Category: Wildlife

Mormon Cricket Virtual Reality and My Fieldwork Roadside Reality Show (with an Audience of Usually No One)

Posted on by Josh Blake

They Call Me the Cricket Drifter This summer, I’m investigating the behavioral ecology of Anabrus simplex, also known, perhaps regrettably, as the Mormon cricket*. Locally, I’ve become known as “The Cricket Lady” and, more dubiously, “The Bug Gut Drifter,” thanks to an experiment involving a slick of hemolymph and my truck during a rainstorm. (A Read more about Mormon Cricket Virtual Reality and My Fieldwork Roadside Reality Show (with an Audience of Usually No One)[…]

Aquatic Conservation: Marine and Freshwater Ecosystems- Joshua Kesling

Posted on by Vanesa Aguay Guerra

Second year Master of Environmental Management student Joshua Kesling recently published an article in Aquatic Conservation: Marine and Freshwater Ecosystems. The piece addresses freshwater and riparian ecosystem conservation strategies across Intermountain Western United States National Forests. Moreover, Kesling discusses the importance of measuring how outdoor recreation involving the use aquatic resources affects ecological integrity.  DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/aqc.70057

Mapping Beaver Conflicts: A Step Toward Coexistence— Xiaofan Shen

Posted on by Vanesa Aguay Guerra

This fall, I found myself immersed in the world of beavers, data points, and digital maps. As a research assistant with Ucross High Plains Stewardship Initiative, I am collaborating with the Montana Beaver Conflict Resolution Program (BCRP) at the National Wildlife Federation to leverage geospatial tools to visualize beaver conflicts and highlight effective mitigation solutions Read more about Mapping Beaver Conflicts: A Step Toward Coexistence— Xiaofan Shen[…]

A How-To Guide for Beaver Monitoring—Alex Wells

Posted on by Madeline Gupta

May is here, bringing with it the end of a semester and the end of my time working as a UHPSI Research Assistant in collaboration with The Nature Conservancy Wyoming’s Tensleep Preserve. Even as Wyoming has been re-blanketed in snow, every maple and oak tree in New Haven has spun out fresh fractals of green Read more about A How-To Guide for Beaver Monitoring—Alex Wells[…]

Muddying the Water—Alex Wells

Posted on by Madeline Gupta

Let’s say that you live in northeast Nevada and ranch a stretch of sagebrush watered by a small cottonwood-lined creek. Or that you make your living from your senior water rights and an orderly orchard of fruit trees in western Colorado. Or that you grow alfalfa just north of the Gallatin Range in Montana, your Read more about Muddying the Water—Alex Wells[…]

A Monitoring Plan for Beaver Wellbeing and Hydrologic Impacts

Posted on by Madeline Gupta

Effective ecological monitoring is a critical component of managing ecosystems in a way that balances the needs of people and wildlife. In collaboration with The Nature Conservancy – Wyoming (TNC) and the Water for Wildlife Foundation, UHPSI research assistant Alex Wells is developing a monitoring plan that will evaluate both beaver wellbeing and the impacts Read more about A Monitoring Plan for Beaver Wellbeing and Hydrologic Impacts[…]

Learning About Place—Julia Chen

Posted on by Madeline Gupta

I spent over a week in Wyoming and Idaho this spring learning about the environmental issues and organizations working towards solutions. From meeting the housing advocacy group Shelter JH to Wyoming Game and Fish, I began to think about how lived experience influences why we work on the issues we care about and persist. This Read more about Learning About Place—Julia Chen[…]

A Brief Look at NDVI—Sam Wilson

Posted on by Madeline Gupta

Over the last eight months at Ucross High Plains Stewardship Initiative, our team developed a set of tools to assist in monitoring areas surrounding beaver dam installations in eastern Montana using remote sensing. One of these tools is focused on calculating normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) across an area of interest and how it is Read more about A Brief Look at NDVI—Sam Wilson[…]

2022 Annual Report

Posted on by Madeline Gupta

Check our UHPSI’s newly released 2022 Annual Report! Read about student projects, impacts, and journeys from the past year.

Making the Case for Cattle—Kathleen Voight

Posted on by Madeline Gupta

Championing the ecological importance of cattle grazing doesn’t always land well in environmental groups. Pushback often quotes methane emissions, a warming climate, societal collapse and so on. Yet, across rural areas of the western United States, entire communities depend on cattle. Over one-third of the land area of the United States is rangeland, undeveloped land Read more about Making the Case for Cattle—Kathleen Voight[…]

Evaluating Mesic Restoration Efforts in Montana with Geospatial Tools

Posted on by Madeline Gupta

In conjunction with The Nature Conservancy-Montana (TNC), Montana Conservation Corps (MCC), and World Wildlife Fund (WWF), our team is creating a protocol to evaluate the impacts of low-tech structures, sometimes referred to as beaver dam analogs, that have been installed in central Montana. This protocol will leverage GIS and remote sensing technologies, challenging our team Read more about Evaluating Mesic Restoration Efforts in Montana with Geospatial Tools[…]

Can Bison Shape the Prairie?—Ross Martin

Posted on by Madeline Gupta

 There’s a bull bison rolling on the ground. Hooves point skyward as the bull’s body moves—rocking, kicking, sliding on a carefully chosen patch of earth. Dust hangs in the hot summer air. Other bison look on at the commotion, then return to grazing. A calf imitates the bull, playfully rolling under mom’s legs. What are Read more about Can Bison Shape the Prairie?—Ross Martin[…]

Bison Restoration: Pursuing Environmental Justice on the Great Plains—Ross Martin

Posted on by Madeline Gupta

Bison are a uniquely important species in North America’s past, present, and future. They are a keystone species that maintains and enhances ecological function in grassland ecosystems. Bison long supported Indigenous cultures, and their slaughter enabled the United States’ bloody conquest of the continent. The disappearance of the large herds disrupted human, plant, and wildlife Read more about Bison Restoration: Pursuing Environmental Justice on the Great Plains—Ross Martin[…]

Climate Change and Plant Communities: Reshaping Ecosystems for Livestock and Wildlife — Scott Carpenter

Posted on by Madeline Gupta

During the month of August, I was unfortunate enough to be impacted by two extreme weather events associated with climate change. In Wyoming, multiple field days were cut short due to hazardous air quality resulting from the ongoing wildfires in California and Oregon. While 2020 saw the second highest acreage burned since 1960 (the highest Read more about Climate Change and Plant Communities: Reshaping Ecosystems for Livestock and Wildlife — Scott Carpenter[…]