USGS Cooperative Research Units in 2024: Fish and Wildlife Science on 44 Campuses

The U.S. Geological Survey Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Units (CRU) program began in 1935 and was written into law by Congress in 1960. Its idea is simple: put federal scientists on university campuses to train future wildlife and fisheries professionals and to do the research that state and federal agencies say they need.

Each unit is a partnership among the USGS, a host university, one or more state agencies, the Wildlife Management Institute and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. State and federal agencies decide where science-based studies are needed; unit scientists do the applied research that helps partners choose the best ways to manage resources.

Bison (Bison bison). Photograph by Sandra Uecker, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Greater sage grouse (Centrocercus urophasianus). Photograph by Greg Kramos, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Locations of the 43 USGS Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Units. Image from the USGS fact sheet.

The program in fiscal 2024

• 43 units in 41 states at 44 host universities, in three regions, run from a national office at USGS headquarters in Reston, Virginia
• a mission in three parts: train future managers and researchers, deliver actionable science to cooperating agencies, and give technical assistance to resource managers

A strong return

The program’s $29.3 million in federal appropriations in FY 2024 mainly paid unit scientists’ salaries. Those scientists then brought in approximately $48 million in research funding from cooperators and stakeholders, and host universities added about $22 million in in-kind support — facilities, tuition and reduced overhead. USGS says each appropriated dollar is turned into three.

The leveraged funding supports as many as 31 non-federal positions at each host university a year — graduate students, postdoctoral researchers and technicians — and over 1,100 jobs in all.

Nebraska Unit graduate students sampling fish. Photo: U.S. Geological Survey.

Training the next generation

In FY 2024, students in the program earned 22 Ph.D. and 56 master’s degrees in fisheries and wildlife sciences. Alumni go on to state and federal agencies, nonprofit groups and universities.

Research partners asked for

Unit scientists, staff and students published 360 scientific papers in FY 2024 in over 130 peer-reviewed journals — from Nature to Southwestern Naturalist — and directed over 700 research projects. Cooperators chose the themes, among them hunting and fishing resources, animal migration and movement, invasive species and wildlife disease, and decision-making strategies. Examples:

• Mississippi Unit: a team analyzing a large Texas fisheries database for Texas Parks and Wildlife
• Florida Unit: a lake “scorecard” system with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission
• California Unit: helping the Bureau of Reclamation assess coho salmon habitat under proposed management options
• Ungulate Migrations of the Western United States, volume 4, on how large-scale migrations affect wildlife management and land-use planning across the West

Help for managers and the public

Unit scientists provided more than 140 technical assistance actions — advice, analyses, help with field and lab work, app development, even training agency staff to age fish — plus workshops, short courses and talks. They also bring science to public decisions:

• Montana Unit: subject-matter expert at public hearings on the state’s wolf management plan
• Nevada Unit: evaluating predator management options with the Nevada Department of Wildlife
• Massachusetts Unit: a decision workshop on chronic wasting disease management

Goose Lake redband trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss ssp.). Photo: U.S. Geological Survey.

Sources

Based on "U.S. Geological Survey Cooperative Research Units Program—A hawk’s view of 2024," U.S. Geological Survey Fact Sheet 2025–3009; a work of the United States government in the public domain. Images from the same fact sheet. Pictures an earlier version of this page left out were restored on 2026-09-26.