2022 Cooperative Research Units Program Year in Review
Our researchers and Unit supervisors work with cooperators to help them identify their needs, and unit supervisors ensure that all research conducted is aligned with the USGS mission.
Year in Review
Expertise & Taxa Search
Project Search
Special Appreciation
To our friends at the Wildlife Management Institute , with congratulations to Steve Williams on his retirement and deep appreciation to Jennifer Mock Schaeffer for her gracious assistance in helping us better understand state and regional priority conservation needs.
Wildlife Management Institute | Established in 1911
How we Work
Research Priorities
Unit scientists and Unit supervisors work with cooperators to help them identify their needs, and unit supervisors ensure that all research conducted is aligned with the USGS mission. Image: BLM
Project Controls
Funds from the USGS, other DOI bureaus, or other Federal agencies are obligated via Financial Assistance into a research work order and awarded to the University for a specific research project.
Regional Partners
We work closely with USGS Center Directors and USGS Regional Directors on topics of mutual interest.
Michigan State University
Graduate Students
Graduate students are the backbone of the CRU program are leaders in the conservation workforce. Students graduate from the experience uniquely prepared to be effective members of the natural resource workforce. For example, Dr. Abby Lawson joined the New Mexico Unit as an Assistant Unit Leader of Wildlife in 2021, after working as a Postdoc at Auburn University and at the USGS Patuxent Wildlife Research Center.
Dr. Abby Lawson joined the New Mexico Unit as an Assistant Unit Leader of Wildlife in 2021. She received graduate degrees from the University of Nevada, Reno and Clemson University, and later worked as a Postdoc at the Alabama CRU at Auburn University, followed by the USGS Patuxent Wildlife Research Center.
"It is your intellectual curiosity, your outstanding critical thinking, your dedication to learning and growth, and, most importantly, your commitment to collaborative problem-solving with our friends and partners – that truly makes our program a success." Jonathan Mawdsley
Lara Katz, University of Maine
Lara is using a combination of seine netting and environmental DNA sampling to locate the fish. Lara is also developing a predictive habitat model to help inform future surveys, long-term monitoring, and conservation actions.
Brandon Barlow - University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Brandon will apply the skills and knowledge he gained during his graduate program as he works toward creating smart water and environmental policy for the benefit of the people of the USA.
Benjamin Miller - Utah State University
Ben's research aims to better inform managers of the potential for native fish habitat enhancement by exploiting existing and abundant nonnative woody vegetation.
University of Nevada-Reno
Map Search
We highlight a few of the ~800 current management-oriented research projects conducted with our State, Federal, and University cooperators. Many more examples are available online . Each of these examples demonstrates the delivery of research needs to our cooperators and the invaluable decision-based science that it can yield. Click the blue icons below to learn more about our applied research.
To our friends at the Wildlife Management Institute, with congratulations to Steve Williams on his retirement and deep appreciation to Jennifer Mock Schaeffer for her gracious assistance in helping us better understand state and regional priority conservation needs.
Jobs & Salary
Jobs
Each CRU scientist supports 8-10 graduate students, postdocs, and research technicians, on average which collectively amounts to approximately 1,000 university positions supported per year.
University Positions
Each USGS CRU scientist supports 8-10 graduate students, postdocs, and research technicians, on average which collectively amounts to approximately 1,000 university positions supported per year.
Budget
Our budget of $26M brought in approximately $40M in reimbursable research funds to the host universities who provided more than $20 million through in-kind support, tuition, and reduced overhead.
Salary
Federal salary dollars are matched on a 1:3 basis by State and host university contributions and grant funds.
Technical Assistance
A few common forms of technical assistance include: involvement in species status assessment (Alexander Archipelago wolves, grey wolves, western gray squirrel bluestripe darter, Plains spotted skunk, and snail kite); facilitating structured decision making events for decision makers (candy darters, rosy finch, mountain lions, fish passage projects); participation on recovery teams (Mexican wolf, Flatwoods salamander, sharpnose and smalleye shiners, and Niangua darter); and conducting data analysis for a number of state and federal agency cooperators.
Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, Accessibility
We are actively involved in many activities related to Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Accessibility. Efforts to change dialog and hiring practices are underway as well as a strong commitment to recruit and train graduate students from diverse backgrounds.
Storytelling
Doris Duke Program
Christina Contreras - University of Idaho
Christina is a senior majoring in Wildlife Sciences with a minor in Rangeland Ecology and Management at the University of Idaho
Malvika Someshwar - University of Massachusetts
Mylvika’s Blog: Rhinos at the Woodland Park Zoo, Seattle, Washington - Maya's internship work was centered around animal behavior research, where I was primarily working with rhinos. Both rhinos had developed Chronic Foot Disease, and it was my responsibility to help develop a quantitate scoring system for a qualitative measure of discomfort.
Maya Encinosa - University of Florida
Maya Encinosa is a senior majoring in wildlife ecology and conservation (pre-veterinary) and minoring in pathogenesis at the University of Florida.
Diversity Awards
Dawn Childs
Secretary (Deb Haaland) Diversity Award, Department of the Interior and USGS.
Michael McInturff
Outstanding Commitment to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, School of Environmental and Forest Sciences, University of Washington
Sarah Converse
Outstanding Diversity Commitment Award, University of Washington College of the Environment
DEIA Committee
Notes from the Field
Citizen Science
Projects that citizens are helping with range from detection of birds (Utah Unit) and mammals (New York Unit), bighorn sheep respiratory disease (Iowa Unit), herring passage (Massachusetts Unit), jaguar and ocelots (Arizona Unit), to abundance of sea turtles (Minnesota Unit), standardized surveys of endangered mussels (Massachusetts Unit), and habitat characters of bumblebees (Utah Unit).
Prairie Fishes Initiative
The Prairie Streams and Fishes Collaborative (PSFC) is a geographically-diverse group of fisheries professionals who share an interest in prairie streams and associated prairie stream fishes.
Resist-Accept-Direct (RAD)
The resist-accept-direct (RAD) framework includes the decision space managers consider when addressing climate in local systems; to decide among strategies, managers must understand how specific systems are influenced by climate change.
Snapshot USA
A network of scientists launched Snapshot USA , a collaborative survey of terrestrial wildlife using cameras across the United States.
Research Awards
CRU Scientists for excellence in their publication record
Craig Paukert
One of the top 10% most downloaded papers in calendar year 2021 (American Fisheries Society).
David Andersen
Best Journal Article (The Wildlife Society)
David Haukos
Morgart Scientific Publication Award (U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Morgart Scientific Publication Award)
Lillian Raz
Finalist for the best paper in Functional Ecology by an early-career author (British Ecological Society)
Connect
Graduate students use telemetry to gather data in Arizona.
Contacts
Jonathan Mawdsley, Program Chief
jmawdsley@usgs.gov
Dawn Childs, Geonarrative Design
dchilds@usgs.gov
Elise Irwin, Editor, 2022 Year in Review Circular 1505
eirwin@usgs.gov
All photographs by U.S. Geological Survey unless otherwise noted.