In southwestern Colorado, land managers anticipate the impacts of climate change to include higher temperatures, more frequent and prolonged drought, accelerated snowmelt, larger and more intense fires, more extreme storms, and the spread of invasive species. These changes put livelihoods, ecosystems, and species at risk. Focusing on communities in southwestern Colorado’s San Juan and Gunnison river basins, this project will expand opportunities for scientists, land managers, and affected residents to identify actions that can support resilience and adaptation in the face of changing climate conditions. This project builds on the project “Building Social and Ecological Resilience to Climate Change in southwestern Colorado: Phase [...]
Summary
In southwestern Colorado, land managers anticipate the impacts of climate change to include higher temperatures, more frequent and prolonged drought, accelerated snowmelt, larger and more intense fires, more extreme storms, and the spread of invasive species. These changes put livelihoods, ecosystems, and species at risk. Focusing on communities in southwestern Colorado’s San Juan and Gunnison river basins, this project will expand opportunities for scientists, land managers, and affected residents to identify actions that can support resilience and adaptation in the face of changing climate conditions.
Phase 2 will further advance adaptation strategy development in the region and share the results with other communities, land managers, and decision-makers. Specifically, researchers will identify concrete actions that can be taken to carry out each adaptation strategy, and will develop solutions to address barriers identified by stakeholders in Phase 1 that could impede implementation. Ultimately, this project will result in landscape-scale conservation goals and actions that conserve key species, ecosystems, and resources, address the economic and social systems of local communities, and provide science resources for natural resource managers in the face of a changing climate.
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TomichiCreekValley_CO_AlanCressler.jpg “Tomichi Creek Valley, Colorado - Credit: Alan Cressler”
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Purpose
In southwestern Colorado, land managers anticipate the impacts associated with climate change to include higher temperatures, more frequent and prolonged drought, accelerated snowmelt, larger and more intense fires, more extreme storms, and the spread of invasive species. These changes put livelihoods, ecosystems, and species at risk. To help communities in the San Juan and Gunnison basins cope, this project will expand opportunities for scientists, land managers, and affected residents to learn from each other and identify actions that each can take individually or collectively to reduce the negative impacts of climate change in their watersheds. This project is an extension of the project Building Social and Ecological Resilience to Climate Change in southwestern Colorado. The first phase developed integrated social-ecological science and adaptation strategies for four target landscapes: spruce-fir forests, pinyon-juniper woodlands, sagebrush scrublands, and seeps, springs and wetlands. These adaptation strategies and the process whereby they were created were documented by the science-stakeholder collaboratives to assist communities elsewhere. The second phase of this project will utilize the science resources developed previously to further advance adaptation strategy development and share the results with other communities, land managers, and decision makers. Ultimately, the project will result in landscape-scale conservation goals and actions that conserve key species, ecosystems, and resources, address the economic and social systems of local communities, and provide science resources for natural resource managers in the face of a changing climate.
Project Extension
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Technical Summary
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Our objective is to leverage the outcomes of our Social-Ecological Resilience project in Southwest Colorado project to facilitate adapting to a non-stationary climate. We will contribute to the existing partnership by building on social and ecological strategies that were identified by Gunnison and San Juan Basin stakeholders in April 2017. The Gunnison and San Juan Basins have already experienced changes associated with warm and dry conditions, leading to tree and shrub dieback and ecosystem change, impacting local livelihoods. We will advance our existing strategies by further developing the actions within each strategy. In addition we will address and explore options for barriers that were identified by our stakeholders. These barriers are likely to impair implementation if they are not addressed. Finally, if the opportunity arises, we will apply and refine this framework to another local community. Our final products will provide users with reports, maps (including bioclimatic niche models), links to a webinar series, presentations, climate scenarios, and additional outreach materials that can help land managers develop adaptation strategies for their area of interest. Our cooperators include stakeholders and others: National Park Service, Bureau of Land Management, U.S. Forest Service, Colorado Parks and Wildlife, NRCS, US Fish and Wildlife Service, Ute Mountain Ute, and Southern Ute. This project leverages an existing NCCSC funded project.
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Completed
Budget Extension
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2017
totalFunds
32422.52
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Grant
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Award Number
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G17AP00093
totalFunds
32422.52
Preview Image
Tomichi Creek Valley, Colorado - Credit: Alan Cressler