Breakout

Title:  Assisting Wildlife Adaptation to Climate Change: Managing Across the Landscape

Organizers:
Jean Brennan, Senior Climate Change Scientist, Defenders of Wildlife
Sue Haseltine, Chief Biologist, US Geological Survey 
Dan Ashe, Science Advisor, US Fish and Wildlife Service

Session Goals: 
This session will assemble wildlife and resource managers and scientists to discuss what is needed to assist wildlife survive the impacts of climate change: specifically, (1) review and discuss the applied management-relevant research questions identified during the National Climate Change and Wildlife Science Center's Workshop held Dec 3rd and 4th;  (2) review currently legislated management objectives and measures of success as defined by the various fish and wildlife resource management authorities, and (3) explore opportunities using adaptive management approaches collaboratively to increase effectiveness of management strategies across the landscape. 

Diverse speakers or other participants to be invited:
include Federal agency representatives (from US Fish and Wildlife Service, US Geological Survey, US Forest Service, National Wildlife Refuge System, National Park Service,  Bureau of Land Management), conservation scientists and land managers within the NGO community (from Defenders of Wildlife, The Nature Conservancy, National Wildlife Federation, NatureServe, The Wilderness Society, Environmental Defense Fund, and the Wildlife Conservation Society), and academics working on relevant research and modeling efforts.

Summary: 
The impacts of climate change will require active management of many wildlife populations and ecosystems if vulnerable species are to adapt and survive.  This need has already been recognized at the federal level though the FY08 omnibus appropriations bill which acknowledged the need to build capacity to help with natural resources adaptation by mandating the US Geological Survey to create the National Climate Change and Wildlife Science Center, and other federal agencies are evaluating how to manage under the reality of changing climate.  Congress is also engaged on this issue as never before in proposing legislation calling for the development of a national and state adaptation strategies and funds conservation efforts to help wildlife and ecosystems adapt and survive.   As U.S. wildlife and natural resource managers prepare to address the impacts of climate, they must begin working more closely with research scientists to identify priority climate change research questions, decision-support tools, monitoring programs, and existing policies, legislative mandates, and institutional culture which serve as constraints or represent opportunities to work across organization, sector, and land-holdings.  This session will bring together leading government and academic researchers with applied research and management interests and a background in existing federal legislation to discuss what is needed to assist wildlife survive the impacts of climate change and discuss 1) applied management-relevant research questions;  2) currently legislated management objectives and measures of success as defined by the various fish and wildlife resource management authorities, and 3) the opportunities for using adaptive management approaches collaboratively to increase effectiveness of management strategies across the landscape.

Recommended Readings
National Climate Change and Wildlife Center Fact Sheet
Testimony of Dan Ashe on Climate Change
Beyond Cutting Emissions: Protecting Wildlife and Ecosystems in a Warming World, Defenders of Wildlife
Forest Service Global Change Research Strategy Overview, 2009-2019
National Parks Service - Climate Change Program Brief
National Parks Service Science Working Group Goals and Action (draft)
Keeping it Simple: Easy Ways to Help WIldlife Along Roads
Roadside Vegetation Management
An Ecosystem Approach to Developing Infrastructure Projects
FHWA Exemplary Ecosystem Initiatives, Criteria for Selection