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Knowing where a species is found or may be found in the future is critical to developing a successful habitat conservation plan. This quick guide reviews correlation-based and process-based species distribution models and their uses in the context of HCPs. It also addresses considerations for evaluating species distribution models, using multiple models, and working with model uncertainty. Examples are provided.
With HCPs, reserves are created as one means of mitigating take. This means they are designed to provide a target level of benefits for a particular species or set of species. This quick guide reviews approaches for designing and implementing reserves that address climate change impacts, vulnerabilities, and uncertainty. Examples are provided.
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Decide whether or not to fly the survey. This is a somewhat subjective call, but current and forecasted weather, especially ceiling height and cloud density, visibility, wind and rain are the main components that go into making that decision. Wind >15kts, ceiling <2,000ft, steady rain or visibility <5 mi generally results in a “no go” for flying the survey at that time. If any of these conditions are forecasted in the following 4-6 hrs, also generally calls for waiting for better conditions or forecasts.If a survey is a “go”, the survey aircraft departs Nelson Lagoon airstrip and flies east toward transect number 1. All photographic gear, cameras, computers, screens have been previously set up and software tested....
The report detailing the development and organization of the Conservation Blueprint that forms the spatial analysis component of the Mississippi River Basin/Gulf Hypoxia Initiative is available on the Mississippi River Basin/Gulf Hypoxia Initiative Precision Conservation Blueprint website. This site also contains a user guide with specific guidance on how to access and utilize the Blueprint using the Data Basin and Science Base web services as well as a data dictionary for Precision Conservation Blueprint v1.5, which details sources and types of data compiled for the Blueprint’s 200+ GIS layers.
Incorporating climate change into conservation and resource management planning is rapidly becoming a standard of practice, both because of mandates from above (e.g. court cases) and because planners and managers want to do a good job and avoid nasty surprises. There is much of guidance out there for climate smart conservation and planning, both generic and sector-specific. This quick guide is not intended to replicate those, nor to provide everything you need to do a climate smart HCP. The intent is to help users to:1. Understand why it’s important to “ask the climate question” when it comes to HCPs.2. Make users informed consumers of climate change information and expertise. 3. Provide a logic users can follow...
This project resulted in an extensive mapping of coastal change along the entire coastline of the Western Alaska Landscape Conservation Cooperative (LCC). The work provides important baseline information on the distribution and magnitude of landscape changes over the past 41 years. The extent of change to the coastline and to coastal features, such as spits, barrier islands, estuaries, tidal guts and lagoons, was known to be substantial in some areas along the coast (e.g., portions of the Yukon–Kuskokwim Delta), although the extent of change along the full Bering Sea coast was not well documented. With this analysis, changes can be summarized for different land ownerships or other units to assess the extent of recent...
Categories: Data; Tags: BARRIER ISLANDS, BARRIER ISLANDS, BARRIER ISLANDS, BARRIER ISLANDS, COASTAL AREAS, All tags...
Motivated by the need to rapidly assess the vulnerability of species to climate change, NatureServe developed a Climate Change Vulnerability Index. The Index uses a scoring system that integrates a species’ predicted exposure to climate change within an area and three sets of factors associated with climate change sensitivity, each supported by published studies: 1) indirect exposure to climate change, 2) species-specific sensitivity and adaptive capacity factors and 3) documented response to climate change. Our primary goal for the Index is to provide valuable input for key planning documents, such as revisions of state wildlife action plans, to allow consideration of climate change impacts together with other...
This video presentation by Judy Dunscomb, Senior Conservation Scientist at The Nature Conservancy, provides a detailed overview of how to use the Energy Forecast Mapping Tool. The web-based mapping tool contains model results and important natural assets data layers, which users can operate to see where development may likely occur and where that may intersect with important natural values. The identification of these intersections allow users to focus on areas of potential conflict to incorporate information into landscape-level development and conservation planning as well as suggest areas needing additional localized assessment and evaluation. Data layers are available through this web-based mapping tool.
We took a commonly-used template for HCPs and annotated it section-by-section with key climate considerations. These considerations were based on conversations with HCP practitioners (both applicants and USFWS staff), review of relevant scientific literature and guidance on climate-informed natural resource management, and review of existing HCPs for how if at all they had addressed climate change.
This quick guide gives a very brief introduction to the uses of climate-related information in habitat conservation planning, the different types of information available, and how to use conceptual models to help identify what variables are important. It also addresses working with uncertainty, and deciding whether downscaled models are necessary.
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Summary The impact of climate change on cold-water ecosystems—and the cold-adapted native salmonids present in these systems—is the subject of a substantial body of research.. Recently, scientists have developed a number of datasets and analyses that provide insight into projections of climate change effects on native salmonid populations in the northern U.S. Rockies region. Alongside this research, a number of management options for helping native salmonids respond to the effects of climate change—also known as ‘climate adaptation’ strategies and actions—have been identified by scientists and managers in the region. These analyses and climate adaptation options offer valuable information to managers charged with...
This spreadsheet is a subset of a larger data set that contains a compilation of climate change vulnerability scores for over 700 species in the Appalachian LCC.
The rate at which new information about stream resources is being created has accelerated with the recent development of spatial stream-network models (SSNMs), the growing availability of stream databases, and ongoing advances in geospatial science and computational efficiency. To further enhance information development, the National Stream Internet (NSI) project was developed as a means of providing a consistent, flexible analytical infrastructure that can be applied with many types of stream data anywhere in the country. A key part of that infrastructure is the NSI network, a digital GIS layer which has a specific topological structure that was designed to work effectively with SSNMs. The NSI network was derived...
Categories: Data; Tags: Completed, DATA ANALYSIS AND VISUALIZATION, DATA ANALYSIS AND VISUALIZATION, DATA ANALYSIS AND VISUALIZATION, DATA ANALYSIS AND VISUALIZATION, All tags...
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Historically, available den habitat models have been based primarily on the presence of topographic features capable of capturing drifting snow. In any given season, however, the availability and precise location of snowdrifts of sufficient size to accommodate a bear den depends on the antecedent snowfall and wind conditions, and these vary from one year to the next. Thus, suitable topography is a necessary pre-condition, but is not sufficient to accurately predict potential den sites in a given year.To satisfy the requirements of agency and industry managers what is needed is a user-friendly decision-support tool that takes into account the current fall and early-winter meteorological conditions, and provides den...
The multi-LCC Mississippi River Basin/Gulf Hypoxia Initiative is a joint effort to find the nexus of water quality, wildlife, and people in the Mississippi River Basin. Integrating hundreds of data layers into a coherent spatial analysis tool, the Precision Conservation Blueprint v1.0 will provide a significant targeting and planning tool for individuals and organizations across the basin to identify opportunity areas for the implementation of specific conservation practices that have maximum multiple benefits for wildlife, water quality (gulf hypoxia), and people and agricultural productivity.
This tool allows users to view aquatic barriers (dams, road-stream crossings) by the relative gain in ecological value if they were removed. Users start with a consensus map of anadromous fish priorities, which was developed based on stakeholder input as part of the North Atlantic Aquatic Connectivity Collaborative (NAACC). Beyond the consensus results, interested users can create their own scenarios by filtering input barriers to limit the analysis to a given state or watershed, changing the weights of metrics according to their importance to the analysis objectives (e.g. length of upstream network connected, number of diadromous fish present, etc.) and by modeling the removal of up to 10 barriers.The link address...
Two great resources for restoration practitioners interested in designing their projects in a way that prepares them for climate change – climate-smart restoration:1) Restoration Checklist: A check-list (Microsoft Word) that can be used to plan and describe climate-smart restoration projects.2) Climate-Smart Restoration Design packets: San Francisco and San Pablo bays, California: A Microsoft Excel workbook and associated “How To” guide (pdf) for marsh-upland transition zone habitat Marin and Sonoma counties: A Microsoft Excel workbook and associated “How To” guide (pdf) for riparian habitat Monterey, San Benito, San Luis Obispo, Santa Clara, and Santa Cruz counties: A Microsoft Excel workbook and associated...
The Prioritization Tool is a web application for identifying the best opportunities to restore rare and threatened habitats for Species of Greatest Conservation Need (SGCN) and other species in the Northeast. The goal underlying the development of the restoration tool was to identify areas of degraded habitat having high restoration potential, which if restored would contribute to the network of connected, intact, and resilient sites for biodiversity conservation mapped by Nature’s Network. The tool allows users to (1) display a series of prioritization maps developed for a set of pre-defined “scenarios” (e.g., American woodcock), and (2) create their own scenarios using a catalog of nearly 400 metrics.The basic...
There is increasing interest in climate change adaptation, yet many fish and wildlife field staff remain uncertain how to put adaptation into practice. Our goal with this project is to bridge the gap between high-level climate adaptation guidance and the field staff who carry out a specific regulatory process, Habitat Conservation Planning under Section 10 of the Endangered Species Act. Following best practices from the literature on linking science and management, we began with a focus on what people do and are bringing climate considerations into that practice. Phase I of the process involved exploring HCP practices in USFWS Region 8 (primarily CA and NV) and writing a Quick Guide for Climate Smart HCPs; a series...
    map background search result map search result map A THREE-STEP DECISION SUPPORT FRAMEWORK FOR CLIMATE ADAPTATION: Selecting Climate-Informed Conservation Goals and Strategies for Native Salmonids in the Northern U.S. Rockies SnowDens-3D User Documentation Camera Operator Protocol for Steller's Eider Overhead Survey in Nelson Lagoon, Alaska Camera Operator Protocol for Steller's Eider Overhead Survey in Nelson Lagoon, Alaska SnowDens-3D User Documentation A THREE-STEP DECISION SUPPORT FRAMEWORK FOR CLIMATE ADAPTATION: Selecting Climate-Informed Conservation Goals and Strategies for Native Salmonids in the Northern U.S. Rockies