Mountain Prairie

Partner Spotlight

The Big Sky Institute at Montana State University is an interdisciplinary center dedicated to creating, applying, and communicating science-based knowledge. The BSI Ecological Informatics Lab brings together natural sciences, geographic information systems (GIS), statistics, modeling, information technology, and computational programming with a comprehensive goal of making ecological data more useful to society.

Mountain Prairie

MPIN header [Image: Aaron Jones, Big Sky Institute]

The Mountain Prairie Information Node is a collaborative project between the Big Sky Institute, USGS Northern Rocky Mountain Science Center, USGS Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center, and other partners.

This site provides biological information organized by geography and by theme. Select from the categories below to get started.

	About the Node Read about the history of this regional NBII node and goals for the future.
	Animals and Plants of the Region Learn about the region's native biodiversity, including birds, invertebrates, mammals, plants, and species in need of conservation.
	Live Maps and Data Find maps and geospatial data related to carbon sequestration, butterflies and moths, whirling disease, and regional ecosystems.
	Regional Ecosystems Discover the Great Plains, Greater Yellowstone, Northern Rockies, and Prairie Pothole ecosystems.
	Regional News Read news articles related to regional natural resource issues.
	Regional Themes Explore regionally-significant topics such as carbon sequestration, climate, fire, invasive species, water, and wildlife disease.
	States Browse data and information organized by state.

Conferences of Interest

Mountain Prairie Region

Map of the 6-state Mountain Prairie Region
[Image: Aaron Jones, Big Sky Institute]

Mountain Prairie News

Montana wildlife agency gets an earful about lead-shot ban [Tue Feb 09 15:08:00 EST 2010]
Concerned about high levels of lead found in eagles along Montana's Rocky Mountain Front, the Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks Commission proposed banning the use of lead shot at state wildlife areas, a proposal that has received a fair amount of criticism.
Missoulian

View Comments |

Roadside signs in Wyoming park don't protect wildlife [Tue Feb 09 15:08:00 EST 2010]
Four years ago, Grand Teton National Park made a pact with the Jackson Hole Wildlife Foundation to address wildlife-vehicle collisions with the placement of message boards that flash warnings to motorists, but the effort appears to have made little impact, with an average of 38 elk, seven moose, 10 bison, two bears, a wolf and 33 deer dying every year on the park's roadways.
Billings Gazette (AP)

View Comments |

Five-year elk testing project winds up in Wyoming [Tue Feb 09 15:08:00 EST 2010]
Wyoming Game and Fish biologists completed a five-year elk-testing project designed to reduce brucellosis in the Pinedale herd on Monday, with brucellosis findings progressively decreasing from 37 percent to 7 percent over the first four years of the experiment.
Casper Star-Tribune

View Comments |

Montana's bison plan 'weak-kneed' [Tue Feb 09 15:08:00 EST 2010]
There are no easy answers in wildlife management, and in the case of Montana's handling of bison that wander out of Yellowstone National park into the state, the solutions seem even more elusive, but putting 88 bison on a private ranch isn't a long-term solution.
Helena Independent Record

View Comments |

Work under way to keep wetlands viable at former Montana plant [Tue Feb 09 15:08:00 EST 2010]
Smurfit-Stone Container Corp.'s operations west of Missoula created wetlands, but now that the Montana plant has been shut down, those wetlands could disappear and the Clark Fork Coalition is negotiating with the company to create a wildlife management area, but the trickier part of the deal will be changing state law to allow some irrigation water to be used to feed the wetlands.
Missoulian

View Comments |

USFS wants to log, burn Benchmark corridor in Montana [Tue Feb 09 15:08:00 EST 2010]
The Lewis and Clark National Forest has approved logging and burning 763 acres within the 10,000 acres in the Benchmark Road corridor, a popular access to Montana's Bob Marshall Wilderness area, in an effort to reduce wildfire risk.
Great Falls Tribune

View Comments |

Wolf advocate, Idaho agency wrangle over wolf carcass [Tue Feb 09 15:08:00 EST 2010]
Lynne Stone, director of the Boulder-White Clouds Council, had monitored the Basin Butte wolf pack outside Stanley for years, and when the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Wildlife Services removed seven members of that pack late last year, Stone tracked down the carcass of the alpha female and claimed the kill as her own, putting her wolf tag on it, in part to force Idaho to claim wolves taken by state and federal agencies under wolf hunt quotas.
Twin Falls Times-News

View Comments |

Idaho group sues to force USFWS decision on pygmy rabbits [Tue Feb 09 15:08:00 EST 2010]
Western Watersheds Project filed a lawsuit last week against the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to force the agency to make a decision on protecting a rare pygmy rabbit in eight Western states.
Idaho Statesman (AP)

View Comments |

Montana gets no bids for Otter Creek coal [Tue Feb 09 15:08:00 EST 2010]
The only company that submitted anything in response to Montana's request for bids to develop coal reserves on state lands in the southeastern part of the state was Arch Coal Inc., which submitted a document stating that the minimum bonus bid was too high.
Montana Standard

View Comments |

The Shot Heard Round the West [Fri Feb 05 03:55:27 EST 2010]
Twenty years after the SouthWest Organizing Project accused conservation groups of ignoring environmental justice, diversity in the movement remains elusive.

Still evolving 40 years later [Fri Feb 05 03:55:25 EST 2010]
High Country News continues to evolve along with the conservation movement itself, especially in the thorny area of environmental justice.

The Group of 10 respond [Fri Feb 05 03:50:17 EST 2010]
Two decades after the SWOP letter, the big environmental groups report their progress on the issue of environmental justice.

Disappearing Ducks? North America's Prairie Potholes Vulnerable to Warming Climates [Mon Feb 01 09:30:00 EST 2010]

The loss of wetlands in the prairie pothole region of central North America due to a warmer and drier climate will negatively affect millions of waterfowl that depend on the region for food, shelter and raising young, according to research published today in the journal BioScience.

The new research shows that the region appears to be much more sensitive to climate warming and drying than previously thought.

“The impact to the millions of wetlands that attract countless ducks to these breeding grounds in spring makes it difficult to imagine how to maintain today’s level of waterfowl populations in altered climate conditions,” said Dr. Glenn Guntenspergen, a U.S. Geological Survey researcher and one of the report authors. “Parents may not have time to raise their young to where they can fly because of wetlands drying up too quickly in the warming climate of the future,” he added.

A new wetland model developed by the authors to understand the impacts of climate change on wetlands in the prairie pothole region projected major reductions in water volume, shortening of the time water remains in wetlands and changes to wetland vegetation dynamics in this 800,000-square kilometer region in the United States (North and South Dakota, Montana, Minnesota and Iowa) and Canada.

Many wetland species -- such as waterfowl and amphibians -- require a minimum time in water to complete their life cycles. For example, most dabbling ducks -- such as mallards and teal-- require at least 80 to 110 days of surface water for their young to grow to where they can fly and for breeding adults to complete molting, the time when birds are flightless while growing new feathers. In addition, an abundance of wetlands are needed because breeding waterfowl typically isolate themselves from others of the same species.

“Unfortunately, the model simulations show that under forecasted climate-change scenarios for this region (an increase of 4-degrees Celsius), the western prairie potholes will be too dry and the eastern ones will have too few functional wetlands and nesting habitat to support historical levels of waterfowl and other wetland-dependent species,” said Dr. W. Carter Johnson, another study author and a researcher at South Dakota State University.

The authors noted that their model allowed a more comprehensive analysis of climate change impacts across the northern prairies because it simultaneously examined the hydrology and vegetation dynamics of the wetland complex, which are both important for the wildlife that depend on the prairie potholes for part or all of their life cycles.

“Our results indicate that the prairie wetlands are highly vulnerable to climate warming, and are less resilient than we previously believed,” said Guntenspergen. “All but the very wettest of the historic boom years for waterfowl production in the more arid parts of the prairie pothole region may be bust years in a 4-degrees Celsius warmer climate.”

These findings may serve as a foundation for managers and policy makers to develop management plans to prepare for and adapt to climate change in the prairie pothole region.

The article, Prairie wetland complexes as landscape functional units in a changing climate, was published in BioScience (60[2]:128-140) and authored by researchers with South Dakota State University, the U.S. Geological Survey, University of Montana, St. Olaf College, The Desert Research Institute-University of Nevada, and the University of Idaho.

[Access images for this release at: &amp;lt;a href="http://gallery.usgs.gov/tags/NR2010_02_01" mce_href="http://gallery.usgs.gov/tags/NR2010_02_01"&amp;gt;http://gallery.usgs.gov/tags/NR2010_02_01&amp;lt;/a&amp;gt;]

USGS Announces Mineral Research Grants for 2010 [Wed Jan 06 06:55:52 EST 2010]

New research on a range of minerals important to our economy, national security, and land-use decisions has been funded through grants awarded by the U.S. Geological Survey.

Recipients of the 2010 USGS Mineral Resources External Research Program grants will study copper, lithium, rare earth elements, uranium, and phosphate in the United States. The principal investigators and a brief description of the successful proposals are provided below.

A Technique for Identifying Hidden Copper Resources

John Dilles of Oregon State University will help provide a means to identify potential porphyry copper resources that are concealed from surface exposure. The research will look at the three-dimensional footprint of porphyry copper deposits and define the trends that occur in rocks from a deposit’s center to its margins. This will help in identifying the direction of the deposit’s center based on the nearby geologic characteristics.

Lithium Resources: Important for Alternative Energy Technology

LeeAnn Munk of the University of Alaska, Anchorage, and C. Page Chamberlain of Stanford University will study the formation of lithium resources in brine waters and clays, helping with estimations of resource potential in these environments. Lithium is an increasingly important commodity for alternative energy technology. This research will focus on brine resources at Clayton Valley in southwest Nevada and on clay resources at McDermitt Caldera in north-central Nevada.

Formation of Lithium and Rare-Earth-Element Deposits

Adriana Heimann of East Carolina University will investigate the formation of granitic pegmatite deposits that contain lithium and rare earth elements. Particular focus will be placed on understanding the variability of mineral compositions in barren versus metal-rich deposits. This study is expected to provide a clearer understanding of the conditions under which these types of deposits formed and help in identifying where these deposits may occur.

Uranium Resources in Sandstone

Craig Lundstrom and Thomas Johnson of the University of Illinois will help in understanding the formation of uranium deposits found in sandstone units and provide a means to assess their uranium resource concentration. Research will look at the character of uranium in groundwater to better understand the process that leads to formation of uranium deposits in sandstone. These types of deposits are the most common uranium deposits in the United States, and this study will focus on characterizing current conditions in an active sandstone aquifer system in Texas.

Thomas Monecke and colleagues at the Colorado School of Mines will research the three-dimensional variations in rock compositions found in sandstone-hosted uranium deposits using state-of the-art technology. Research will be conducted at the Lost Creek uranium deposit in south-central Wyoming. Findings are expected to help develop new means to direct exploration and assessment of these deposits.

Hidden Phosphate in Virginia

William Lassetter, Jr., of the Virginia Division of Geology and Mineral Resources will help identify the potential for concealed phosphate resources along Virginia’s coastal plain. Research will look at the characteristics of rock layers in Virginia, and findings are expected to be applicable to identifying the phosphate resource potential along other regions of the eastern U.S. coastal plain.

The USGS Mineral Resources External Research Program invited research proposals that will help ensure a sustainable supply of minerals for the Nation’s future; understand the relationship between minerals, the environment, and public health; provide information to make informed land-use decisions; and deliver mineral information critical to national security. Proposals were accepted from academia, state agencies, industry and other private sector organizations and scientists. For more information visit the Mineral Resources - External Research Program site.

Where There?s Smoke ... There?s a Trade-In [Fri Dec 25 00:00:00 EST 2009]

As temperatures drop, efforts to curb pollution from burning wood are clashing with tradition.

After a Tornado, a Kansas Town Rebuilds Green [Wed Sep 23 00:00:00 EDT 2009]

Greensburg, Kan., population 900, is rising anew as a model of energy conservation and environmental sensitivity.

Idea for Badlands Raises Land-Use Fears [Mon Sep 21 00:00:00 EDT 2009]

Federal officials want to put part of the North Dakota Badlands on the National Register of Historic Places.

Wolves Are Set to Become Fair Game in the West [Mon Aug 31 00:00:00 EDT 2009]

Unless a judge grants a request by environmentalists to block it, hunting season will open in Idaho for the gray wolf, a symbol of tensions over how people interact with wilderness.

A River Prone to Flooding, and Misunderstanding [Tue Mar 31 00:00:00 EDT 2009]
Over the last week, the Red River in North Dakota has emerged as perhaps even more maddeningly complex, and in some ways harder to predict, than before.

Permanent Flood Solutions Just Out of Reach for Fargo [Mon Mar 30 00:00:00 EDT 2009]
As the Red River appears to have crested without causing major damage, some in Fargo, N.D., are wondering whether an opportunity to secure money for permanent flood abatement was lost.

Neighbors Joined for a Battle Not All Would Win [Mon Mar 30 00:00:00 EDT 2009]

Communities near the confluence of the Red and Wild Rice Rivers banded together to fight back massive flooding; some were fortunate, some were not.

Its Native Tongue Facing Extinction, Arapaho Tribe Teaches the Young [Fri Oct 17 00:00:00 EDT 2008]

With only about 200 Arapaho speakers still alive, a new school on the Wind River Indian Reservation in Wyoming will teach students in Arapaho.

Efforts on 2 Fronts to Save a Population of Ferrets [Tue Jul 15 00:00:00 EDT 2008]

A colony of black-footed ferrets that biologists say is critical to the long-term health of the species was recovering. Then came a plague.

The NBII Program is administered by the Biological Informatics Office of the U.S. Geological Survey

| About NBII | Accessibility Statement | NBII Disclaimer, Attribution & Privacy Statement | FOIA