Skip to main content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Projected sagebrush recovery from energy development across southwestern Wyoming

Published by U.S. Geological Survey | Department of the Interior | Catalog Last Checked: August 01, 2026 at 04:10 AM | Dataset Last Updated: February 22, 2022 at 12:00 AM
Identifying ecologically relevant reference sites is important for evaluating ecosystem recovery, but the relevance of references that are temporally static is unclear in the context of vast landscapes with varying disturbance and environmental contexts over space and time. This question is pertinent for landscapes dominated by sagebrush (Artemisia spp.) which face a suite of threats from disturbance and development but also have lengthy recovery times. Here, we applied a dynamic reference approach to studying and projecting recovery of sagebrush on former oil and gas well pads in southwestern Wyoming, USA, using over 3 decades of remote sensing data (1985–2018). We also used quantile regression to evaluate factors that may affect recovery including soils, weather, elevation, and well pad characteristics. We then created projections for percent recovery and years to recovery (relative to references) across the study area, as well as comparisons among weather covariates (root mean square error), resulting in 8 rasters, each with 5 bands representing 5 quantiles.

Resources

2 resources available

Find Related Datasets

data.gov

An official website of the GSA's Technology Transformation Services

Looking for U.S. government information and services?
Visit USA.gov