issues.

Implementation of the USGS WLCI 

Science Strategy

The USGS WLCI Science Strategy is structured to match, 

as closely as possible, the needs and priorities of the WLCI. 

A full-time USGS employee has been dedicated to the WLCI 

Coordination Team to assist with ongoing needs for technical 

assistance and to participate in selecting and coordinating 

BLM habitat-improvement projects implemented in 2007 

and beyond. Because habitat projects must follow National 

Environmental Policy Act requirements, generally BLMfunded WLCI projects for 2007 and 2008 were developed 

previously and lacked a funding source. Beginning with 2009 

projects, project selection will be based more explicitly on 

WLCI objectives and requirements. The vision for future 

funding years is to fully incorporate available science and 

WLCI objectives early in the project development process.

The initial actions outlined in the Strategy (and detailed 

in the annual scope of work document) address immediate 

needs identified by WLCI members and will support the 

identification, implementation, and tracking of habitat projects 

in priority areas. In developing research and monitoring 

approaches to support the WLCI, the Science Team will 

integrate existing data and ongoing work, initiate additional 

data collection to address management needs (evaluating 

BMPs and restoration methods, for example), implement 

monitoring to assess the effectiveness of 2007–08 habitat 

projects, plan and initiate monitoring to assess change over 

multiple years, coordinate and integrate with other monitoring 

programs, and work towards development of a generalized 

model for conducting integrated assessments that can be 

applied to other geographic areas facing similar development 

pressures. The successful implementation of the Strategy and, 

in large measure, the success of the WLCI, will depend on the 

coordination and integration of people, ideas, and work. 

Work conducted in 2008–09 will focus on the 

immediate WLCI needs and, more broadly, initiate the first 

phases of the overall research and monitoring approach. 

Activities will entail monitoring habitat-improvement and 
restoration projects, evaluating and integrating existing data, 

incorporating habitat and landscape models, and identifying 

and initiating studies to address priority data gaps and research 

questions. This work will be supported by ongoing studies, 

including existing USGS monitoring efforts and multiple 

interdisciplinary studies, such as the inventory of sagebrush 

communities throughout Wyoming. The specific work plan for 

each year will be detailed in a separate document.

Anticipated Products for 2008–09

•	 Conceptual models of ecosystem function and 

anthropogenic stressors, focusing on energy and 

climate as key drivers

•	 Refined list of key indicators (potentially biotic and(or) 

abiotic) for the WLCI

•	 Framework for assessing management activities and 

integrated long-term monitoring

•	 Pretreatment and posttreatment assessments for 07–08 

management activities

•	 Initial comprehensive spatial analysis of key resources 

(for example, mule deer winter habitat) and existing/

projected development for prioritizing management 

and research

•	 Data-management framework

•	 Spatially explicit project-tracking system for WLCI

•	 Spatial data warehouse

•	 General reference maps

•	 Education and outreach Web site

•	 Summary report of the 2009 WLCI partner science 

workshop

Coordination and Cooperative 

Research

The Strategy acknowledges the value of cooperative 

efforts and the need to promote collaboration in sharing and 

integrating data and information generated by all WLCI 

partners and collaborators. Collaboration with Federal, State, 

local, and nongovernmental organizations will generate 

multiple benefits for addressing research needs. USGS 

scientists will work with WLCI partners and their clients to 

generate relevant research and monitoring data that forms the 

basis for sound resource management decisions. New methods 

and technologies can be shared and integrated into scientific 

activities; specialized technical expertise can be leveraged 

to help support different projects; costs can be shared; 

and scientific findings and recommendations can be more 

effectively and efficiently communicated to resource managers 

and the public. These alliances require cooperation and regular 

communication to establish priorities, plan and conduct joint 

studies, and disseminate information, data, and reports.

Science Team members intend to use various strategies 

for promoting and fostering collaboration with WLCI 

partners, including (1) supporting data-collection efforts 

and minimizing duplication of effort; (2) supporting better 

integration of data across taxa and ecological and geographic 

scales; (3) identifying new research and information needs; 

(4) promoting and integrating new methodologies, analytical 

techniques, and protocols; (5) supporting existing monitoring 

activities; (6) enhancing the ability to predict, assess, 

and report the status and trends of biological resources in 

southwest Wyoming; and (7) supporting information outreach 

and developing information infrastructure for data generators 

and data users. Various activities already initiated exemplify 

these seven strategies. For example, USGS scientists have built 

an Access database (a “science catalog”) for dissemination 

among partners and collaborators sharing results and products 

of science activities already completed (see http://www.wlci.

gov/data.htm and click on “USGS Scientific Data Catalog 

Prototype”). By providing this opportunity for WLCI partners 

and collaborators to see what has already been accomplished, 

it is anticipated that this catalog will go a long way towards 

eliminating duplication of effort. Periodically, there have been 

and will continue to be meetings with BLM and other partners 

to identify annual priorities for new research and information 

needs. An initial effort to integrate methodologies entailed 

the requirement that all WLCI partners enter their research 

and monitoring protocols onto the WLCI Web site by October 

2008. In support of existing monitoring activities, USGS 

scientists are currently scaling existing monitoring protocols 

from the local to the landscape scale. As a final example of the 

coordination and cooperation strategies outlined in this report, 

the USGS Geospatial Information Office (GIO) is leading 

an effort to create a Web-based toolkit that will serve as the 

foundation for integrating the information needed to support 

science and decisionmaking; this task includes designing 

the overall infrastructure as well as building the project’s 

core tools, including forums, content-management tools, a 

document library, and community-specific wikis and blogs.

Finally, it should be emphasized that the science activities 

outlined herein are not intended to be the only science 

conducted for the WLCI; thus, coordination among research 

entities will be paramount. The Science Team will be working 

closely with the WLCI STAC to ensure that USGS activities 

complement and enhance new and existing efforts, identify 

and prioritize changing science needs, leverage technical 

expertise, provide scientific support for conservation and 

habitat enhancement projects, and effectively disseminate 

Coordination and Cooperative Reseach 23
24 U.S. Geological Survey Science Strategy for the Wyoming Landscape Conservation Initiative

information to WLCI partners, collaborators, and the general 

public. This collaboration will result in a more comprehensive 

and efficient information base from which managers can 

conduct planning and make operational decisions, thereby 

strengthening adaptive monitoring and management. 

Education, Outreach, and Community 

Involvement

A crucial aspect of the WLCI and the research supporting 

this initiative is to conduct work that is useful and important to 

people who live in southwest Wyoming. To ensure that people 

in the WLCI area are informed and involved in the initiative, 

WLCI members have formed a communication and outreach 

team. Early in the development of the initiative, this team 

organized open house meetings at each BLM Field Office in 

southwest Wyoming to introduce the WLCI to the public. As 

the initiative evolves, this outreach effort will grow.

Education and outreach will include efforts to 

communicate work plans for habitat-improvement projects 

and research findings to various groups and individuals. These 

efforts will involve general and targeted communications 

through Web sites, print media, and presentations—in schools, 

with stakeholder groups, or at public meetings. Education 

and outreach meetings will allow stakeholders and the public 

to provide feedback on the WLCI. Community involvement 

is required for success of the WLCI, as all of the habitatimprovement projects will involve public or private lands 

used or owned predominantly by the citizens of southwest 

Wyoming. Citizens also will be active participants in defining 

and conducting individual habitat projects.

Part of USGS’s involvement in the WLCI will entail 

providing education and outreach on the WLCI Web site, as 

well as Internet-based public access to data, relevant literature, 

and research products. The existing WLCI Web site (http://

www.wlci.gov/) will be enhanced to serve as an educational 

tool to be used by scientists, land managers, industry, and the 

public. In addition to developing and hosting a multipurpose 

Web site for disseminating information, USGS will produce 

an annual report on WLCI science and technical assistance 

activities. The report will be provided to all WLCI member 

agencies and posted for distribution on the WLCI Web site. As 

part of the community involvement program related to science 

activities, USGS will host field and site visits for interested 

groups to provide a first-hand look at the project work and 

science of the WLCI. 

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26 U.S. Geological Survey Science Strategy for the Wyoming Landscape Conservation Initiative
U.S. Geological Survey Science Strategy for the Wyoming Landscape Conservation Initiative

—USGS Scientific Investigations Report 2008-5195

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