Rocky Mountain Research Station facts for kids
The Rocky Mountain Research Station (RMRS) is a special science group. It's part of the United States Forest Service. This makes it one of the biggest natural resource research teams in the world! The main office for the RMRS is in Fort Collins, Colorado. Over 400 people work here, including about 100 research scientists.
The RMRS works to help us understand and take care of our nation's forests and grasslands. They do this through amazing scientific research. Their goal is to make our natural places healthier and stronger. They also want to help us use natural resources wisely. The RMRS is very important for dealing with big challenges. These include climate change, natural events like fires, and how humans affect the environment.
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What Does the Rocky Mountain Research Station Study?
One main area the RMRS studies is wildfires and how to make landscapes strong against them. They create new tools and study fires closely. This helps us better guess when fires might happen, stop them, and manage them. Their work helps create lands that can recover more easily after a fire.
Protecting Ecosystems
The RMRS also does research to learn more about Great Basin ecosystems. These are special natural areas. They find ways to bring back and keep important "ecosystem services." These are things nature gives us, like clean water or healthy soil. They do this even when the environment is changing fast.
Climate and Our Forests
The station also looks at how climate affects forests and grasslands. They study how past and present weather, natural events, and human history are all connected. This helps them understand the complex ways these environments work.
Keeping Environments Healthy
The RMRS also finds dangers to healthy grasslands, shrublands, and desert areas. They work with many other research places around the world. Together, they do important work on wildland fire research. The Fire, Fuel, and Smoke Science Program, run by the RMRS, studies fire, fuel, and smoke. This helps improve how we manage fires.
Research Program Areas
The RMRS studies many different topics. Here are some of their main research areas:
- Air, Water and Aquatic Environments
- Aldo Leopold Wilderness Research Institute
- Fire, Fuel, and Smoke Science
- Forests and Woodlands Ecosystems Research
- Grassland, Shrubland and Desert Ecosystem
- Human Dimensions (how people interact with nature)
- Inventory, Monitoring and Analysis Science
- Wildlife and Terrestrial Ecosystems
Where They Work
The Rocky Mountain Research Station has many laboratories and special outdoor research areas. These places help scientists do their work.
Laboratories
They have labs in many states, including:
- Albuquerque, New Mexico
- Bozeman, Montana
- Missoula, Montana (including the Fire Sciences Laboratory)
- Boise, Idaho
- Flagstaff, Arizona
- Logan, Utah
- Moscow, Idaho
- Ogden, Utah
- Provo, Utah
- Rapid City, South Dakota
- Reno, Nevada
Experimental Forests and Ranges
The RMRS also has special outdoor areas called experimental forests and ranges. These are like outdoor classrooms where scientists can study nature over a long time. Some of these include:
- Black Hills Experimental Forest
- Boise Basin Experimental Forest
- Coram Experimental Forest
- Deception Creek Experimental Forest
- Desert Experimental Range
- Fort Valley Experimental Forest
- Fraser Experimental Forest
- Glacier Lakes Ecosystem Experiments Site (GLEES)
- Great Basin Experimental Range
- Long Valley Experimental Forest
- Manitou Experimental Forest
- Priest River Experimental Forest
- Sierra Ancha Experimental Forest
- Tenderfoot Creek Experimental Forest
