Taylor Wilderness Research Station
Conducting groundbreaking research in Idaho’s pristine wilderness
At Taylor Wilderness Research Station, students and researchers explore the implications of social, political and economic changes on ecological processes in a wilderness context. Surrounded by 2.39 million acres in the Frank Church – River of No Return Wilderness in central Idaho, the station provides unmatched access, facilities and logistical support for research on natural environments.
Semester in the Wild participants and faculty reside at Taylor. The site also hosts high school, undergraduate and graduate students, faculty from University of Idaho and Idaho State University, independent researchers from National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Idaho Fish and Game, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and many others.
Taylor has been owned and operated as a research facility by U of I since 1970. The support of the National Science Foundation has been critical in the planning, facility development and instrumentation of research and education at Taylor.
Travel reservations
Taylor Wilderness Research Station is available for research and education purposes only. Travel reservation requests must be approved by the College of Natural Resources administration.
Your first step is to contact TWRS to discuss your desired dates. After that, you will complete and submit this form. It will be routed to the College for consideration, and you will be notified if your visit has been approved.
Make a gift to Taylor
When you choose to make a gift to Taylor, you’ll support students and their research in America’s wildest classroom — the only research station located within millions of acres of protected wilderness.
Semester in the Wild
Spend a semester outdoors in the Frank Church – River of No Return Wilderness studying ecology, environmental writing, wilderness management, outdoor leadership and environmental history.
Research at Taylor
Following Maurice Hornocker’s pioneering work with mountain lions, graduate student and faculty research has spanned all topics of natural resources and Native American history.
Current projects
AERONET
Taylor collaborates with NASA as one of their 500+ sites around the world participating in the Aerosol Robotics Network (AERONET). AERONET locations measure aerosols and their movement in the atmosphere.
Bird and bat monitoring
Taylor is collaborating with ISU and Boise State University to install acoustic sensors for long-term monitoring of bird and bat species that live in the Big Creek drainage. This project has the potential to track migration patterns of avian species in a changing climate as well as avian and bat species diversity.
Blue bunch wheat grass monitoring
The Bleak Wilderness Internship and the DeVlieg Foundation’s Undergraduate Research Internship fund up to six U of I undergraduate students to live for ten weeks at Taylor, participate in faculty workshops and work with faculty mentors to propose a research project, collect data, and write and present a final report.
Taylor Wilderness Research Station Bleak and DeVlieg summer internships
The Bleak Wilderness Internship and the DeVlieg Foundation’s Undergraduate Research Internship fund up to six U of I undergraduate students to live for ten weeks at Taylor, participate in faculty workshops and work with faculty mentors to propose a research project, collect data, and write and present a final report.
NOAA National Marine Fisheries Service
A Passive Integrated Transponder (PIT) mark recapture and recovery (MRR) site at Taylor is part of a regional database within the Columbia River Basin, referred to as PITAGIS. Researchers annually tag juvenile salmon with sensors and maintain the tag sensor array within Big Creek.
RiverNET
RiverNET instrumentation gathers fine-scale temporal measurements of Big Creek tributaries to acquire detailed measurements for ongoing reach-scale ecological studies; recording stream water temperature, discharge, dissolved oxygen and conductivity near the mouths of Pioneer, Cliff and Rush Creeks.
View Brian Kennedy’s faculty website.
Other U of I graduate research project in conjunction with RiverNET include an examination of the impacts of spawning Chinook salmon on nutrient dynamics in the Big Creek watershed and an evaluation of the efficacy of fish trap data.
Idaho Department of Fish and Game, Idaho steelhead monitoring and evaluation studies project
The Idaho Department of Fish and Game monitors wild steelhead trout and Chinook salmon, which are listed as ‘threatened’ in Idaho under the Endangered Species Act. They assess their performance in the Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness.
Taylor weather recording station
For more than three decades, daily weather measurements have been recorded and include maximum, minimum and 8 a.m. temperature readings, as well as precipitation accumulation and distribution.
Long-term research
Federal and state projects
NOAA
Migration timing, growth and parr-to-smolt survival rates of wild Snake River Chinook salmon. A monitoring dataset initiated in 1994 looks at density-dependent mortality of wild Snake River Chinook salmon. Research equipment was installed at Taylor in 2006: PIT tag antenna arrays monitor migration of tagged fish and send data to PTAGIS website, Sonde water quality monitor.
Idaho Department of Fish and Game
An Idaho steelhead monitoring and evaluation study looking at population dynamics and life history characteristics of steelhead trout and Chinook salmon in Big Creek. At Big Creek, researchers reconstruct the steelhead and Chinook life cycle to estimate numbers of juveniles migrating downstream, evaluate migration survival rates and describe the genetic structure of steelhead in Big Creek. Research equipment was installed in 2007: a rotary juvenile screw trap worked daily to capture, PIT tag, and collect data on juvenile anadromous fish.
Long-term monitoring projects
National Marine Fisheries Service and NOAA
Conducting annual PIT tagging of Chinook salmon parr on Big Creek and Rush Creek at Taylor to assess juvenile salmon survival rates at dams (1988-present).
ISU’s Stream Ecology Center
Monitoring of aquatic invertebrates on seven streams around Taylor (Rush, Pioneer, Cliff, Cougar, Goat, Cow and Cave Creek) “Biomonitoring results from wilderness streams in Idaho” (1988-present).
Taylor Wilderness Research Station weather
Daily temperature and precipitation (1974-present).
Taylor Wilderness Research Station — Jim Peek and Taylor summer interns
Monitoring of non-forested plant communities (1988-present).
Taylor Wilderness Research Station —Jocelyn Aycrigg and Taylor summer interns
A long-term bird survey using citizen science and systematic sampling methods widely used in bird population research to examine bird populations (2016-present).
Taylor Wilderness Research Station — Peter Gag and Taylor summer interns
Examining number, sex and age class of Bighorn Sheep using visual observation (2016-present).
United States Forest Service remote automated weather station
Basic observable weather including temperature, relative humidity, wind speed and direction, precipitation and “fuel stick temperature,” which is used to estimate fire weather conditions in forecast zone 402 (2008-17).
Mountainous Ecosystem Sensor Array (MESA)
Atmospheric, hydrological and biospheric conditions are measured across an elevation gradient. Sensors record carbon dioxide, temperature, relative humidity, wind speed and direction, precipitation, barometric pressure, soil water and temperature, tree radial growth and leaf wetness (2012-17).
Idaho State University - Benjamin Crosby
Maintenance and calibration of digital stream flow measurements at Taylor Wilderness Research Station bridge; data used to evaluate how stream flow affects the many biological and physical processes studied at Taylor (2008-16).
Idaho Department of Fish and Game and Taylor Wilderness Research Station - Jim and Holly Akenson
Sensitive species reporting and surveys (including Harlequin duck, wolverine and fisher); winter ungulate population monitoring (1998-10).
Idaho Chapter of Foundation for North American Wild Sheep and Taylor Wilderness Research Station - Jim and Holly Akenson
Annual bighorn sheep winter composition survey (2001-09).
Idaho Department of Fish and Game
Elk counts and elk sightability population estimates with annual flights on fixed wing aircraft (1961-1989); helicopter sightability flights every three years (1989-05).
Idaho State University - Chuck Peterson
Amphibian population monitoring.