u.s. fish and wildlife service great plains landscape conservation cooperative december 4, 2009 dr....
TRANSCRIPT
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
Great Plains Landscape Conservation Cooperative
December 4, 2009Dr. Benjamin Tuggle and Steve Guertin
Regional Directors, Southwest and Mountain-Prairie Regions
Overview of GP LCC
o Origin of LCCs
o Purpose
o Funding information
o Relationship to Joint Ventures and other Existing partnerships
o Development of Operational/Action Plan
Origin of LCCs
Developed in concept and referred to in:
o FWS Climate Change Strategic Plan
o DOI Secretarial Order #3289
o Based on principles of Strategic Habitat Conservation
(plus Hawaii and Northern
Alaska)
Purpose of LCCso Self-directed partnerships between federal and state
agencies, tribes, NGOs, universities and others
o Guided by a steering committee with representatives of partner organizations
o Intended to provide science support for biological planning, conservation design, monitoring, and evaluation that informs management decisions
o Shared capacity for coordination, technology and science including population and habitat modeling, GIS, decision analysis, monitoring and evaluation, data management, etc.
Funding (FY 10) for Landscape Conservation Cooperatives
o USFWS – stand up eight LCC’s (of 22)o R2 and R6 have decided to establish
Great Plains LCC
o Each Region gets:o $1.2M – planning and staffingo $875k – science
o $2M for cross LCC science project needs
Relationship of LCCs to Existing JVs and other Partnershipso LCCs will build on existing partnerships and
enhance or expand existing capacities
o LCCs partly modeled after JVs
o Each JV needs to evaluate appropriate level of involvement
o LCCs need to support all taxonomic groups and all relevant programs and partnerships
Operational Plan Development
o Starting point for LCC developmento Identifies initial science capacity o Each LCC must submit an operational
plan to FWS by December 11, 2009o Plan must address specific elementso Elements in this plan are flexible and will
change with greater partner input and discussion
Operational Plan Development
o Advisory team convened November 12-13, 2009 to work on the plan
o Team members from FWS R2 and R6, representing Migratory Birds, Partners for Wildlife, Fisheries, Technology Centers, Refuge Managers, and Ecological Services
o Playa Lake and Rainwater Basin Joint Venture Coordinators part of team
Operational Plan Development
o Highest Priority Species/Habitats in LCC
o Science Capacityo Process for identifying science capacityo Existing capacity and how to enhance/utilizeo Science needs/gaps
o Product and tools based on existing capacity
o Priorities for addressing capacity gaps
Operational Plan Elements
o LCC Descriptiono Partner involvemento Highest priority species and habitatso Conservation delivery mechanisms and results related
to priority species and habitats o Science capacities that the LCC intends to developo Top science needs that exceeds initial allocationo Successes the LCC anticipates in FY 2010o Unique characteristics of the LCCo Support/involvement by FWS in other LCCs
Plan Element: Highest Priority Species/Habitats in
LCCo Preliminary identification:
Habitat Priority Species Contiguous grasslands Lesser prairie chicken*, black-tailed prairie dog,
burrowing owl Playa wetlands Northern pintail, whooping crane, snowy plover,
long-billed curlew Riparian and streams Arkansas river shiner*, Arkansas darter, interior
least tern, Savannahs, shrub lands, and sandy areas Sand dune lizard, blowout penstemon, American
burying beetle
Plan Element: Conservation Delivery Mechanisms
o Decision support tools to support conservation of priority species/habitats
o Examples of products:o Building on existing work, develop range-wide
lesser prairie chicken habitat delineationo Modeling the effect of sediments in wetlands,
correlated with anticipated changes in precipitation
o Species and habitat vulnerability assessments
Plan Element: Science Capacity Projects
o Climate change scenario planning: forum to discuss anticipated changes to habitats/priority species and start developing management strategies to address changes
o Expand monitoring efforts
Top Science Needs within LCC
o Asked for preliminary identification of high priority science needs:
o Preliminary suggestions:o National Wetland Inventory for LCCo Increase monitoring capacity for priority
specieso Native fish/habitat assessment,o Bison herd management/genetics framework
Plan Element: Science Capacity
o Staffing: Each LCC will have a LCC Coordinator, and Science/Technology Coordinator
o Preliminary assessment of science needs within the LCC:o Biometrician/Population modelingo Inventory and monitoring specialistso Additional GIS capabilities
Next Stepso Meet with “core” steering committee members to start
working on structure of LCC, in addition to providing guidance on the science to be funded this year and key science capabilities that will be needed for the LCC
o Engagement with more partners, including non-governmental groups, to refine elements in the operational plan:o We need your help in targeting our efforts to the
highest priority species and habitatso We need your help in identifying the highest priority
needs to ensure strong science foundations for our management decisions
Questions?? Discussion??
Thank You