Alaska EcoDrought Synthesis Workshop Newsletter, September 2015

The Department of the Interior Climate Science Centers (CSCs) and their managing organization, the National Climate Change and Wildlife Science Center at the U.S. Geological Survey, have chosen the emerging climate science field of Ecological Drought as a research focus area. This workshop is part of a series of meetings at each of the nation’s eight CSCs aimed at collating our existing knowledge of the ecological impacts, resistance, and recovery from drought. The eight CSCs provide a fantastic opportunity to compare the ecological effects of drought, related research activities, and management options at different regions, spatial scales, and biomes of drought, related research activities, and management options...

Types: Map Service, OGC WFS Layer, OGC WMS Layer, OGC WMS Service; Tags: Alaska, Collaboration, Drought, Drought, Drought, Fire and Extreme Weather, All tags... National CASC, Science Tools For Managers, State of the Science, Synthesis, Workshop, Fewer tags

Safeguarding Washington’s Fish and Wildlife in an Era of Climate Change: A Case Study of Partnerships in Action

Fish and wildlife are at the heart of Washington State’s rich ecological, economic, and cultural heritage. The incredible diversity of species and the habitats that sustain them helps to define Washington’s distinct character and in part reflects the long standing conservation ethic of its citizens – one that has endured the challenges posed by a growing human population, increasing demands for land, water, and other natural resources, and now the very real threat of climate change. A growing body of scientific evidence indicates that climate change is already having a significant impact on natural systems across the region, and further changes are likely in the coming decades (CIG 2009; Mote and Salathé 2010)....

Categories: Publication; Types: Citation; Tags: Adaptation, Birds, Collaboration, Data Visualization & Tools, Fish, All tags... Mammals, Mammals, Northwest CASC, Other Wildlife, Plants, Science Tools For Managers, Wildlife and Plants, Fewer tags

Analyzing variables for district heating collaborations between energy utilities and industries

One vital means of raising energy efficiency is to introduce district heating in industry. The aim of this paper is to study factors which promote and inhibit district heating collaborations between industries and utilities. The human factors involved showed to affect district heating collaborations more than anything else does. Particularly risk, imperfect and asymmetric information, credibility and trust, inertia and values are adequate variables when explaining the establishment or failure of industry-energy utility collaborations, while heterogeneity, access to capital and hidden costs appear to be of lower importance. A key conclusion from this study is that in an industry-energy utility collaboration, it is...

Categories: Publication; Types: Citation; Tags: Collaboration, District heating, Energy utility, Industry

Southern Rockies LCC Conservation Planning Atlas

The Conservation Biology Institute will develop a Southern Rockies LCC Conservation Planning Atlas (SRLCC CPA) powered by Data Basin that will make it easier for resource managers and other stakeholders to discover, analyze, and interpret spatial data on priority topics including aquatic resource management and climate impacts. The SRLCC CPA will facilitate conservation planning, analyses and evaluation from common datasets and provide basic mapping capability to users without desktop GIS software. The SRLCC CPA will most directly support science needs in Funding Category II, however because of the design of this flexible web-based platform, it can be used to inform management decisions spanning a wide range of...

Categories: Data, Project; Types: Map Service, OGC WFS Layer, OGC WMS Layer, OGC WMS Service; Tags: AZ-01, AZ-04, Applications and Tools, Arizona, CO-02, All tags... CO-03, CO-05, Colorado, Conservation NGOs, Conservation Planning, Decision Support, Federal resource managers, GIS, GIS, LCC, LCC Network Science Catalog, NM-01, NM-02, NM-03, New Mexico, Project, SRLCC, SRLCC, State agencies, UT-01, UT-02, UT-03, Utah, collaboration, collaboration, completed, conservation planning, conservation planning, data discovery, data discovery, interactive, interactive, map, map, science delivery, spatial data, spatial data, visualization, visualization, Fewer tags

Future of Fire Phase II: Learning by Doing with Cultural Fire Practitioners

Despite the pandemic, Future of Fire postdoc Dr. Nina Fontana developed and contributed to a range of projects with cultural fire practitioners from 2021-2023. This funding will provide her an additional year to complete and grow projects started with partners as a Future of Fire fellow. Fontana’s work focuses on two broad areas: (1) improving best practices in teaching and learning about cultural fire, and (2) developing culturally relevant decision support tools to support cultural fire practitioners. Fontana will continue to develop and assess group experiential learning and practices that expand cultural fire education for different audiences. She will also continue her collaborations with tribal partners...

Categories: Project; Types: Map Service, OGC WFS Layer, OGC WMS Layer, OGC WMS Service; Tags: 2023, CASC, Climate Refugia, Collaboration, Cultural Fire, All tags... Decision Support Tools, Drought, Fire and Extreme Weather, Drought, Fire and Extreme Weather, Fire, Fire, High-Impact Learning Practices, Indigenous Burning, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Peoples, Projects by Region, Science Tools for Managers, Science Tools for Managers, Social Science, Social Science, Southwest, Southwest CASC, Tribes and Tribal Organizations, Tribes and Tribal Organizations, Fewer tags

Climate Change Vulnerability of the Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribe in the Southwest

Native Americans are one of the most vulnerable populations to climate change in the United States because of their reliance upon the natural environment for food, livelihood, and cultural traditions. In the Southwest, where the temperature and precipitation changes from climate change are expected to be particularly severe, tribal communities may be especially vulnerable. Through this project, researchers sought to better understand the climate change threats facing the Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribe of northwestern Nevada. Researchers found that the Tribe’s vulnerability to climate change stems from its dependence on Pyramid Lake, which may experience reduced water supply in the future. This will potentially have negative...

Categories: Project; Types: Map Service, OGC WFS Layer, OGC WMS Layer, OGC WMS Service; Tags: 2012, CASC, Completed, Federal, Fish, All tags... Fish, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Peoples, Multiple, NV, Paiute Tribe, Projects by Region, Pyramid Lake, Pyramid Lake, Rivers, Streams and Lakes, Rivers, Streams and Lakes, Science Tools for Managers, Science Tools for Managers, Social Science, Social Science, Southwest, Southwest, Southwest CASC, TEK, Tribes and Tribal Organizations, Tribes and Tribal Organizations, Truckee River, Water, Coasts and Ice, Water, Coasts and Ice, Wildlife and Plants, Wildlife and Plants, adaptation, climate, climate change, collaboration, culture, decision framework, downscale, economic, hydrology, management, native american communities, resilience, social, threshold, tradition, tribal, vulnerability, water, Fewer tags

Shaping the 2014 Colorado River Delta pulse flow: Rapid environmental flow design for ecological outcomes and scientific learning

In 2014, the United States and Mexico jointly delivered an environmental flow to the Colorado River Delta, as authorized in a 2012 binational water management agreement known as Minute 319. The agreement specified a volume of water, the source of the water, that the water should be delivered as a pulse flow, and that the objectives of the pulse flow were to pilot environmental restoration and learn about the hydrologic and ecological responses to water delivery into the Colorado River Delta. The Minute did not specify the characteristics of the pulse flow, but rather specified a process, calling on a group of stakeholders, including federal, state, and local water managers as well as non-governmental conservation...

Tags: Collaboration, Colorado River Delta, Ecol. Engr. Special Issue, Environmental flows, Hydrograph design, All tags... Pulse flow, Stakeholders, Fewer tags

BLM NOC Integrating Multiscale Assessment Data to Inform Resource Management: The Escalante Watershed Case Study Story Map

The Escalante Watershed case study describes the application and integration of multi-scale geospatial data from the Colorado Plateau and Utah Landscape Assessment 2014 (Rapid Ecoregional Assessment or REA), Assessment, Inventory, and Monitoring (AIM), and Riparian Condition Assessment Tool (R-CAT) to help answer management questions. While REA provides broad-scale data and AIM provides field-scale point data, R-CAT, a geospatial tool designed at Utah State University, provides the middle ground reach-scale data. The Escalante watershed is a complex area with land managed by BLM, USFS, and NPS as well as privately owned land.

Types: Map Service; Tags: AIM, Assessment Inventory and Monitoring, BLM, Broad Scale, Bureau of Land Management, All tags... COP REA, COP and Utah Landscape Assessment, Collaboration, DOI, Disturbance, Environment, Escalante Watershed, Habitat, Hydrology, Inland Waters, Management, Multiscale Data, REA, Rapid Ecoregional Assessment, Spatial Data Integration, Story Map, Water Quality, Fewer tags