Background The lands and waters of the South Atlantic are changing rapidly. Climate change, urban growth, and increasing human demands on resources are reshaping the landscape. While these forces cut across political and jurisdictional boundaries, the conservation community does not have a consistent cross-boundary, cross-organization plan for how to respond. The South Atlantic Conservation Blueprint will be that plan. Potential uses Uses under discussion include: Finding places to pool resources, raising new conservation dollars, guiding infrastructure development, developing conservation incentives, showing how local actions fit into a larger strategy, and locating places to build resilience to major disasters Development In March [...]
Summary
Background The lands and waters of the South Atlantic are changing rapidly. Climate change, urban growth, and increasing human demands on resources are reshaping the landscape. While these forces cut across political and jurisdictional boundaries, the conservation community does not have a consistent cross-boundary, cross-organization plan for how to respond. The South Atlantic Conservation Blueprint will be that plan.
Potential uses Uses under discussion include: Finding places to pool resources, raising new conservation dollars, guiding infrastructure development, developing conservation incentives, showing how local actions fit into a larger strategy, and locating places to build resilience to major disasters
Development In March 2012, developing a Conservation Blueprint became the 3 - 5 year mission of the South Atlantic LCC. In March 2013, the cooperative adopted Natural Resource Indicators (and shortly after Cultural Resource Indicators) as shared measures of success. The cooperative also created a Conservation Design Team (Design experts who typically lead large landscape design efforts) and a User Team (Potential âearly adoptersâ of the Blueprint who either directly make conservation decisions or are one step removed) to guide the Blueprint development process
Inland to nearshore waters Results not depicted in this GIS layer During Fall 2013, the cooperative held workshops that brought together ~ 200 people from 58 different organizations to identify subwatersheds (HUC12) and actions in those subwatersheds that should be part of the Blueprint. Workshop participants used both their expert knowledge and geospatial layers depicting future change (e.g., urban growth, sea level rise) and a subset of South Atlantic LCC Natural and Cultural Resource Indicators (e.g., connectivity, historic places) to help with their selections. The workshop results were then combined with existing regional and state plans (TNC Ecoregional Portfolio, ACJV Priority Areas, EPA priority watersheds, NBCI Biologist Ranking Index, PARCAs, VA Natural Landscape Assessment, NC BWHA, GA Priority Waters, AL SHUs, and FL CLIP). Additional plans (e.g., Significant Longleaf Landscapes, SARP Priority Areas) were also checked to ensure coverage.
Nearshore waters to open ocean During Spring 2014, following up on the regional workshops, the cooperative held virtual workshops to extend the Blueprint coverage 200 miles into the Atlantic ocean to cover the Marine extent of the LCC. Workshop participants  started from Outer Continental Shelf Lease Blocks that were Essential Fish Habitat - Habitats of Particular Concern and used both their expert knowledge and supporting geospatial layers to add and modify blocks and actions within blocks that should be part of the Blueprint.
Interpreting final scores
Nearshore waters to open ocean
Highest priority High priority Outer Continental Shelf Lease Blocks from virtual workshops.
Further investigation Outer Continental Shelf Lease Blocks where workshop participants disagreed about whether or not they should be included in the Blueprint. These areas require further investigation to determine their relative priority.
Review instructions You can review the draft in any way you wish. Does the coverage make sense? Are there applications you think this version should/shouldnât be used for? It would be particularly helpful if you tested this Blueprint while you interact with biologists, managers, administrators, planners, and others throughout the day.
