Forests across the southwestern U.S. face escalating challenges from changing climate. The objective of this study, conducted in partnership with the Navajo Forestry Department (NFD), was to assess the impact of climate variability and change on forest he...

Introduced species have diverse impacts on native wildlife and ecosystems. Negative effects of introduced species on native species through competition or amensalism are frequently hypothesized, but are challenging to test in the field, particularly for l...

Structural elements, such as beaver dams, can impact hydraulics and alter downstream water conveyance. We mapped inundation extent and type (free flowing, ponded, and overflowing) in beaver dam complexes in diverse hydrogeomorphic settings as a simple met...

Painter et al. (2025) claim that large-carnivore recovery in Yellowstone National Park has produced a strong trophic cascade compared to other systems, citing a 152 fold increase in aspen sapling density and widespread recruitment of new trees. We show th...

Water management and climate influence the surface elevation of lakes. We found that the quality and area of nearshore spawning habitat for a keystone fish, the Tui Chub, are impacted by water level fluctuations and warming trends.

Dusky grouse are a montane forest grouse species with a paucity of information regarding their temporal and spatial resource use during critical times of high mortality and reproductive output. Our objective was to evaluate dusky grouse resource selection...

Rewilding is increasingly recognized as an impactful conservation strategy, but a key question remains: how do ecological systems respond to the return of species long absent from the landscape? We developed a priori predictions that grizzly recovery woul...

Ripple et al. (2025) recently argued that large carnivore recovery in Yellowstone National Park triggered one of the world’s strongest trophic cascades, citing a 1500 % increase in willow crown volume derived from plant height data. In this comment, we sh...

The relationship between managed pollination and production outcomes is important in theory and practice. In this paper we estimate semi-parametric production and profit functions with respect to honey bee use in the US apple sector. Our results suggest a...

In arid and semiarid regions, extreme, extended droughts are becoming more frequent due to climate change. Drought is driving wildlife to seek out food or water resources where they are not as limited, such as in irrigated croplands. We collected GPS loca...

For nearly half a century, ecologists have sought to explain animal space use through characteristics of the environment. Recent evidence suggests animals also use memory of previous experiences to decide when and where to move. Using six large ungulate s...

Declining snowpack paired with a shorter period of snow accumulation is negatively impacting Utah because the state relies heavily on snowpack for its water supply, agriculture, and recreation. In this fact sheet, we describe what cloud seeding is, where ...

Understanding wild bee diversity is critical for pollinator conservation, particularly in understudied tropical regions like coastal Ecuador. This preliminary study provides a photography-based assessment of bee diversity at Finca Botánica, an organic and...

The popularity of the field of movement ecology has increased in recent decades in part due to advances in tracking and computing technology. Here we propose the use of rangeland-based livestock operations, where livestock range freely in large, heterogen...

In the western United States, decades of wildfire suppression and grazing have led to changes in the amount and type of wildland fuels. These areas now threaten to burn at uncharacteristically high fire severity, a metric based on how much vegetation is k...

Increasing ecological perturbations resulting from global change processes are altering the environmental predictability (EP) of critical forage and water resources for wildlife. We examine how EP of forage in mule deer seasonal home ranges relates to ave...

Climate change is reducing the extent of cold aquatic habitats and their unique biodiversity in mountain areas. However, a variety of cold rocky landforms (CRLs) are thermally buffered and feed cold springs (<2 °C) that may represent climate refugia for c...

Water development and the proliferation of invasive riparian vegetation have led to widespread habitat loss and simplification of rivers in the western United States, contributing to the imperilment of native fishes. Here, we quantify channel narrowing an...

Water development and the proliferation of invasive riparian vegetation have led to widespread habitat loss and simplification of rivers in the western United States, contributing to the imperilment of native fishes. Here, we quantify channel narrowing an...

Responses of natural populations to climate change are driven by how multiple climatic and biotic factors affect survival and reproduction, and ultimately shape population dynamics. Yet, despite substantial progress to synthesize the sensitivity of popula...

Diverse factors, including environmental features and cognitive processes, can drive animals’ movements and space use, with far-reaching implications. By analyzing GPS movement tracks for 1,239 range-resident mammalian carnivores, we found strong evidence...

Wildlife disease surveillance helps in protecting public health, agriculture, and biodiversity. Planning effective surveillance involves strategic methods for identifying an effective sampling design for a program's objectives.

Wildlife surveillance programs often use serological data to monitor exposure to pathogens. Diagnostic sensitivity and specificity of a serological assay quantify the true positive and negative rates of the diagnostic assay, respectively. However, an assa...

This study examines the feasibility, governance, and economic implications of developing a Native American–focused cultural center at Bears Ears National Monument in southeastern Utah. Informed by a semi-systematic literature review of existing visitor an...

This study explores how angler characteristics, perceived constraints, use of negotiations, and responses to crowding differ between lapsed, recruited, re-activated, and retained anglers. Using Utah’s fishing license database, we surveyed a stratified ran...

Given the importance of protected areas for biodiversity, the growth of visitation to many areas has raised concerns about the effects of humans on wildlife. We compiled GPS tracking data from 229 individuals of 10 mammal species in 14 parks and used thir...

Neighborhood greenspaces are widely known to benefit bird diversity and human mental health. However, whether bird richness mediates the relationship between greenspace and mental health is unknown. We ascertain such mediation effects in 294 census tracts...

As an arid state with limited water, Utah relies heavily on reservoir storage to maintain its water supply throughout the year. This vital water storage, however, is increasingly at risk due to contemporary wildfires. Wildfires pose a risk to water storag...

This study examined genetic variation in quaking aspen across four lineages, assessing leaf traits and stress responses. A common garden experiment with drought and heat revealed lineage-specific physiological and molecular adaptations.

Stoneflies are a widespread group of freshwater insects known for their ecological significance and sensitivity to environmental change. This diverse order encompasses over 4,000 species across 17 families, with the number of described species predicted t...

Wildfires are a natural part of the western U.S. landscape and provide numerous benefits, including enhanced nutrient cycling and habitat rejuvenation. Utah’s fish populations evolved with wildfire as a common disturbance. However, the increasing size and...

The widespread practice of supplemental feeding, a bottom-up forcing of resource availability, is intended to improve wildlife population health and survival. However, supplemental feeding could trigger indirect effects by altering predation rates and dis...

Healthy riverscapes have three principles identified by riverscape scientists and restoration practitioners. Understanding the context, anthropogenic influences, boundary conditions, and legacy effects influencing riverscapes is essential for the appropr...

Finding methods to reduce livestock depredations is important for conserving recovering populations of large carnivores and mitigating impacts on ranching livelihoods. This is especially true for ensuring the successful reintroductions of endangered carni...

Human–wildlife interactions (HWIs) influence the health of humans and wildlife but a unifying framework is needed to understand the causes of HWIs to anticipate health-associated outcomes. In this article, we present a novel conceptual framework that posi...

Understanding social tolerance is essential for effective wildlife management and conservation policy. This study investigates social tolerance of European bison (Bison bonasus) in different Polish regions by measuring opinion on population size.

Metabarcoding of environmental DNA enables aquatic species detection but is often marker-dependent. We developed a redesigned 16S rRNA marker detecting amphibians, turtles, and fish, validated across 525 eDNA samples, demonstrating robust global applicabi...

Accurately predicting animal movement across broad ecological contexts is vital for effective wildlife management, yet most models are developed for specific locations and fail to generalize across diverse landscapes. We developed a modeling framework to ...

This study outlines the rapid development of a landscape-scale targeted surveillance system for SARS-CoV-2 in free-ranging deer, highlighting the partnerships, adaptive sampling strategies, and research network needed to understand disease transmission me...

Aspen forests provide wildlife, watershed, and aesthetic value, and the potential for reduced fire occurrence, behavior, and severity. There is interest in planting aspen to achieve various management objectives. However, few studies have investigated the...

This paper can be found on page 1050, as part of a larger document presented by the 12th International Rangeland Congress. Greater sage-grouse need forbs for chick diet and growth in sagebrush habitat. Sagebrush cover may limit the abundance of forbs in t...

Previous research advocating for the use of systems thinking to tackle challenges in outdoor recreation management emphasizes the necessity for a paradigm shift in our perspectives and approaches to complex public land outdoor recreation management issues...

Neighborhood greenspace has been linked to various disability risk factors, including immunoregulation, mental health issues, and neurological and degenerative diseases. However, the precise nature of the relationship between greenspace and disability rem...

Many livestock producers find current methods of preventing conflicts through non-lethal deterrents inadequate for extensive systems with widely spread, minimally supervised livestock. To address this issue, we developed and tested FlashTags to reduce liv...

Fisheries management often prioritizes game species, yet most fishes are nongame. Conserving nongame species prevents overlooked declines, sustains ecosystems, and can indirectly support game fish. This review highlights key functional roles of freshwater...

Irruptions in plant and animal populations are not uncommon, but the factors underlying irruptions are rarely explored quantitatively. In addition, it has been suggested that these irruptions may be reduced by predators or herbivores, but there is a pauci...

Rapid climate change is increasing disturbances in arctic ecosystems, including land-surface failures from melting ground ice. These failures move sediment and organic material into surface waters, potentially altering ecosystem function and species inter...

The worldwide population of Wilson's Phalaropes has declined by 70% since the 1980s, causing the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to be petitioned to list Wilson's Phalaropes as a threatened species. The petition noted that Great Salt Lake (GSL) has been sh...

Occupancy and N-mixture analyses are widely used to study habitat use, yet they answer different questions and can yield varying insights. Using long-term camera trap data from northeastern Türkiye, we compared these approaches to assess how modeling choi...

Human-driven change affects Rangifer population cycles. Empirical and modeled data show food scarcity and predation intensify booms and busts, echoing patterns seen in small mammals.

Anthropogenic change is reshaping the regulation and stability of animal population dynamics across broad biogeographic gradients. For example, abiotic and biotic interactions can cause gradients in population cycle period and amplitude, but this research...

Mule deer adjust behavior based on varying risks from humans and cougars. Responses differ by site, hunting pressure, and individual exposure. Deer often view humans as dominant threats but adapt behaviorally, sometimes tolerating predators in high human-...

Prey species adjust their behavior along human-use gradients by balancing risks from predators and humans. During hunting seasons, prey often exhibit strong antipredator responses to humans but may develop tolerance in suburban areas to exploit human-medi...

Glaciers and glacially influenced ecosystems host unique biodiversity spanning all kingdoms of life, but glaciers are retreating as the global climate warms, threatening specialist species, ecosystem functions and stability. We outline the impacts and con...

Thresholds in environmental transmission can significantly alter the dynamics of disease spread in wildlife. However, the impact of thresholds in landscapes with high spatial variability is not well understood. We investigate this phenomenon in chronic wa...

As bear populations increase in areas like the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, human-bear interactions are rising, with grizzly bear encounters more than doubling in the past decade. To reduce conflicts, land management agencies promote Leave No Trace beha...

Conservation translocation can be an extremely useful conservation action to increase the abundance of isolated populations following successful habitat restoration. However, managers seek to weigh the benefits against costs to the source population from ...

Traditional methods to detect wildlife are not often successful at detecting small mammals, but modifying the trail cameras to include a portable tunnel has been successful.

Fisheries’ effects on marine life have been widely acknowledged for decades, but only recently have we considered their impact on marine nutrient cycles. Through the removal of marine biomass, fisheries represent a unique and historically novel pathway fo...

Our study highlights the potency of top-down forcing in African savannas. It suggests impressive robustness to drought and underscores the value of multi-decadal experiments for studying interactions among multiple drivers of ecosystem dynamics.

Chinook salmon in Alaska are declining in size, age, and abundance. A literature synthesis links this trend to ocean factors like marine predation, pink salmon competition, and shifting sea surface temperatures.

Herbivores create large differences in litter decomposition rates, but identifying how they do this can be difficult because they simultaneously influence both biotic and abiotic factors. To understand how geese affect decomposition, we tested the effects...

African elephants are the largest extant terrestrial mammals, with bodies containing enormous quantities of nutrients. Yet, we know little about how these nutrients move through the ecosystem after an elephant dies. Here, we investigated the initial effec...

The Grand County Trail Ambassador Program improves visitor experiences and encourages Leave No Trace behaviors, demonstrating effective partnership-based education to reduce environmental and social impacts in protected areas.

Many homeowners experience negative interactions with wildlife once they have become a pest or a nuisance. USU Extension can help homeowners modify their homes and landscapes to avoid many negative interactions; however, sometimes, to resolve the conflict...

Unmanned aircraft have advanced so much that they are completing tasks and integrating into all aspects of our lives. They deliver, survey, collect data, and complete assigned tasks with more efficiency and lower cost than many currently used techniques. ...

Accurate species delimitation is vital for conservation. Using multiple genetic markers and methods, researchers support splitting Bombus occidentalis into two species. Findings improve conservation understanding and recommend best practices for phylogeno...

Simplified road-crossing passability methods, like uniform or random sampling, effectively estimate river connectivity despite uncertainties. Barriers significantly reduce fish passage, highlighting the need to identify and prioritize problematic crossing...

The introduction of Rainbow Smelt in Horsetooth Reservoir, Colorado, increased Walleye growth but also led to poor Walleye recruitment and significant ecosystem shifts, including the decline of Daphnia and the disappearance of opossum shrimp from predator...

Research on agricultural prices and deforestation has mostly focused on cash crops and export-oriented commodities. We develop a theoretical framework to illustrate how a staple food price shock can lead to deforestation through various channels. We explo...

Aquatic habitat suitability models are increasingly coupled with water management models to estimate environmental effects of water management. Many types of habitat models exist, but there are no standard methods to compare predictive performance of habi...

Pathogen transmission risk in bighorn sheep remains stable despite annual changes in home range size, though major environmental shifts could alter contact risk and warrant reassessment of disease models.

GPS transmitter performance on sage-grouse varies by brand and usage. MTI transmitters generally outperformed GeoTrak, though GeoTrak had better nest fix accuracy. Refurbishing transmitters helps maintain data quality critical for sage-grouse management....

If you work with students, give writing prompts, and want to think about how to develop their technical writing skills, this piece could help you develop a framework for designing those writing assignments.

Seabird population trends were estimated using combined historical and modern at-sea survey methods, validated by breeding data, enabling robust, long-term monitoring despite methodological differences.

Controlling highly fecund invasive species becomes much more feasible if managers can identify an approach that targets all adult age classes. Explicitly considering sustainable harvest metrics provides a framework for evaluating a harvest control program...

We explored the efficacy of using trained hounds to haze mountain lions. Our study provides information on a proactive technique that could have applications for mitigating human-wildlife conflict.

We tested whether (1) sage-grouse selected for surrogate habitat and (2) selection behaviors related to surrogate habitat had demographic effects on the population.

Sierra Nevada bighorn sheep are an endangered species who inhabit avalanche-prone areas of the central and southern parts of the range. The sheep have a complex relationship with snow. To better understand how the sheep interact with snow and avalanches, ...

Our study supports using older naturally grown sagebrush plants (wildlings) for restoration efforts. Wildlings had already faced various environmental stresses before transplantation and then had a survival advantage when transplanted. Our study also demo...

The number of ground-nesting ducks in the marshes of Great Salt Lake (GSL), Utah has drastically decreased in the past few decades. One potential cause for this decline is the increase in climate extremes caused by global warming. We tested the hypothesis...

Evolutionary niches are great for species survival, but when humans get stuck arguing from viewpoint niches, it can mean bad news for ecosystem resilience. In a big first, an approach to agreement among divergent stakeholders in a step-by-step protocol fo...

We report floral visitors and traits, anthesis patterns, and tests for stigmatic receptivity and/or self-pollination. Our aim was to contribute critical empirical data on the pollination biology of seven North American species displaying different floral...

To the extent that temporal variation in elk density was attributable to wolf predation, our results suggest that the wolf–elk–aspen trophic cascade was primarily density-mediated rather than trait-mediated. This aligns with the alternative hypothesis tha...

A randomized, controlled, experimental trial was performed, with each individual serving as its own control to evaluate the effects of topical naltrexone on wound healing in freshwater fish.

Animals within social groups respond to costs and benefits of sociality by adjusting the proportion of time they spend in close proximity to other individuals in the group (cohesion). Variation in cohesion between individuals, in turn, shapes important gr...

Metabarcoding of environmental DNA (eDNA) has revolutionized the detection of aquatic species across large geographic scales. However, the effectiveness of eDNA metabarcoding across taxa is marker-dependent, often requiring multiple markers to detect dive...

Human disturbance is altering wildlife distributions and densities through habitat loss, climate change, pollution, and direct human presence. Animal behavior plays a key role in linking these disturbances to population outcomes, with the spatial–social i...

Host social and spatial structures, along with pathogen environmental persistence, influence the spread of environmentally transmitted diseases. Using an agent-based model, researchers examined how host mobility, social behavior, and pathogen decay rates ...

The availability of social resources, such as access to mates, can influence animal movement decisions, but these effects are rarely measured. This study examined how breeding season duration affects long-distance foray movements in male bighorn sheep acr...

Community context plays a crucial role in shaping perceptions of forest risks and land management preferences. This study examines how nine Colorado communities responded to the mountain pine beetle outbreak over time using longitudinal interviews and sur...

The focus of this report is on 1) the results of a Montana statewide imagery-based census of beaver dams along the entire perennial stream network and 2) a comparison of the beaver dam census to the Beaver Restoration Assessment Tool (BRAT) estimates of b...

As the most widespread large carnivore on the planet, domestic dogs can pose a major threat to wildlife, even within protected areas (PAs). Growing human presence in PAs, coupled with increasing pet dog ownership underscores the urgency to understand the ...

Animals may be able to adapt to human-induced environmental change, thereby rescuing their populations from extinction. Yet it is unclear whether long-term adaptive change in genotypes, known as evolutionary rescue, is possible for free-living animals. Us...

Many species of birds, including grouse, are declining across natural ranges and need conservation actions to ensure long-term population stability. Translocation, the intentional capture, transport, and release of animals to a novel area, is one tool tha...

Results suggest that hunting (pursuit with hounds resulting in harvest) and non-lethal pursuit (pursuit with hounds but no harvest allowed) increase avoidance of anthropogenic landscapes during dispersal for juvenile mountain lions. By comparing populatio...

This study used PIT‑tag tracking and multi‑scale antennas to show that Rio Grande silvery minnows exhibit nomadic, downstream‑biased movements, which contradicts traditional paradigms. The study can inform restoration efforts.

Pocket gophers can damage agriculture and human development infrastructure from consuming plants in agricultural fields to chewing through electrical cables. Understanding and managing pocket gopher habits is the key to effective control. This fact sheet ...

Habitat selection models often struggle to predict animal space use beyond the original study area and time due to individual and environmental variability. This study developed a modeling workflow that accounts for variation in habitat selection from 238...

Forest managers are searching for better approaches to manage low-value material resulting from fuels management and timber harvest. The conventional practice of slash pile burning emits pollutants and greenhouse gases, and leaves behind burn scars that d...

This book explores the multifaceted importance northern Yellowstone elk play in the park’s history, maintaining its biodiversity, and captivating the minds and hearts of people who care about Yellowstone and wildlife. Throughout these chapters, we learn a...

Over 14 years, biochar evolved into a viable, climate-smart forest management tool. Eight site-based production methods now help reduce wildfire risk and restore soil, with EPA-approved low-emission practices supporting broader adoption across diverse for...

Gray wolves comprise one of the most widely distributed carnivore species on the planet, but they face myriad environmental and anthropogenic pressures. Here, we look at how seasonal home range size and diel activity patterns among resident and non-reside...

These diseases are found in free-ranging otters and those in managed care, but management information is limited.

Quaking aspen landscapes are valued for their biodiversity, water retention, fire mitigation, aesthetics, and recreation opportunities, however, some aspen populations are experiencing population declines. At a popular recreational area in Utah, USA, iden...

Degradation of drylands has led to extensive efforts to restore big sagebrush in the western U.S., with interest in using greenhouse-grown seedlings ("tubelings") or locally collected transplants ("wildlings"). A study in southeastern Idaho compared the s...

Non‐native species can affect ecosystems by influencing native predator‐prey dynamics. Therefore, management interventions designed to remove non‐natives may inadvertently lead to increased predation on native species. Feral horses are widely distributed ...

The tourism industry needs strategies to reduce emissions and hasten the achievement of global carbon dioxide (CO2) emission reduction targets. A case study of Yellowstone National Park found that tourism generates approximately 1.03 megatons of CO2-equiv...

This study examines genetic resiliency in two sibling bumble bee species of conservation concern by analyzing museum specimens collected between 1960 and 2020 using 15 microsatellite markers. The findings reveal a decline in allelic richness decades befor...

Understanding how invasive species affect the stability and function of ecosystems is critical for conservation. Here, we quantified the effect of an actively suppressed invasive species on the Yellowstone Lake ecosystem using a food web energetics approa...

This study integrates moral norms and stewardship identity into the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) to predict hunters' use of non-lead ammunition in southwestern Utah’s California condor recovery zone. Structural equation modeling showed that moral norm...

Trophic cascades are often used as a justification for rewilding large carnivores, with the idea that they will have positive, trickle-down effects for plants and other species. This chapter aims to clarify trophic cascades first as an ecological phenomen...