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Northeastern boreal forests are an important habitat type for many wildlife species, including migratory birds and moose. These animals play vital roles in the boreal forest ecosystem, are a source of pleasure for bird and wildlife watchers, and contribute to tourism revenue for many communities. However, moose and migratory birds are thought to be particularly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. For example, in New York’s Adirondack Park system, five species of boreal birds have shown occupancy declines of 15% or more. Meanwhile, moose are threatened by winter ticks that thrive in warmer climates and spread disease. A 2018 New York Department of Environmental Conservation (NYDEC) report found that there...
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Changing climate conditions such as increasing droughts, floods, and wildfires, hotter temperatures, declining snowpacks, and changes in the timing of seasonal events are already having an impact on wildlife and their habitats. In order to make forward-looking management decisions that consider ongoing and future projected changes in climate, managers require access to climate information that can be easily integrated into the planning process. Co-production, a process whereby scientists work closely with managers to identify and fill knowledge gaps, is an effective means of ensuring that science results will be directly useful to managers. Through a multi-phase project, researchers are implementing co-production...
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The workshop will focus on adaptation planning and action, how to link science to strategies to actions and scaling up (and down) within the Great Northern Landscape Conservation Cooperative region in terms of: assessing vulnerabilities, identifying adaptation options, prioritizing actions and sharing information on adaptation progress and lessons among practitioners in the region. This workshop is being led by the Wildlife Conservation Society, the Center for Large Landscape Conservation and EcoAdapt.
Time and money for conservation are limited, so there is a need for responsible investments that embrace the realities of climate change. Droughts, floods, wildfires, hotter temperatures, declining snowpack, and changing streamflow are already significantly affecting wildlife and their habitats. In some cases, managers may decide to make strategic adjustments in how their actions are designed, where those actions are located, and when actions are needed most, in order to achieve management goals. A key part of making these forward-looking decisions is having access to climate information that can be integrated into an agency’s decision-making process. When science is conducted without an understanding of how that...
Categories: Publication; Types: Citation, Report
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Grasslands in the northern Great Plains are important ecosystems that support local economies, tribal communities, livestock grazing, diverse plant and animal communities, and large-scale migrations of big game ungulates, grassland birds, and waterfowl. Climate change and variability impact how people and animals live on and interact with grasslands, and can bring more frequent droughts, fires, or new plant species that make managing these landscapes challenging. Understanding how climate change and variability will impact grassland ecosystems and their management in the 21st century first requires a synthesis of what is known across all of these scales and a gap analysis to identify key areas of focus for future...
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Climate change is already affecting ecosystems, and will likely trigger significant and permanent changes in both ecological and human communities. Such transformations are already occurring in the Arctic region of Alaska, where temperatures are warming at twice the global average and causing some ecosystems to transition to new states. Arctic warming has led to coastal erosion that has forced human communities to relocate and a loss of sea ice that has forced marine mammals, such as polar bears and walrus, to adapt to a more terrestrial mode of living. Meanwhile, in the Great Plains of the U.S., past interactions between land and water use during the Dust Bowl and recent high rates of depletion of the Ogallala...
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~300 word summary: Example: The North Central Climate Adaptation Science Center (NC CASC) is hosted by the University of Colorado, Boulder (CU Boulder) with consortium partners University of Montana (UM), South Dakota State University (SDSU), Conservation Science Partners (CSP), Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), and the Great Plains Tribal Water Alliance (GPTWA). During the period of 2018 - 2023, the NC CASC consortium will strive to i) deliver the best climate science for resource managers derived through co-production; ii) capitalize on the wealth of big, diverse data to inform resource management decisions at an appropriate scale in the region; and iii) leverage work within and across CASCs through open science...
Developing scientific information that is used in policy and practice has been a longstanding challenge in many sectors and disciplines, including climate change adaptation for natural resource management. One approach to address this problem encourages scientists and decision-makers to co-produce usable information collaboratively. Researchers have proposed general principles for climate science co-production, yet few studies have applied and evaluated these principles in practice. In this study, climate change researchers and natural resource managers co-produced climate-related knowledge that was directly relevant for on-going habitat management planning. We documented our methods and assessed how and to what...
Categories: Publication; Types: Citation
We propose to expand the collaborative, landscape-scale, climate change planning initiated last year to increase management application in the Rocky Mountain region. We will assess and build upon the results of the previous year’s work on climate change adaptation planning for cold-water fish and their habitats by either providing further assistance for implementation, or repeating the planning process for another natural resource priority conservation target (depending on the needs and interests of the partners involved). This project will be implemented through the Rocky Mountain Partner Forum as a way to create a learning network through which partners can share information about emerging practices and strategies...
Successful conservation of ecosystems in a changing climate requires actionable research that directly supports the rethinking and revising of management approaches to address changing risks and opportunities. As an important first step toward actionable research, we reviewed and synthesized grassland management-related documents to identify broadly shared questions that, if answered, would help to support collective conservation of the grasslands in the northern Great Plains of the United States in a changing climate. A Management Priorities Working Group reviewed 183 grassland-relevant management documents and identified 70 questions. Feedback was iteratively provided by a Climate and Ecology Working Group, an...
Categories: Publication; Types: Citation
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The goal of this project was to identify climate-related scientific information needs in the North Central region that will support the management of key species and help avoid species declines. Researchers worked closely with state fish and wildlife agencies, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, tribes, and other relevant natural resource management and conservation agencies to identify priority information needs and to design and implement studies that will address these needs. Researchers identified stakeholders, including those engaged by the North Central Climate Science Center USGS Liaisons project. Researchers worked with stakeholders to identify priority conservation targets. Selected targets were those...
Scenario planning, while not a new process, is relatively new to applications in conservation and natural resource management. Not surprisingly, managers want to learn about scenario planning to help them understand whether incorporating it into their current planning processes will provide desired outcomes and is the best use of their time. This newsletter summarizes the recently attended Northeast Moose Group Meeting as well as a session on scenario planning at the Northeast Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies (NEAFWA) annual meeting highlighting ongoing efforts in the region. The aim in broadening our engagement is to share information, exchange ideas, and build from others’ endeavors with relevance to...
​A scenario planning exercise focused on climate change, land use, and moose in the Northeast U.S. is being undertaken by the Wildlife Conservation Society, North Atlantic Landscape Conservation Cooperative, Northeast Climate Science Center (U.S. Geological Survey), and the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science. Phase 1 of the scenario planning process involves the identification of key features and drivers within the focus system. This newsletter summarizes the scientific state of knowledge and associated uncertainties from a workshop held at the Massachusetts Division of Fisheries and Wildlife headquarters in Westborough, MA on 4–5 February 2015.
Data Management Plan for "Facilitating climate change adaptation planning and implementation through the GNLCC Rocky Mountain Forum (Year 2)"
In April 2020, the Wyoming Game and Fish Department (WGFD) held a workshop where WGFD managers could learn about the latest science on recent and future climate changes, and discuss the consequences of those changes for aquatic and terrestrial habitat management in the State. Focused on river, riparian, and wetland ecosystems, the workshop was designed to help managers consider the ways in which those habitats might be impacted by a changing climate, which types of watersheds and Wildlife Management Areas might be most vulnerable to climate change, and what management actions would be important to helping fish, wildlife, and plants cope with those impacts. Ultimately, results from the workshop were intended to inform...
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The broadly shared information needs for grassland managers in the North Central region to meet conservation goals in a changing climate are presented and ranked as highly relevant, somewhat relevant, or not relevant for federal, state, tribal, and non-governmental grassland-managing entities.
map background search result map search result map Rocky Mountain Partner Workshop on Climate Adaptation and Cold Water Systems Integrating Climate Change Research and Planning to Inform Wildlife Conservation in the Boreal Forests of the Northeastern U.S. Enabling Climate-Informed Planning and Decisions about Species of Conservation Concern in the North Central Region: Phase 1 Enabling Climate-Informed Planning and Decisions about Species of Conservation Concern in the North Central Region: Phase 2 Synthesis of Climate Impacts and Adaptation on Grassland Ecosystems in the Northern Great Plains Adaptation Strategies in the Face of Climate-Driven Ecological Transformation: Case Studies from Arctic Alaska and the U.S. Great Plains HOST AWARD TEMPLATE: North Central Climate Adaptation Science Center Consortium - Hosted by The University of Colorado Boulder University (2018-2023) (COPY) Broadly Shared Information Needs Among Grassland Managers in the North Central Region Integrating Climate Change Research and Planning to Inform Wildlife Conservation in the Boreal Forests of the Northeastern U.S. Enabling Climate-Informed Planning and Decisions about Species of Conservation Concern in the North Central Region: Phase 2 Synthesis of Climate Impacts and Adaptation on Grassland Ecosystems in the Northern Great Plains Enabling Climate-Informed Planning and Decisions about Species of Conservation Concern in the North Central Region: Phase 1 HOST AWARD TEMPLATE: North Central Climate Adaptation Science Center Consortium - Hosted by The University of Colorado Boulder University (2018-2023) (COPY) Broadly Shared Information Needs Among Grassland Managers in the North Central Region Rocky Mountain Partner Workshop on Climate Adaptation and Cold Water Systems Adaptation Strategies in the Face of Climate-Driven Ecological Transformation: Case Studies from Arctic Alaska and the U.S. Great Plains