2015 Cooperative Research Units Program Year in Review

Companion to USGS Circular 1420

December 26, 2022

USGS Circular 1420

We celebrated our 80th anniversary in 2015. We did not have a party, but those of us who work directly for the Unit program on a daily basis celebrate the privilege we feel in being part of one of the greatest conservation institutions in history.

http://pubs.usgs.gov

National Cooperators Coalition

Our partners include the U.S. Geological Survey, Universities, State Fish and Wildlife Agencies, the Wildlife Management Institute, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service

The National Cooperators Coalition has been active in fostering support and we are very excited about their energy. A Special Session at the 2015 North American Wildlife and Natural Resources Conference was dedicated to the Unit program, and a vision for our future was presented at this most prestigious conservation policy forum.

Find Expertise

Find Expertise: Search

Find scientists based on expertise The search fields below can be used to find specific CRU federal scientists based on their areas of topical (TOPIC) and taxonomic (TAXON) expertise. You can select terms from the TOPIC list, TAXON list or both. To select multiple terms within a list, hold down the Ctrl key while selecting the terms of interest.

https://www1.usgs.gov

History

Science Blasts by John Organ

By John F. Organ, B&C Professional Member Excerpt from Fair Chase Magazine The 1930s were hard times. The United States was in the midst of its worst economic depression, and clouds of soil from America's breadbasket were blackening the skies over Chicago.

https://www.boone-crockett.org

Graduate Students

Each year, nearly 600 graduate students participate in natural resources education and training through the CRU program. Research directed by CRU scientists assists the next generation of professionals to emerge from our programs uniquely prepared to be effective members of the natural resource workforce.

Diversity, Equity, Inclusion

Five units (North Carolina, New York, Arizona, Florida, and Idaho) partner with the Doris Duke Foundation’s Conservation Scholars Program . Through this program undergraduate students attend leadership training programs, work with scientists and graduate students on selected research projects, and are mentored by CRU supported graduate students and research scientists. These “Duke Scholars” also complete paid internships with local, State, Federal, and tribal agencies or nongovernmental organizations.

Doris Duke Foundation’s Conservation Scholars Program students — The objectives of the Collaborative are to: increase diversity in the fish and wildlife profession by training and mentoring undergraduate students; give students training in study design and research methods; help students develop a professional network and a supportive peer group; and provide students with on-the-job training with partner agencies and organizations.

Outreach and Training

Unit scientists remained actively engaged in our technical assistance mission by delivering 26 workshops and short courses to our State and Federal partners through designated, instructor-led courses, and special symposia at the National Conservation Training Center in Shepherdstown, West Virginia. Courses and workshops covered a variety of subjects, but recurrent topics included structured decision-making, R programming and graphics, and Bayesian modeling approaches. Scientists recognized for their expertise in specific areas also presented 43 invited seminars in FY 2015.

Adaptive Management Toolkit

The Adaptive Management Toolkit is a series of R packages used for population analysis, data processing, population modeling, and survey/web tools. The packages were developed to promote certain aspects of adaptive management of natural resources. Available through the USGS github site, these packages are under the Creative Commons license.

https://www.usgs.gov

The Vermont Unit has been working on a new R package (AMHarvest) that will provide some tools for simulating harvest data, analyzing harvest data, and evaluating how well different models and estimators perform.

The AMHarvest package could be available for download through the Comprehensive R Archive Network (CRAN) in early 2016. The Unit is also working on a proposal to build a friendly, web-based application that will allow users to take advantage of the AMHarvest package and existing R packages without having to write code. The proposed application will facilitate adaptive harvest management by storing inputs and outputs, assessing support for different models, and using outputs as inputs in subsequent analyses.

Applied Research on the Map

On this map, you will find see snapshots of Unit projects with information on how results have been or are being applied by cooperators. That is the essence of what we do: science that matters.