Since late 1993, Metro Wastewater Reclamation District of Denver (Metro District, MWRD), a large wastewater treatment plant in Denver, Colorado, has applied Grade I, Class B biosolids to about 52,000 acres of nonirrigated farmland and rangeland near Deer Trail, Colorado, USA. In cooperation with the Metro District in 1993, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) began monitoring groundwater at part of this site. In 1999, the USGS began a more comprehensive monitoring study of the entire site to address stakeholder concerns about the potential chemical effects of biosolids applications to water,...

Water, bed sediment, and biota were sampled in streams from Butte to near Missoula as part of a long-term monitoring program in the upper Clark Fork basin; additional water samples were collected in the Clark Fork basin from sites near Missoula downstream to near the confluence of the Clark Fork and Flathead River as part of a supplemental sampling program. The sampling programs were conducted in cooperation with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to characterize aquatic resources in the Clark Fork basin of western Montana, with emphasis on trace elements associated with historic mining...

This report describes a software system for detecting early-season invasive plant species, such as cheatgrass. The report includes instructions for installing the software and serves as a user's guide in processing Landsat satellite remote sensing data to map the distributions of cheatgrass and other early-season invasive plants. The software was developed for application to the semi-arid regions of southern Utah; however, the detection parameters can be altered by the user for application to other areas.

The Sunnyside porphyry copper system is part of the concealed San Rafael Valley porphyry system located in the Patagonia Mountains of Arizona. To help characterize the size, resistivity, and skin depth of the polarizable mineral deposit concealed beneath thick overburden, a regional east-west audio-magnetotelluric sounding profile was acquired. Further studies will attempt to determine if induced polarization parameters extracted from the magnetotelluric data can also be used to determine the size and resistivity of the mineralized area. The purpose of this report is to release the...

Invasive plant species disrupt native ecosystems and cause economic harm to public lands. In this report, an example of applying the Detection of Early Season Invasives software to mapping cheatgrass infestations is given. A discussion of each step of the DESI process is given, including selection of Landsat images. Tutorial data, covering a semi-arid area in southern Utah, are distributed with this report. Tips on deriving the inputs required to run DESI are provided. An approach for evaluating and adjusting detection parameters by examining interim products of DESI is discussed.

Geologic mapping studies are underway to help define the geologic framework for integrated ecosystem and climate change research in the Greater Platte River Basins, an ecoregion being targeted for collaborative observation and research by the Climate Effects Network (CEN) of the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Global Change Program. Geologic mapping and associated geochronological research provide information about physical and chemical properties, distribution, age, origin, and stratigraphic relations of surficial geologic deposits for reconstructing geologic and hydrologic history and for...

Rocky Mountain National Park in north-central Colorado supports numerous species of wildlife, including several large ungulate species among which Rocky Mountain elk are the most abundant.