This request is in support of the Southeast Natural Resource Leaders Group (SENRLG) Landscape Conservation and Restoration Pilot Project. Phase I of the study was completed with support from UNC Asheville’s National Environmental Modeling and Analysis Center (NEMAC) in June 2011 after working closely with the SENRLG Pilot Project Team in October 2010. The first phase identified federal resources available for supporting ecological, cultural, and sociological resource protection across the Southeast within an adaptive framework for building resilience into the system to address risk climate change impacts on the landscape. To further define the co-benefits of leveraging resources in a synergistic manner on the landscape, the second phase of the work will focus on a defined geographic location within the South Atlantic Landscape Conservation Cooperative identified as the Albemarle-Pamlico Estuary. The focus of the project is to develop a Targeted Resource Implementation Plan that not only identifies workable adaptation solutions based on federal funding availability, but will also develop a replicable process that can be used to support partnerships across vulnerable areas in the southeast.
The second phase of this study will consist of a series of meetings and workshops utilizing the Comparative Risk Assessment Framework and Tools (CRAFT), a decision support process developed by the USDA Forest Service Eastern Forest Threat Center and implemented by NEMAC. The primary deliverable will be the Targeted Resource Implementation Plan in the Albemarle-Pamlico Estuary.
