FWS Strategic Plan

8/8/2019 FWS Strategic Plan

1/36

U.S. Fis & Wildlie Service

Risig to teUrget Cllege

Strategic Plan or Responding to

Accelerating Climate Change


2/36

O te cover:Polar bears.Courtesy o National GeographicSociety.

We must act now,as i the utureo sh and wildlie

and peoplehangs in the balance or indeed,

all indications arethat it does.Dedictio

In memory o U.S.

Fish and Wildlie

Service Director

Sam D. Hamilton

(1955 2010), whose

commitment to

rising to the

challenge o a

changing climate

inspired this plan.


3/36

Tle o Cotets

Executive Overview /2

Our Visio /5

Itroductio /6

Te Crisis /7

Te Cllege /8

Our Coitted Respose /11

Leadership and Management / 11

Seven Bold Commitments / 13

Three Progressive Strategies: Adaptation, Mitigation, Engagement / 14

Strtegic Gols & Ojectives /19

Adaptation / 19

Gol 1: We will wor with partners to develop and implement a National Fishand Wildlie Climate Adaptation Strategy / 19

Gol 2: We will develop long-term capacity or biological planning and conservationdesign and apply it to drive conservation at broad, landscape scales / 20

Gol 3 : We will plan and deliver landscape conservation actions that support climatechange adaptations by sh and wildlie o ecological and societal signicance / 23

Gol 4: We will develop monitoring and research partnerships that mae availablecomplete and objective inormation to plan, deliver, evaluate, and improve actions thatacilitate sh and wildlie adaptation to accelerating climate change / 26

Mitigation / 27

Gol 5: We will change our business practices to achieve carbon neutralityby the Year 2020 / 27

Gol 6: To conserve and restore sh and wildlie habitats at landscape scales whilesimultaneously sequestering atmospheric greenhouse gases, we will build our capacity understand, apply, and share biological carbon sequestration science; and we will worwith partners to implement carbon sequestration projects in strategic locations / 28

Engagement / 29

Gol 7: We will engage Service employees; our local, State, Tribal, national,and international partners in the public and private sectors; our ey constituenciesand staeholders; and everyday citizens in a new era o collaborative conservation inwhich, together, we see solutions to the impacts o climate change and other21st century stressors o sh and wildlie / 29

Risig to te Cllege /31

Literture Cited /32


4/362/ Risig to te Urget Cllege: Strategic Plan or Responding to Accelerating Climate Change

o species extinctions. In turn, thesechanges will adversely aect local,State, Tribal, regional, national andinternational economies and cultures;and will diminish the goods, services,and social benets that we Americansare accustomed to receiving, at littlecost to ourselves, rom ecosystemsacross our nation.

Given the disruption that a changing

climate implies or our mission, ournation, and our world, we in the Serviceand the Department cannot aord tosimply give lip service to this crisis andgo on about business as usual. We are ata crossroads in our nations conservationhistory. We must rise up and respondto a 21st century conservation challengewith 21st century organizational,managerial, and scientic tools andapproaches. To address and combatclimate change and its impacts, we mustposition the Service more strategicallyor this battle. We must build sharedscientic and technical capabilities withothers and work more collaborativelythan ever beore with the conservationcommunityb, in particular, our Stateand Tribal partners, who share directresponsibility or managing our nationswildlie resources.

Executive Overview

a Our use o the term s d wildlie throughout this plan includes sh, wildlie, and plants, and the habitats upon which all three depend.

b The coservtio couit includes governments, business and industry, non-governmental organizations, academia, private landowners,and citizens who are interested and active in conservation eorts.

ThE U.S. FISh anD WILDLIFE SERVICE (SERVICE) IS an aGEnCy bORn OF

ECOLOGICaL CRISIS and raised on the nations will to respond. The Services

genesis was the Federal response in 1871 to the collapse in the nations ood

shes rom overharvesting, and its mandate was to nd ways to reverse that

decline. By the early 1900s, a crisis over the decimation o migratory birds

or their plumes prompted the development o a national system o lands and

waters set aside as reuges or wildlie and the passage o the rst Federal

wildlie laws. By the mid-1960s, the loss and threat o loss o species o sh

and wildliea rom human-induced pressures grew the Services mission to also

include the conservation and recovery o threatened and endangered species.

Our Clite Cge Priciples

Priorit-Settig. We will continually evalu

our priorities and approaches, mae dic

choices, tae calculated riss and adapt t

climate change.

Prtersip. We will commit to a new

spirit o coordination, collaboration and

interdependence with others.

bestSciece. We will refect scientic

excellence, proessionalism, and integrityin all our wor.

Ldscpe Coservtio. We will

emphasize the conservation o habitats

within sustainable landscapes, applying o

Strategic Habitat Conservation ramewor

Tecicl Cpcit. We will assemble an

use state-o-the-art technical capacity to

meet the climate change challenge.

Glol approc. We will be a leader in

national and international eorts to addre

climate change.

Over its 139-year history, the Servicehas aced every challenge to theuture o the nations sh and wildlieheritage head-on. As an agencywithin the Department o the Interior(Department), we have attracted to ourranks those individuals whose personalcommitment to conserving, protecting,and enhancing Americas sh andwildlie resources is matched by theirproessional resolve to do whatever it

takes to accomplish that mission. Thepassion and creativity that drove SpencerBaird, Paul Kroegel, Guy Bradley, J.N.Ding Darling, Rachel Carson andcountless others who have stood in thebreach or wildlie lives on in the heartsand minds o todays Fish and WildlieService employees.

At the dawn o the 21st century, we ndour commitment and resolve and ourpassion and creativity being called upononce again as we ace what portendsto be the greatest challenge to sh andwildlie conservation in the historyo the Service: The Earths climate ischanging at an accelerating rate that hasthe potential to cause abrupt changesin ecosystems and increase the risk

A diver monitors coral ree health at theFWS-managed Palmyra Atoll NationalWildlie Reuge. Photo: J. Maragos /usfw


5/36Executive Overview

Our Strategic Plans primary purposesare to (1) lay out our vision oraccomplishing our mission to workwith others to conserve, protect, andenhance sh, wildlie, and plantsand their habitats or the continuingbenet o the American people in theace o accelerating climate change;and (2) provide direction or our ownorganization and its employees,dening our role within the contexto the Department o the Interior andthe larger conservation community. Inthis plan, we express our commitmentto our vision through strategic goalsand objectives that we believe mustbe accomplished to sustain sh andwildlie nationally and internationally.In an appended 5-yer actio Plor Ipleetig te Clite Cge

Strtegic Pl, we identiy specic actionsthat will lead to the accomplishment oour goals and objectives.

As a Service and Department we mustact decisively, recognizing that climatechange threatens to exacerbate otherexisting pressures on the sustainability oour sh and wildlie resources. We mustact boldly, without having all the answers,condent that we will learn and adapt aswe go. And most importantly, we must actnow, as i the uture o sh and wildlieand people hangs in the balance orindeed, all indications are that it does.

As a Service, we are committed to

examining everything we do, everydecision we make, and every dollar wespend through the lens o climate change,ully condent in our workorce to rise tothis challenge and to lead rom in rontand rom behind. We recognize theireorts that are already underway, andwe look to our employees or their on-the-ground knowledge and expertise inocusing our energies and recalibratingour activities.

Our Strategic Plan acknowledges thatno single organization or agency canaddress an environmental challenge osuch global proportions without allyingitsel with others in partnerships acrossthe nation and around the world. Thisdocument commits us to a philosophyo interdependent, collaborativeconservation, rooted in our CliteCge Priciples (see sidebar, page 2).

Tide Returs to nisull Estur

River delta restoration projects are

considered crucial to provide increased

resiliency to large estuary systems and

illustrate a tool or adaptation in the ace o

climate change and related impacts o se

level rise. Ater a century o diing o tida

fow, the Brown Farm Die was removedto inundate 762 acres o Nisqually (WA)

National Wildlie Reuge in October 2009.

Along with 140 acres o tidal wetlands

restored by the Nisqually Indian Tribe, the

Nisqually Delta represents the largest tida

marsh restoration project in the Pacic

Northwest to assist in recovery o Puget

Sound salmon and wildlie populations.

During the past decade, the reuge and cl

partners, including the Tribe and Ducs

Unlimited, have restored more than 22 mil

o the historic tidal slough systems andre-connected historic foodplains to the

Puget Sound in Washington, increasing

potential salt marsh habitat in the souther

reach o Puget Sound by 50 percent. The

project also restored 25 acres o riparian

surge plain orest, an extremely depleted

type o tidal orest important or juvenile

salmon and songbirds.

Restoration o the Nisqually estuary is an

adaptation approach that helps promote

system resiliency to climate change eecsuch as:

n Increased winter storms, rainall,

and fooding

n Loss o orest cover due to increases

in insect inestations and re

n Rise in sea level resulting in loss

o shoreline areas

n Loss o habitats and biodiversity

(Above) Nisqually estuary. Photo:usfws

Individual

commitment to a

group eort that is

what makes a team

work, a company

work, a society work,

a civilization work.VInCE LOmbaRDI , 1913 1970, American ootballcoach and national symbol o single-mindeddetermination to win

Executive Overview



We recognize that as an organization,the Service has been entrusted by theAmerican people with legal authoritiesor sh and wildlie conservation thatare national and international in scopeand that put us in a position o uniqueresponsibility within the conservationcommunity. These authorities andresponsibilities include working acrossjurisdictional boundaries in sharedresponsibility with all 50 States tomanage sh and wildlie populations;conserving endangered and threatened

species, inter-jurisdictional sh, andmigratory birds; managing an unequalconservation land base, the 150-millionacre National Wildlie Reuge System;and collaborating in carrying outconservation activities internationallythrough conventions, treaties, andagreements with oreign nations.

By virtue o this public trust, theService accepts its obligation to takeleadership in helping to catalyze theconservation communitys collectiveresponse to climate change. We willbring the community together to engagin dialogue; identiy common interestsand goals; and dene innovative,collaborative, and eective strategiesor addressing this shared crisis. Werecognize that our own uture successin conserving sh and wildlie willdepend on how well we integrate oureorts with those o our partners, howquickly we can build needed technicaland technological capacities andcapabilities, and how strategic weare with our limited resources in

addressing climate-induced changes.

Our Strategic Plan acknowledgesthe climate crisis as one o enormousconsequence and challenge or sh andwildlie conservation. We put this planorward as a maniestation o our resolas individuals and as an organization,to ace this challenge with a sense oduty and integrity, and a spirit o publiservice and optimism.

Te gols d ojectives o our Strtegic Pl re esteduder tree jor strtegies:

adpttio: Minimizing the impact o climate change on sh and wildlie through the

application o cutting-edge science in managing species and habitats.

mitigtio: Reducing levels o greenhouse gases in the Earths atmosphere.

Eggeet: Joining orces with others to see solutions to the challenges and threats to

sh and wildlie conservation posed by climate change.

Executive Overview

Federal and State biologists survey aquatic resources to document the eects o changingtemperatures and water quality.


7/36Our Visio

While many species will continue tothrive, we also envision that somepopulations and species may decline orbe lost, and some will only survive in thewild through our direct and continuousintervention. We will be especiallychallenged to conserve species andhabitats that are particularly vulnerabled

to climate-driven changes, but we willdedicate our absolute best eorts andexpertise to the task, understandingully that we must continue to meet ourobligations or conserving trust species.We will need to make choices and setpriorities and, working with our partners,apply ourselves where we can make thegreatest dierence.

We see climate change as an issue thatwill unite the conservation communitylike no other issue has since the early1960s, when Rachel Carson sounded analarm about pesticides. We envision anew era o collaborative conservationin which members o the conservationcommunity work interdependently,building knowledge, sharing expertise,and pooling resources as we crat explicitlandscape-scale goals and pursue thesegoals together. We oresee unparalleled

opportunities to engage with, andenlist the involvement o, privatecitizens, businesses and industry, non-governmental organizations, and nationaland international governments at alllevels to conserve sh and wildlie in theace o climate change.

OVER ThE 21st CEnTURy, ThE U.S. FISh anD WILDLIFE SERVICE anD ThE

DEPaRTmEnT OF ThE InTERIOR EnVISIOn a North American continent

continuing to be altered by accelerating climate change, but managed to

sustain diverse, distributed, and abundant populations o sh and wildlie

through conservation o healthy habitats in a network o interconnected,

ecologically unctioningc landscapes.

Our Visio

Risig Se Levels o nort Croli Cost

North Carolinas east coast

identied as particularly

vulnerable to climate chang

because it is so long, low an

fat. As rising sea levels hav

pushed saltwater into the ar

peat soils are degrading and

plants and trees have died.

Researchers estimate that 1

million acres along the coas

could be lost within 100 year

We now that the estuarine

waters surrounding AlligatoRiver National Wildlie Reuge are getting saltier. Weve seen with our own eyes shoreline

losses and plant community changes on thousands o acres o this 153,000-acre Reuge.

Modeling data suggests that i nothing is done, well lose up to 67 percent o swamp land a

90 o dry land by 2100 thats most o the Reuge.

Were nding opportunities in the crisis. Were woring with The Nature Conservancy,

Due Energy, and other partners to create a management response that includes building

resilience into the land and connecting Reuge lands to other lands. Due Energy donated

$1 million that will und climate change research and activities to help wildlie adapt to the

eects o rising sea levels on the Reuge.

mIkE bRyanT , Project Leader, North Carolina Coastal Plain Reuges Complex, Manteo, NC

(Above) Saltwater intrusion is aecting plant lie at Alligator River NWR.Photo: Debbie Crane / The Nature Conservancy

c Ecologicll-uctioig landscapes are those in which key ecological processes (such as disturbance regimes) are maintained or restored to promoteresilience to climate change.

d According to the IPCC, vulerilit is the degree to which a system is susceptible to, or unable to cope with, adverse eects o climate change, including climate variabiand extremes. It is a unction o the sensitivity o a particular system to climate changes, its exposure to those changes, and its capacity to adapt to those changes.



CLImaTE ChanGE IS an ImmEnSE, SERIOUS, anD SObERInG ChaLLEnGE one that will aect sh and wildlie prooundly. At the same time, climate

change is galvanizing the conservation community in ways we have not seen

since a hal-century ago, whenSilent Spring alerted the world to the hazards

o overuse o pesticides and launched a worldwide environmental movement.

e Acro ootprit is typically dened as the total set o GHG (greenhouse gas) emissions caused directly and indirectly by an individual, organization,event or product (UK Carbon Trust 2008).

Being cro eutrl is typically dened as having a net zero carbon ootprint, i.e., achieving net zero carbon emissions by balancing a measured amount o carbonreleased with an equivalent amount that is sequestered or oset.

g The Deprtets clite cge strteg is described in Secretarial Order 3289 .

Itroductio

As concern or climate changeand its impacts grows, so do theopportunities or the Service andmembers o the conservation communityto pool our talents, imagination,

creativity, and spirit o public serviceto reduce and manage those impactsin ways that sustain sh and wildlie.Working interdependently andcollaboratively, the Service will mounta bold response to climate change, onthe ground, where our actions have themost impact; and in other settings wherepolicies, priorities, and budgets areshaped and tough choices and decisionsare made.

Across the Service, our employees

have initiated action to addressclimate change. Some employees aremonitoring sea level rise and exploringways o saeguarding our coastalNational Wildlie Reuges and the trustresources they support. Others areworking tirelessly with water managersto ensure sh and wildlie resourcesare considered meaningully in waterallocation decisions, particularly in theSouthwest, where climate change islikely to exacerbate drought. Some arebusy calculating the Services carbon

ootprinte

and devising innovative waysto help the Service become carbonneutral. Still other employees arereaching out to our workorce and ourexternal partners to help them better

understand the direction and magnitudeo climate change and its eects on shand wildlie.

It remains or the Service to do two

things: First, we must ocus the talents,creativity and energy o our employeeson a common set o strategies, goals,objectives and actions or addressingclimate change impacts. Second, wemust provide employees with additionalsupport in terms o knowledge,technology, and resources to enablethem to realize their ull potential inconserving sh and wildlie in the aceo climate change.

This Strategic Plan establishes a basic

ramework within which the U.S. Fishand Wildlie Service will work as parto a broader, Department-wide strategygand with the larger conservationcommunity (especially States andTribes as entities with ormal wildliemanagement responsibilities) to helpensure the sustainability o sh andwildlie in light o accelerating climatechange. The plan looks broadly athow climate change is aecting theseresources; what our role will be as a keymember o the conservation community

with national responsibilities or shand wildlie conservation; and whatwe will contribute to the internationalcommunity and its campaign to ensurethe uture o sh and wildlie globally.

Did you kow

n In the Arctic, record losses o sea ice

over the past decade are aecting the

distribution, behavior, and abundance

o polar bears, animals that are almost

completely dependent upon sea ice or

survival.

nIn the Southeast, rising sea levels are

expected to food as much as 30 percent o

the habitat on the Services coastal Reug

nIn the Southwest, climate change is

already exacerbating deep droughts,

increasing pressure on water uses at the

Services National Fish Hatcheries and

National Wildlie Reuges.

nIn the Northwest, climate change is

warming the landscape and enabling inse

pests to expand their ranges and destroy

ecologically and commercially valuable

orests.

This plan is a starting point or actionand discussion. It was drated by ateam o Service employees representinall regions and programs, and hasbeen revised to refect the thousandso comments rom Service employeesand members o the public. We lookorward to updating it urther as wework with and learn rom others, as ouexperiences and knowledge grow, andas the conservation community unitesmore closely in a new era o collaboraticonservation.
http://elips.doi.gov/app_so/act_getfiles.cfm?order_number=3289A1http://elips.doi.gov/app_so/act_getfiles.cfm?order_number=3289A1


9/36The Crisis

2 3C above preindustrial levels.Global average temperature increaseso 0.74C are already documented, andtemperature increases in some areas aprojected to exceed 3.0C over the nexdecade. The IPCC urther concludesthat substantial changes in structureand unctioning o terrestrial ecosystemare very likely to occur with a globalwarming o more than 2 3C above prindustrial levels. These changes will hapredominantly negative consequencesor biodiversity and ecosystem goods a

services (e.g., water and ood).

The IPCC also reports that the resilieno many ecosystems around the worldis likely to be exceeded this centuryby an unprecedented combination oclimate change; disturbances associatewith climate change, such as fooding,drought, wildre, and insects; andother global change-drivers, includingland-use changes, pollution, habitatragmentation, urbanization, and growhuman populations and economies.These projected changes have enormoimplications or management o shand wildlie and their habitats aroundthe world.

Climate change has the potential tocause abrupt ecosystem changes andincreased species extinctions. Thesechanges will reduce the ability o natursystems to provide many societalgoods and services including theavailability o clean water, our planetslieblood which in turn will impactlocal, regional, and national economies

and cultures. Clearly, we cannot delayin addressing climate change eects onsh and wildlie. They demand urgentattention and aggressive action.

environment, evidence is growing thathigher water temperatures resultingrom climate change are negativelyimpacting cold- and cool-water shpopulations across the country6. Alongour coasts, rising sea levels have begun toaect sh and wildlie habitats, includingthose used by shorebirds and sea turtlesthat nest on our coastal National WildlieReuges7. In the oceans, subtropicaland tropical corals in shallow watershave already suered major bleachingevents driven by increases in sea suracetemperatures.2

The immensity and urgency othe climate change challenge areindeed sobering. The IPCCsFourthAssessment Report 1 estimates that

approximately 20 30 percent o theworlds plant and animal species assessedas o 2006 are likely to be at increasinglyhigh risk o extinction as global meantemperatures exceed a warming o

Agrowing body o evidence has linkedaccelerating climate changeh withobserved changes in sh and wildlie,their populations, and their habitatsin the United States2. Polar bearpopulation declines have already beennoted in Canada3, and extirpations oBay checkerspot butterfy populationsin the San Francisco Bay4 area are alsodocumented. Across the continentalUnited States, climate change isaecting the migration cycles andbody condition o migratory songbirds,causing decoupling o the arrival dateso birds on their breeding grounds andthe availability o the ood they need orsuccessul reproduction5.

Climate change has very likely increased

the size and number o wildres, insectoutbreaks, pathogens, disease outbreaks,and tree mortality in the interiorWest, the Southwest, and Alaska andwill continue to do so.2 In the aquatic

WaRmInG OF ThE CLImaTE SySTEm IS UnEqUIVOCaL , as is now evident romobservations o increases in global average air and ocean temperatures,

widespread melting o snow and ice, and rising global average sea level. ...

Most o the observed increase in global average temperatures since the

mid-20th century is very likely due to the observed increase in anthropogenic

greenhouse gas concentrations. So concludes the Intergovernmental

Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in itsFourth Assessment Report published

in 20071. There is no longer any doubt that the Earths climate is changing

at an accelerating rate and that the changes are largely the result o

human-generated greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere caused

by increasing human development and population growth. Climate change has

maniested itsel in rising sea levels, melting sea ice and glaciers, changing

precipitation patterns, growing requency and severity o storms, and

increasing ocean acidication.

Te Crisis

h Hereater, when we reer to clite cge, we mean accelerating climate change. While climate change has occurred throughout the history o our planet,current changes are occurring at a greatly accelerated rate, largely as a result o human activities.



Upper klt Le net Ifow, 1961 to 2007

1960 1970 1980 1990 2000 2010

NetInflowv

olume

(taf)

0

50

100

150

200

250

300July to September net inflow volumeStatistical trend line (p=0.003)

This graphshows the actualmeasurements onet infows. Thedashed statistical-trend line indicatesthat despite somevariability romyear to year,there has been adownward trend

rom JulySept.since 1961.

To succeed in sustaining sh andwildlie, our plans and actions mustrecognize all management roles andauthorities and realistically refect thelimitations and uncertainties in ourunderstanding o climate change. Theymust target stewardship activities atall geographic scales, beginning withthe design o conservation strategies alandscape scales. Our plans and actionmust also encourage collaborativeapproaches that give common purposeto our employees and our conservation

activities at local, State, regional,national, continental, international, andglobal levels.

Our experiences with climate change,such as the eect o sea ice changes onpolar bears, have taught us that we wilbe increasingly challenged to recalibraour conservation goals by integratingclimate change. We need to plan orconservation on landscape scales andbe prepared to act quickly, sometimeswithout the scientic certainty wewould preer.

Climate change is the transormationaconservation challenge o our time,not only because o its direct eects,but also because o its infuence on theother stressors that have been andwill continue to be major conservationpriorities.

Many other issues, such as the spreadand control o invasive species; themounting pressures on limited watersupplies; the need or robust re

management to help conserve naturalsystems; the harm to species romexposure to environmental contaminancontinued changes in land use,specically habitat loss; and the impacto all o these actors on biodiversity,have been and will continue to posetremendous challenges to sustaininghealthy, vibrant ecosystems.

mISSIOn SUCCESS In FISh anD WILDLIFE COnSERVaTIOn OVER ThE COmInG

DECaDESWILL REqUIRE UnPRECEDEnTED COOPERaTIOn and partnership

among governments, private sector and non-government organizations,

and individual citizens. Consequently, the greatest challenge we and other

members o the conservation community ace is the need to orm new and

interdependent relationships, sharing integrated capacities, building on

common strengths, identiying and addressing weaknesses, and ocusing our

responses on shared goals and objectives. For the Service, this is especially

true o our relationships with State sh and wildlie agencies, which have

management authority on much o our nations lands and waters; and with

Tribal sh and wildlie management authorities.

Te Cllege

Eect o Wrer Witers O Sprig Sowpc d Suer Stre-fows

In the klamath Basin o southern Oregon, spring snowpac represents a reservoir o water

that will sustain stream-fows throughout the summer. In recent years, warmer winters have

resulted in more precipitation alling as rain instead o snow, reducing the spring snowpac.

Rivers in the upper Basin have shown rather large declines in stream infows in recent

decades. This includes infows to Upper klamath Lae that provide water or irrigation,

National Wildlie Reuges, sucer habitat, and downstream river-fows or salmon.

This trend means that in the klamath Basin, as elsewhere, we can no longer assume that theuture will loo lie the past. As warming trends continue, there will be less water available

to meet competing demands. Lie many water issues in the West, resolution o water issues

in the klamath Basin will require landscape-scale solutions and the active involvement and

cooperation o all staeholders.

TIm mayER , Water Resources Branch Hydrologist, Engineering Division, Portland, OR


11/36The Challenge

Future Ipcts are Ucerti

One o the major challenges oaddressing climate change eects on shand wildlie is identiying and addressinguncertaintyi in our understanding outure climate change and how that

change will aect ecological systems. Ourunderstanding o uture climate change isbased largely on projections rom globalclimate models (also known as GeneralCirculation Models) that are run usingdierent greenhouse gas emissionsscenarios developed by the IPCC.These projections contain a degree ouncertainty resulting rom the inability oclimate models to perectly simulate theclimate system, particularly at regionalgeographic scales and less than decadaltime intervals; and uncertainty over

which greenhouse gas emissions scenariowill be realized in the uture. As theIPCC has stated, the emissions scenariosare based on assumptions concerninguture socio-economic and technologicaldevelopments that may or may notbe realized, and are thereoresubject to substantial uncertainty.There also remains much uncertaintyover how climate change will aectecological systems at dierentscales, especially in its interactionswith such non-climate stressors asland-use changes.

Climate change does not replace theseother threats or render them lessimportant; they must remain priorities inthe years ahead. It is, however, essentialthat we understand how climate changewill exacerbate these threats and posenew ones. For example, climate changewill allow the range o some invasivespecies to expand, perhaps markedly.Climate change will also make someregions drier, urther complicating whatare already very challenging eorts tocapture water and deliver it to naturalsystems. These changes in precipitationpatterns will also aect re regimes. Ouremployees and partners will need to takethis into account in their managementactivities so as to protect both the naturalworld and the places where people live.

In addition, climate change will havemany unoreseen impacts on land use anddevelopment. For example, rising seaswill result in immense pressure to buildsea walls and other structures to protectcoastal development. These actions willimpact the sh and wildlie that rely uponnearby beaches, salt marshes and othernatural habitats. Furthermore, climatechange may divert development pressurerom coastal areas to relatively higherground as people seek to escape placesthreatened by rising seas. Together, all

o these stressors will have impacts onspecies that are imperiled today, and theycould cause others to become imperiledor the rst time.

Finally, unanticipated impacts o climachange have already occurred and arelikely to occur in the uture. Theseimpacts are dicult to predict based onour current understanding o climateand ecological systems, adding urtheruncertainty to our ability to predictthe uture. We must account or thisuncertainty as we design, implementand evaluate our plans in response toclimate change and as we carry out ourmanagement, regulatory and monitoriprograms. We must learn as we go, usi

new knowledge and results o ocusedresearch to reduce uncertainty. As welearn more about climate change, we wbe better able to rene our planning,decisions, and management actions torefect that greater understanding.

Te Cllege

i Ucertit is an expression o the degree to which a value (e.g., the uture state o the climate system) is unknown. Uncertainty can result rom lack o inormation orrom disagreement about what is known or even knowable. It may have many types o sources, rom quantiable errors in the data to ambiguously dened concepts orterminology or uncertain projections o human behavior. Uncertainty can, thereore, be represented by quantitative measures or by qualitative statements.

Te Cllege o TiigDieretl out Prtersips

In the Southeast, we have built new

relationships with traditional and non-

traditional partners The ConservationFund, American Electric Power Company,

and Entergy Inc. to help achieve their

objectives and ours. Nine years ago, we

launched an innovative program in the

Lower Mississippi Valley aimed at restorin

native habitats to bolster populations o

wildlie and migratory birds through a

carbon sequestration initiative. Together

we have added more than 40,000 acres

o habitat to the National Wildlie Reuge

System and reorested more than 80,000

acres with more than 22 million trees,sequestering 30 million metric tons o

carbon over the projects 70-year lietime.

PETE JEROmE , Reuges and Wildlie Area

Supervisor, Southeast Region,

Atlanta, GA

Climate change is the transormational

conservation challenge o our time



Making people more aware o howaccelerating climate change is harmingsh and wildlie and o how it reducesthe fow o societal goods and aectsecosystem services is a challengeor the Service, our State and Tribalcounterparts, and the conservationcommunity at large. The same ecosystemunctions that provide or sustainablesh and wildlie populations also providecommunities with signicant benets,such as good water quality, food and reprotection, and recreation. Meeting the

challenge will require that the Serviceand its partners use every availablecommunication tool to engage the publicabout the ecological, economic, social, andcultural costs exacted by climate change.

Scope d mgitude are GretAnother major challenge o acceleratedclimate change is its unprecedentedscope and magnitude. In the history owildlie conservation, the Service andthe larger conservation community havenever experienced a challenge that isso ubiquitous across the landscape. Ourexisting conservation inrastructurewill be pressed to its limits quitelikely beyond its limits to respondsuccessully. New and dierent capacitiesand capabilities will be required, and our

dedicated employees will be challengedto acquire new skills quickly. We maynd that elements o our current legal,regulatory, and policy rameworks withinwhich we and our partners operateare no longer adequate to encourageand support the new approaches andinnovative thinking needed to addressclimate change eectively. In our landmanagement, the original purposes orwhich some o our National WildlieReuges have been established maychange or become obsolete. We will need

nancial and technological resourcescommensurate with this great challenge;and we will need the political leadershipand will to pursue necessary statutoryand regulatory changes, apply predictivemodels, make risk-based decisions,and manage and operate adaptively inchanging environments.

Deteriig Eects o Clite Cge o Rio Grde Cuttrot Trout

Air temperature in the Southwest has

increased maredly over the last 30 years

and greater increases are predicted.

Because air temperature strongly infuenc

water temperature, the temperature o

streams that harbor our native Rio Grande

cutthroat trout may have already increase

or liely will increase. Trout love cold wat

Warmer water temperatures could

aect their health, their ability to compete

with non-native trout, the amount o

suitable habitat available to them, and their ood supply. The Services Southwest Regionis unding research to examine historical water temperatures in comparison to current

water temperatures in streams occupied by Rio Grande cutthroat trout. In conjunction

with other studies that loo at the temperature tolerance o Rio Grande cutthroat trout,

this research will help us determine the level o ris that increased water temperatures

pose to this species.

maRILyn myERS , Lead Biologist or Rio Grande cutthroat trout, Ecological Services Field

Ofce, Albuquerque, NM

(Above) Rio Grande cutthroat trout caught during population sampling on the Rio SantaBarbara in New Mexico. Photo: Yvette Paroz / New Mexico Department o Game and Fish

Te Cllege

The same ecosystem

unctions that provid

or sustainable

sh and wildlie

populations also

provide communities

with signicant

benets, such as good

water quality, food

and re protection,

and recreation.


13/36Our Committed Response /

Ledersip d mgeet

We anticipate that within the next ewyears, the U.S. Congress and the FederalGovernment will make political decisionsand policies relative to climate changethat will have enormous signicanceor 21st century conservation o shand wildlie and their habitats. To helpshape these decisions and policies, the

Service must already have in place atthe national and regional levels a climatechange leadership and managementcapability that can provide a credibleand cohesive approach to the issue.Our National Climate Team and eightRegional Climate Teams, operatingunder the guidance o our Directorateand its National Science ApplicationsExecutive Team, will help us establishthat capability and credibility.

The National Climate Team will have

representation rom Service regionsand programs; and the RegionalClimate Teams will be made up o bothRegional Oce and eld employees.Together, these teams will provide inputto the development o national climatechange policies and guidance; andprovide leadership and direction in themanagement o the Services climatechange activities, including budget andperormance; policy development

address the impacts that climate changis already having or will have on sh,wildlie and habitats.

Te Directorte d te WsigtoOce ust led te w by recognizingthe crisis nature o climate change andseeking the resources needed to addreit; by making dicult choices aboutService program priorities andbudgets that will guide and dene ouractivities; and by calling upon everyemployee to get appropriately involved

in our adaptation, mitigation, andengagement strategies.

Regiol leders d eploees ustled te w by stepping down nationaguidance and plans to the eld,acilitating the eedback loop betweennational leadership and the eld,ensuring that resources to accomplishwork on the ground reach those whoneed them, and removing any barriersto success.

Project leders d eld eploees ustled te w by ground-truthingour eorts, implementing ourstrategies, monitoring our results,and recommending new approachesas necessary.

all eploees ust led te w byparticipating in the creation o newclimate change partnerships, and byworking with others to nd new andinnovative means or incorporatingclimate change considerations into ourday-to-day activities.

Climate change leadership will unctionin much the same wayas our StrategicHabitat Conservation approach it will be more iterative than hierarchicwith Service leaders at each level makiindispensable and ongoing contributionas they operate in constellation withone another.

and implementation; landscapeconservation design, delivery, andevaluation; internal and externalpartnership development; Congressionalassistance; engagement andcommunication; and science direction.

Accomplishing our mission in an era oaccelerated climate change will requirea undamental rethinking o how we in

the Service do business in the comingdecades, including how we dene leadersand leadership and how we manage anddeliver our conservation activities.

The exercise o leadership will not belimited to the Directorate or the Nationaland Regional Climate Teams; it mustpermeate all levels o the Service. Thecrisis o a changing climate is unlike anyother we have aced in world history.Climate change is not the result o theactions o the ew that are impacting

the many; it is the direct result o theactivities o each one o us as we live andwork in the modern world. In a crisis othis magnitude and scope, we must eachtake leadership in our own sphere oinfuence to make the changes that willeliminate or reduce the causative actorso climate change. As Service employees,we each have the added responsibilityo taking leadership within ourproessional spheres o infuence to

In OUR STRaTEGIC PLan, WE COmmIT TO CREaTInG an InFORmED, CREDIbLE

CLImaTE ChanGE LEaDERShIP and management capability that will implement

the plan in a collaborative and scientically sound manner. We will take bold

actions, expressed as Seven Bold Commitments, that we believe will help to

shape the conservation communitys response to the impacts o this global

environmental scourge on sh, wildlie and habitats. We will employ three

progressive strategies Adaptation, Mitigation, and Engagement

in carrying out our strategic goals and objectives. Through this cohesive,

integrated response, we will ulll our commitment to the American people

and take our appropriate role within the conservation community in

addressing the challenges presented by accelerating climate change.

Our Coitted Respose



Clite Cge EtrepreeursAs a Service, we will approach themanagement and delivery o ourconservation activities with a new spirito entrepreneurship, which we dene asthe process o identiying, evaluating,and seizing an opportunity and bringingtogether the resources necessaryor success. As climate changeentrepreneurs, we will learn and embracenew conservation approaches that leadto better results or sh and wildlie.We will ace hard acts, and we will

redirect our priorities and make dicultbudget decisions as those acts dictate.We will hold ourselves accountable,ormally monitoring and evaluatingthe eectiveness o our eorts as weimplement our Strategic Plan and our5-Year Action Plan. We will seek outside,independent reviews o our climatechange eorts ater 3 years. We willrecognize and reward Service employees,programs, or oces that demonstrateentrepreneurship by taking substantiveactions on climate change adaptation,

mitigation, or engagement.

Ledig Troug actio

As a Service, we willingly accept theopportunity to be a leader on climatechange within the sh and wildlieconservation community, recognizingthat this leadership will be demonstratedthrough actions, not words. We willshow leadership by working withStates, Tribes, and others to eectivelyrepresent sh and wildlie conservationinterests in discussions relating to

national climate policy and legislation.We will also work with the conservationcommunity to help create climate changelegislation that incorporates wildlieadaptation strategies, as outlined in our

Our Coitted Respose

Clite Cge Iplicted i te mster o te Dig moose

No visit to northern Minnesota

complete without seeing a

moose. So you can imagine ou

concern here at Agassiz Natio

Wildlie Reuge when the moo

population dropped dramatica

in a ew years time. The Reug

was once home to 250 to 400

moose. Today, it is estimated th

less than 40 remain on AgassizThe decline in population on th

Reuge was part o a regional

decline in Northwest Minneso

This population ell rom a pea o 4,000 animals in 1984 to a low o about 85 in 2007. A

research study initiated in 1985 with the Minnesota Department o Natural Resources

and support rom citizens, landowners, and volunteers concluded that climatic changes,

combined with increased deer numbers and parasitic transmission rates, may have rende

Northwest Minnesota inhospitable to moose. Winter and summer temperatures in the pas

41 years have increased by about 12F and 4F, respectively. The study showed that moose

declines oten occurred the year ater summers with higher mean temperatures. Moose h

temperature thresholds that, when exceeded, require them to expend energy to eep cool

The data indicates that warmer temperatures may have contributed to heat stress, which

turn accentuated the animals already poor body condition rom parasite-induced chronic

malnutrition. The bottom line: Until the climatic actors that are maing the moose range

shrin are reversed, we will probably see ewer moose in Northwest Minnesota.

maGGIE anDERSOn , Manager, Agassiz National Wildlie Reuge, Middle River, MN

(Above) Bull moose. Photo: Beth Silverhus

Strategic Plan, and that refects ourclimate change principles or addressingthis conservation challenge. We will play

a key role in galvanizing governments,organizations, businesses and industry tocollaborate in developing a National Fishand Wildlie Climate Adaptation Strategyand partnering in its implementation.



new resources that we need, reprioritizeand reallocate the resources we have,and leverage our collective resourcesby working in partnerships, internallyand externally. Our greatest certainty

o receiving additional resources isto demonstrate leadership on climatechange by assembling our best talentand aligning our present resources andpriorities in response to this challenge.Our nation is at a turning point inregard to climate change, and we havethe opportunity and the responsibilityto help tip the balance in avor oaggressive action.

Given the magnitude o the threat posedby climate change to lie as we know it,

we cannot aord to think small or be heldback by our ears or concerns. All greatachievements in human history haveoccurred within the context o dauntingchallenges and have been accomplishedby people with vision who were willingto move orward without having all theanswers and resources they would havedesired. Our National Wildlie ReugeSystem, a 150-million-acre network olands and waters spread rom sea toshining sea, is a sterling example owhat can happen when even one person

with courage and vision is willing to standin the breach or wildlie and call thenations attention to the threat at hand.This is our moment, as individuals andas a Service, to rise to the threat posedby climate change. I we succeed, we willhave done our duty. I we ail, it will notbe said o us that we were araid to try.

Coservtio Troug CollortioAs a conservation leader, the Servicerecognizes that the crisis o climatechange also opens up great opportunitiesor those o us committed to thesustainability o our nations sh andwildlie resources. This crisis is anopportunity to expand and strengthenour partnerships in ways that willinevitably help us to more eectivelyaddress not just this threat to theuture o sh and wildlie but all otherthreats, such as unsustainable land-use

practices, degradation o water qualityand quantity, and invasive species. It isan opportunity to or us to take it to thenext level scientically by building anunequalled network o shared scienticcapacity, capability and knowledge thatwe can draw upon in every decision wemake. It is an opportunity to engagethe public as never beore in acing theact that our actions, individually andcollectively, have implications or theuture o sh, wildlie, people, and theplanet. The crisis o climate change is,

in the nal analysis, an unparalleledopportunity to bring people together,nationally and internationally, to solve aworld problem, not through confict butthrough collaboration.

We acknowledge that this Strategic Planand its accompanying 5-Year Action Plancall upon Service employees to engagein many new teams, partnerships, andassessments. We take as a given thatit is the responsibility o leadershipat each level in the Service to pursue

and make available to employees theresources, time, training, and tools toaccomplish our mission. It is worthnoting that climate change is not a newmission; it is the lens through which wemust accomplish the mission we alreadyhave. As we address climate change incarrying out that mission, we will seek

Our Coitted Respose

Seve bold Coitets

We will ulll our leadership role as theprincipal national agency through whicthe Federal Government carries out itssh, wildlie, and habitat conservationmission or the American public bycommitting to seven bold undertakingsthat we believe are essential to oursuccess in eectively responding to thethreats posed by climate change. As aService, we will:

1. Establish new, shared scientic andtechnical capacity within the conservatcommunity in the orm oRegiolClite Sciece Prtersips to acquireand translate climate change inormatiinto knowledge that together we canapply to better predict, understand anaddress the eects o climate changeon sh, wildlie and their habitats at alspatial scales.

2. Establish Ldscpe CoservtioCoopertives that enable members o th

conservation community to plan, desigand deliver conservation in ways thatintegrate local, State, Tribal, regional,national and international eorts andresources, with our 150 million-acreNational Wildlie Reuge System playia role in ensuring habitat connectivityand conserving key landscapes andpopulations o sh and wildlie.

3. Develop new organizational andmanagerial processes and proceduresthat enable the Service to evaluate itsactions, decisions, and expendituresthrough the lens o climate change andthat unite us across our programs ina shared commitment to address theeects o climate change on sh andwildlie and their habitats.

Climate change is not

a new mission; it is

the lens through whichwe must accomplish

the mission we

already have.



adpttioAdaptation is dened by the IPCC asan adjustment in natural or humansystems in response to actual orexpected climatic stimuli or theireects, which moderates harm orexploits benecial opportunities.For the Service, adaptation is planned,science-based management actions,including regulatory and policy changethat we take to help reduce the impacto climate change on sh, wildlie, andtheir habitats. Adaptation orms the

core o the Services response to climatchange and is the centerpiece o ourStrategic Plan.

Our principal approach to sh andwildlie adaptation will involve thestrategic conservation o terrestrial,reshwater, and marine habitats withinsustainable landscapes to achieve theundamental goal o conserving targetpopulations o species or suites o specand the ecological unctions that sustaithem. We have termed this strategic

approach to achieving our landscapeconservation objectives StrategicHabitat Conservation, or SHC.

SHC is an explicit, adaptive approachto conservation. It takes as a giventhat eective conservation alwaysnecessitates that we answer a ew basiquestions and that the same is true orSHC: First, what are our goals? Whathealthy populations o species do weseek to conserve, and what specicallyare our targets? Second, how can

we develop a conservation design tomeet these goals? Third, how will wedeliver this conservation approach?Fourth, what sorts o monitoring willbe needed to determine whether wevebeen successul or whether we need toadapt our strategies? Fith, what newscientic research do we need to meetour conservation objectives?

4. Use our inormational, educational,training, and outreach capabilities toengage our employees, our conservationpartners, business and industry,government and non-governmentorganizations, the public, and otherinternal and external audiences ina dialogue about the consequenceso climate change; and inspire theirinnovative actions to combat its eectson sh, wildlie, habitats, and people.

5. Become carbon neutral as an agency

by Year 2020 and encourage otherorganizations to do the same.

6. Apply Strategic Habitat Conservation8as the Services ramework or landscapeconservation.

7. Inspire and lead the conservationcommunity in creating and implementinga shared national vision or addressingclimate change by:

Facilitating development o a ntiolFis d Wildlie Clite adpttio

Strteg that would be our sharedblueprint to guide wildlieadaptation partnerships over thenext 50 100 years;

Creating a ntiol biologicl Ivetord moitorig Prtersip thatacilitates a more strategic and cohesiveuse o the conservation communitysmonitoring resources. The Partnershipwould generate empirical data neededto track climate change eects on thedistribution and abundance o sh,wildlie and their habitats; modelpredicted population and habitatchange; and help us determine i weare achieving our goals;

Organizing a ntiol CliteCge Foru where members othe conservation community canexchange ideas and knowledge,network, and build the relationshipsthat will ensure our success inaddressing climate change.

Tree Progressive Strtegies:adpttio, mitigtio,Eggeet

Our Strategic Plans goals, objectives,and actions are positioned under threemajor strategies that correspondwith the Services mission. Thesestrategies are:

adpttio: Minimizing the impact oclimate change on sh and wildliethrough the application o cutting-edgescience in managing species and habitats.

mitigtio: Reducing levels o greenhousegases in the Earths atmosphere.

Eggeet: Joining orces with othersto seek solutions to the challenges andthreats to sh and wildlie conservationposed by climate change.

Our Coitted Respose

Vision without action

is merely a dream.

Action without vision

just passes the time.

Vision with action can

change the world.JOEL baRkER , living American scholar anduturist who was the rst to popularize theconcept o paradigm shits in the corporate world



In adopting the SHC ramework toaddress climate change impacts, theService acknowledges that it needs astructured, objective-driven process orbiological planning and conservationdesign; predictive models or managedecosystems, especially models thatacknowledge uncertainties and challengeour decisions; monitoring to improveour understanding and management;and eective ways o deliveringconservation actions on the groundthat will typically require extensive

partnerships and collaboration.9

The Service recognizes our basicapproaches, or strategies, to climatechange adaptation or sh and wildlieresources (based on Millar et al. 2007):resistance, resilience, response andrealignment.

Resistance

Traditional and current approachesto conservation have been directedprimarily toward maintaining currentor restoring historic conditions. In manycases, maintaining or restoring theseconditions means working against theeects o climate change as they occuron the landscape. Resistance adaptationoptions seek to manage sh and wildlieresources to resist the infuence oclimate change or to orestall undesiredeects o change.10 Resistanceactions will be most eective when themagnitude o climate change is small; or,when the magnitude is greater, to savenative species and habitats or the shortterm perhaps a ew decades until

other adaptation options are ound.11Resisting climate changes mayrequire intensive management action,and accelerating eort and greaterinvestments over time. It also requiresrecognition that these eorts may ailas cumulative change in conditions maybe so substantial that resistance is nolonger possible.10

These ideas are not new; they are keycomponents o any adaptive managementor landscape-scale conservation strategy.Distilled, they are the ve elements oStrategic Habitat Conservation:

Our Coitted Respose

Coservig d mgig apceTrout i Wrer, Drier Soutwes

In a region already nown or its

warm temperatures and relatively low

precipitation, aquatic species in the

Southwest may be vulnerable due to

climate change. What will this mean or

the conservation and recovery o Apache

trout? Climate models or the Southwest

predict a continuing increase in drought

and food severity, warmer air and water

temperatures, less precipitation, and more

water loss through plant transpiration

and ground evaporation, as well as an

increase in events such as wildre and

extreme drought. Warming trends may

alter seasonal river fows, maing them

higher during winter and lower during

summer. Less snowall and more rain duri

winter may result in earlier spring runo

(an important cue or the spring-spawning

Apache trout). Post-wildre fooding can

eliminate populations and can mae strea

uninhabitable or years. We are woring

with our partners to identiy strategies to

address these new threats through habitaprotection, restoration to increase habitat

resiliency, and monitoring. Understanding

how climate change may infuence habita

or Apache trout will be critical or eectiv

management and recovery o this species

JEREmy VOELTz , Lead Biologist, Apache Tr

Recovery Program, Pinetop, AZ

Apache trout taken rom Arizona creekPhoto: Jeremy Voeltz /usfws

Eleet 1:Biological Planning:Set targets/goals

Eleet 2: Conservation Design:

Develop a plan to meet the targets/goals

Eleet 3: Conservation Delivery:Implement the plan

Eleet 4: Outcome-based Monitoringand Adaptive Management: Measuresuccess and improve results

Eleet 5: Assumption-Based Research:Increase knowledge and understandingthrough iteration (repetitive looping)o all ve elements in conjunction withone another.

Conserv

ation

Desig

n

BiologicalPlanning

ConservationDelivery

Ou

tcome-

bas

ed

Mon

itorin

g Assumption-basedResearc

h



We must be explicit and strategicabout which adaptation approach wewill take in a given situation becausean inappropriate response or a serieso inconsistent responses can resultin large expenditures o time, energy,and resources with questionable orinsucient outcomes. In some situatioour response to climate change will beto implement resistance adaptationmeasures, as these measures will besucient to maintain desired conditionin the ace o ongoing climate change.

In other situations, we will rstimplement resistance and/or resilienceadaptation measures to maintaincurrent or historical conditions or aslong as possible, and then transitionto response adaptation measures asour capacity to predict and manageuture conditions grows. In still othersituations, our certainty regarding utulandscape conditions will be adequateto allow us to proceed immediately witresponse adaptation. For some degradecosystems we will restore currentor historical conditions to build andmaintain resilience, while or others wewill implement realignment measuresto move the systems toward anticipateuture conditions. Our decisions aboutwhich adaptation approaches to usewill be based on where we stand asa conservation community in termso climate change knowledge andunderstanding, management technologand techniques, and policy constraintsand opportunities. We will practiceadaptive management where possible,and we will apply other techniques wh

circumstances dictate. Over time, we wincrease the certainty o our collectiveunderstanding and actions in regard toclimate change impacts.

composition, and changing disturbanceregimesto encourage gradualadaptation and transition to inevitablechange, and thereby avoid rapidthreshold or catastrophic conversion thatmay occur otherwise.10

Realignment

Restoration is a requently recommendedmanagement approach or ecosystemsalready signicantly disturbed. Whenthe goal o that restoration is to realigna system to expected uture conditions

rather than return it to historicalconditions, realignment adaptationoptions are used.10 According to Choi(2007), a uture-oriented restorationshould (1) establish the ecosystems thatare able to sustain in the uture, not thepast, environment; (2) have multiplealternative goals and trajectories orunpredictable endpoints; (3) ocus onrehabilitation o ecosystem unctionsrather than re-composition o speciesor cosmetics o landscape surace;and (4) acknowledge its identity asa value-laden applied science withinan economically and socially acceptableramework.12

Adaptation approaches to climate changecan be implemented in a reactive manneror an anticipatory manner. The IPCCdenes rective dpttio as adaptationthat takes place ater impacts o climatechange have been observed, whereasticiptor dpttio is adaptation thattakes place beore impacts o climatechange are observed (also reerred toas proactive adaptation). Historically,

climate change adaptation by humansocieties has been reactive, as is allbiological adaptation in an evolutionarysense. As our understanding o climatechange and its eects on ecosystemsincreases and uncertainty decreases, weanticipate implementing increasinglymore anticipatory adaptation approaches.

ResilienceResilience is the ability o a naturalsystem to return to a desired conditionater disturbance, either naturallyor with management assistance.Resilience adaptation options, then,are management actions that improvethe capacity o ecosystems to return todesired conditions ater disturbance.Fostering resilience is probably themost requently suggested approachto adaptation ound in climate changeliterature.10 Management practices

that acilitate resilience are similar tothose used to resist change (e.g., habitatrestoration, habitat management withre or through invasive removal), butare usually applied more broadly andare specically aimed at coping withdisturbance.10 Maintaining or improvinghabitat or ecosystem resilience maybecome more dicult and require moreintensive management as changesin climate accumulate over time.10Resilience adaptation does not acilitatethe transition to new conditions that are

likely to result rom climate change.11

Thus, some authorities indicate thatresilience options are best undertakenin projects that are short term or underecosystem conditions that are relativelyinsensitive to climate change eects.10

Response

Another approach to climate changeis to manage toward uture, and otenless certain, landscape conditions bypredicting and workingwith the eectso climate change. Response adaptation

options acilitate the transition oecosystems rom current, natural statesto new conditions brought about by achanging climate. Response managementactions mimic, assist or enable ongoingnatural adaptive processes, suchas species dispersal and migration,population mortality and colonization,changes in community/ecosystem

Our Coitted Respose



basically the process by which CO2 romthe atmosphere is taken up by plantsthrough photosynthesis and stored ascarbon in biomass (e.g., tree trunks androots) or stored as organic carbon insoils. Sequestering carbon in vegetation,such as bottomland hardwood orests,can oten restore or improve habitat anddirectly benet sh and wildlie.

We will be aggressive in sequesteringcarbon and using best practices tomanage our lands, meet our stewardship

responsibilities, and manage ouracilities, vehicles and vessels, travel,

mitigtioMitigation is dened by the IPCCas human intervention to reducethe sources or enhance the sinksj ogreenhouse gases. Mitigation involvesreducing our carbon ootprint by usingless energy, reducing our consumption,and appropriately altering our land-management practices, such as wildlieood production. Our goal is to achievecarbon neutrality as an organization bythe Year 2020.

Mitigation is also achieved throughbiological carbon sequestration, which is

and purchases and acquisitions so thatwe become carbon neutral by 2020.Our success in pursuing and achievingcarbon neutrality will help us to modelappropriate organizational behaviorsand to participate with the conservatiocommunity in catalyzing action to redugreenhouse gas emissions worldwide.In addition, we expect our mitigationsuccesses to infuence local, regional,national, and international land-useand energy policies and actions andto urther reduce greenhouse gas

emissions, thereby reducing the impaco climate change on sh, wildlie, andtheir habitats.

Eggeet

Engagement is reaching out to Serviceemployees; our local, national andinternational partners in the public anprivate sectors; our key constituenciesand stakeholders; and everydaycitizens to join orces with them inseeking solutions to the challenges andthreats to sh and wildlie conservation

posed by climate change. By buildingknowledge and sharing inormationin a comprehensive and integratedway, the Service and our partnersand stakeholders will increase ourunderstanding o global climate changeimpacts and use our combined expertisand creativity to help wildlie resourceadapt in a climate-changed world.Through engagement, Service employwill be better equipped to addressclimate change in their day-to-dayresponsibilities; Americas citizens will

inspired to participate in a new erao collaborative environmentalstewardship, working to reduce theircarbon ootprints and supporting wildladaptation eorts; and leaders at thelocal, regional, national, and internatiolevels will be motivated to crat andsupport legislation and policy thataddress climate change and consider itimpacts to sh and wildlie.

Clite Cge d ShCs Five Eleets

Climate change is integrally tied to each o SHCs ve elements. For example, setting

realistic and achievable biological targets requires careul consideration o the eects o

climate change; otherwise, we could unwittingly set species goals that rely on locations

that wont be available as habitat in the uture. The impacts rom sea level rise provide a

clear example: We anticipate that some o todays valuable coastal habitat will be inundated

in the years ahead and, thus, unable to support certain wildlie species. The tas beore

us is to anticipate these changes and incorporate them into our goal-setting, as well asour conservation planning and delivery. We must as ourselves such undamental

questions as, Are we conserving the right places based on the changes we anticipate

rom climate change?

Climate change also maes monitoring and adaptive management more important than

ever. The predicted impacts rom climate change are wide-ranging and their timing is highly

uncertain. We need monitoring to understand the rate and magnitude o climate change;

but more importantly, we need monitoring to understand the eectiveness o our strategies in

the ace o climate change and other threats. Only then will we be able to eectively modiy

our strategies over time.

Climate change also must be squarely actored into our research eorts. We must challenge

ourselves to envision a uture environmental baseline that taes into account the changes inthe landscape caused by climate change and other ecosystem change-drivers, such as land

use practices. Integrating climate change into our research priorities will help us to create

conservation strategies that stand the test o time.

PaUL SOUza , Field Supervisor, South Florida Ecological Services Field Ofce, Vero Beach, FL

Our Coitted Respose

j Sis are the removal or sequestration o greenhouse gases.



With regard to mitigation, we willbegin immediately and work aggressivelyto reduce our carbon ootprint toachieve carbon neutrality. Over time,we anticipate that we will build a strongmitigation consciousness and trackrecord in our organization; consequently,our mitigation eorts will plateau andwill be maintained at that level orthe long term.

With regard to engagement, we willincrease our internal eorts immediately

so that our employees can acquire theadditional knowledge and skills they needto address climate change as a centralocus o our programs and activities.At the same time, we will increase ourexternal engagement to learn romothers and help build public supportnationally and internationally or theServices adaptation and mitigationactivities. In addition, we will encouragemembers o the public to join us inreducing their carbon ootprints.

adpttio, mitigtio, Eggeet:a blced approc

We will use a progressive, balancedapproach in undertaking adaptation,mitigation and engagement. Goals andobjectives in this plan will be steppeddown to specic actions that will ormour near-term, 5-Year Action Plan oraddressing climate change. We willprogress in a manner that will refectincreasing certaintyk about what actionswe should take and when we shouldtake them.

We will increase our adaptation eortssignicantly in the near term as werespond to increasing climate changeimpacts. Our initial emphasis will likelybe on resistance and resilience typeso adaptation, as we work to buildresilience in ecosystems through ourmanagement eorts and, in some cases,to buy additional time to increase ourcertainty regarding uture landscapeconditions. Over the long term, however,we will work with partners to assemble

the technical and institutional capabilityto increase our response and realignmenttypes o adaptation, particularlyas we become better able to anticipatethe impacts o climate change. As ourexpertise and that o our conservationpartners grows, and as we learnmore about climate change, we willincreasingly emphasize anticipatoryadaptation.

Our Coitted Respose

k Certit increases when the collective understanding o climate change trajectories in a given area, their impacts on sh and wildlie, and our ability to successullymanage those impacts increases and becomes more accepted, both within the Service and the general public. Increasing certainty within the Service and among ourpublics and partners is a strategic goal o our research and monitoring programs and our educational endeavors.

...the Service and

our partners and

stakeholders will

increase our

understanding o

global climate change

impacts and use ourcombined expertise

and creativity to help

wildlie resources

adapt in a climate-

changed world.MINETTELAYNE/FLICkR

Global climate change may be disruptingmigration patterns o species such ashummingbirds that depend on seasonal cu

or their survival.


21/36Strategic Goals & Objectives /

(6) considers adaptation strategiesbeing developed or other sectors(such as agriculture, human health andtransportation) so that the strategiescomplement one another and minimizeconficts; and

(7) identies key ecological processesand methods to conserve priority speciand habitats.

For the implementation o landscape-scale conservation, the strategy willplace particular emphasis on ecologica

systems and unction; strengthenedobservational systems; model-basedprojections; species-habitat linkages;risk assessment; and active and passivadaptive management. The strategywill include a national strategy ormonitoring species and habitats thatare most vulnerable to climate change.It will also outline appropriate scientisupport (including inventory, monitorinresearch, and modeling) to inormmanagement decisions; the need orand importance o collaboration and

interdependency; and the nancialresources (including grants, appropriaunds, and private contributions) needeto implement decisions.

A National Fish and Wildlie ClimateAdaptation Strategy will cover thelength and breadth o the UnitedStates, rom the Pacic Islands to theeastern seaboard and rom Alaska tothe Caribbean; and will extend beyondour borders to encompass habitats useby cross-border species (e.g., those

shared with Canada and Mexico)l

, aswell as areas in the Western Hemispheassociated with many migratoryspecies (e.g., Central and SouthAmerican wintering areas o migratorysongbirds)m.

and international governments andorganizations to develop the strategy.The goal is to have a completed strategyby the end o 2012, with implementation

to begin soon thereater. A NationalFish and Wildlie Climate AdaptationStrategy is likely to consist o anagreement that identies and denesintegrated approaches to maintainingkey terrestrial, reshwater and marineecosystems and unctions needed tosustain sh and wildlie resources inthe ace o accelerating climate change.As the strategy is developed andimplemented, we will work to ensurethat it:

(1) embraces the philosophy that

maintaining healthy sh and wildliepopulations and ecosystem sustainabilityare interdependent goals;

(2) adopts landscape-scale approachesthat integrate science and management;

(3) recognizes appropriate roles or allour adaptation approaches (resistance,resilience, response, realignment);

(4) refects the uncertainty associatedwith adaptation planning, but alsoacknowledges that, over time, we willbe better able to be anticipatory andproactive in our approach to adaptation;

(5) addresses species and habitatpriorities that are based on scienticassessments and risk-based predictionso vulnerability to changing climate;

GOaLS anD ObJECTIVES WILL TURn OUR STRaTEGIC VISIOn InTO aCTIOn and position the Service as a responsible leader and creative partner in

acilitating wildlie adaptation, greenhouse gas mitigation, and engagement

with others to address the eects o accelerating climate change on sh and

wildlie and their habitats. Action items needed to achieve these goals and

objectives are included in the appendix document, the 5-Year Action Plan.

Strtegic Gols & Ojectives

adpttio

GOaL 1

We will work with partners todevelop and implement a National

Fish and Wildlie Climate

Adaptation Strategy.

ObJECTIVE 1.1: Inspire, Organize, and Carry

Out a Collaborative Process that Brings

Together Diverse Interests To Develop a

National Fish and Wildlie Climate Adaptation

Strategy; and Fully Integrate Resource

Management Agencies and Organizations

rom Around the Country and Internationallyinto the Process.

Climate legislation proposed in recentsessions o Congress includes provisionsor a national strategy or sh andwildlie adaptation to climate change.We view this strategy as the mostconsequential and crucial conservationendeavor o the 21st century. TheDepartment o the Interior, with theService as lead agency, and the Councilon Environmental Quality are leadingthe eort to develop a National Fish andWildlie Climate Adaptation Strategy.We are committed to an intensive,3-year collaboration with Federal, State,Tribal, and local governments, privatelandowners, conservation organizations,

l Trs-oudr issues will be addressed through the Canada/Mexico/U.S. Trilateral Committee or Wildlie and Ecosystem Conservation and Management (the TrilateraCommittee). The Trilateral Committee was established to acilitate and enhance coordination, cooperation, and the development o partnerships among the wildlieagencies o the three countries regarding programs and projects or the conservation and management o species and ecosystems o mutual interest in North America.

mWester eispere igrtor species issueswill largely be addressed through the Western Hemisphere Migratory Species Initiative, which seeks to contributesignicantly to the conservation o the migratory species o the hemisphere by strengthening communication and cooperation among nations, international conventions,and civil society; and by expanding constituencies and political support.



ObJECTIVE 2.2: Develop Landscape

Conservation Cooperatives to Acquire

Biological Planning and Conservation

Design Expertise

To promote wildlie adaptation toaccelerating climate change, we need tcapability to develop, test, implement,and monitor conservation strategiesthat will be responsive to the dynamiclandscape changes resulting rom climchange. These strategies must bemodel-based and spatially explicit,allowing us to eectively apply ouremerging climate knowledge to predichabitat and species changes and todesign our conservation actions totarget impacts. To accomplish this,we will develop biological planning,conservation design, and researchand monitoring expertise across theService and among diverse partners,as dened in our Strategic HabitatConservation ramework.

We will work interdependently with

partners to develop this expertisewithin Landscape ConservationCooperatives (LCCs). LCCs are ormapartnerships between Federal andState agencies, Tribes, non-governmenorganizations, universities and othersto share conservation science capacity(including sta) to address landscape-scale stressors, including habitatragmentation, genetic isolation,spread o invasive species, and waterscarcity, all o which are accelerated byclimate change. LCCs are envisioned

as the centerpiece o the Servicesand the Departments (via SecretarialOrder 3289) inormed managementresponse to climate change impacts onnatural resources.

the government, conservation, andacademic communities, a mechanismis needed that will allow them toeectively collaborate with one anotheron a regional basis, e.g., through virtualnetworks. The U.S. Geological Surveyis well positioned to coordinate suchRegional Climate Science Partnershipsthrough its Climate Change and WildlieScience Center and the DepartmentalClimate Science Centers that are beingestablished pursuant to SecretarialOrder 3289. We will help the U.S.

Geological Survey and the Departmentwith the development o these RegionalClimate Science Partnerships to supporta broad spectrum o natural resourcemanagement activities.

Climate science and modelingexpertise will:

(1) make global climate model outputsusable at multiple planning scalesthrough downscaling approaches (eitherdynamical or statistical);

(2) integrate global or downscaledclimate model outputs with ecologicaland land-use change models to projectuture changes in the distribution andabundance o sh and wildlie resultingrom climate and land-use changes;

(3) identiy and predict climate changethresholds or key species and habitats;

(4) acilitate research to address keyuncertainties in applying climate changescience to sh and wildlie conservation;and

(5) support regional or local climatemonitoring programs. Currently, thisexpertise is not readily available tomanagers. Without it, they cannotdevelop successul adaptation strategiesor sh and wildlie.

In short, a National Fish and WildlieAdaptation Strategy will be our sharedblueprint to guide wildlie adaptationpartnerships over the next 50 100 years.The strategy will enable the nationaland international conservationcommunities to harness collectiveexpertise, authorities, and abilities todene and prioritize a shared set oconservation goals and objectives, aswell as to prescribe a plan o integrated,concerted action.

GOaL 2

We will develop long-term capacity

or biological planning and

conservation design and apply

it to drive conservation at broad,

landscape scales.

ObJECTIVE 2.1: Access Regional Climate

Science and Modeling Expertise through

Regional Climate Science Partnerships

Successul conservation strategies willrequire an understanding o climatechange, the ability to predict how thatchange will aect sh and wildlie atmultiple scales, and the skill to translatethis understanding into useul tools orlandscape-level conservation design.We need access to experts in climatescience and modeling who have thecapability o putting climate data andprojections into orms that are useulor biological planning and conservationdesign. This expertise can be ound

within such organizations as the U.S.Geological Survey, the National Oceanicand Atmospheric Administration,universities, and some non-governmentalorganizations. Because these expertstend to be widely dispersed across



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1. Appalachian2. California3. Desert4. Eastern Tallgrass Prairie & Big Rivers5. Great Basin6. Great Northern

7. Great Plains8. Gulf Coast Prairie9. Gulf Coastal Plains & Ozarks10. North Atlantic11. North Pacific12. Peninsular Florida

13. Plains & Prairie Potholes14. South Atlantic15. Southern Rockies16. Upper Midwest & Great Lakes17. Aleutian & Bering Sea Islands18. Arctic

19. Northwestern Interior Forest20. Western Alaska21. Pacific IslandsUnclassified

Iteri Geogrpic Frewor or Ldscpe Coservtio Coopertives

Strategic Goals & Objectives /

ObJECTIVE 2.3: Develop Expertise In and

Conduct Adaptation Planning or key Specie

and Habitats

Adaptation planning will all within thepurview o LCCs, as well as individualService programs. In addition to thosegenerally used in SHC, new tools will brequired or development o successulclimate change adaptation plans. Thestools will include species and habitatvulnerability assessments; planningand decision-support tools, such as

scenario planning; the use o high-resolution climate projections to driveimportant ecological and biophysicalresponse models; risk assessments;and green inrastructure planning. Toacilitate adaptation planning withinand across LCCs, we will assembleavailable inormation and provide

With the expertise available throughLCCs, we and our partners willassemble climate, land-cover, land-use,hydrological and other relevant datain spatially explicit contexts to developexplicit, predictive and measurablebiological objectives to guide landscape-scale conservation design. We will useresults rom population-habitat andecological models, statistical analyses,and geographic inormation systemsto design conservation strategies thatdrive conservation delivery at landscape

scales. We will develop scienticallyvalid, collaborative population andhabitat monitoring programs that arelinked to and support agency decision-making processes. We will developand acilitate research projectsocused explicitly on the documentedassumptions and uncertaintiesresulting rom biological planningand conservation design activities.

The precise organizational structureor LCCs will vary based on the sharedneeds o cooperators. Rather than createa new conservation inrastructure romthe ground up, LCCs will build upon thescience and the management prioritieso existing partnerships, such as shhabitat partnerships, migratory birdjoint ventures and fyway councils, aswell as species- and geographic-basedpartnerships. All LCCs will be guidedby a steering committee composedo representatives o partner

organizations, and all will be ocusedon dened geographic areas. TheService has developed an InterimGeographic Framework that will ormthe basis or the nationwide networko LCCs. Ultimately, 21 LCCs will beestablished.


Albers Equal Area ConicProduced by FWS, IRTM, 2010



ObJECTIVE 2.5: Provide Requested Support

State and Tribal Managers to Address Clima

Change Issues that Aect Fish and Wildlie

Service Trust Resources

Many States are already workingto address climate change in theirState Wildlie Action Plans and othermanagement plans, and Tribes arelikely to undertake similar measuresin their resource managementplans. When requested, we will workcollaboratively with States and Tribes share inormation and to support theireorts to incorporate climate changeconsiderations into their sh and wildlimanagement plans and programs.

ObJECTIVE 2.6: Evaluate Fish and Wildlie

Service Laws, Regulations, and Policies

to Identiy Barriers To and Opportunities

or Successul Implementation o

Climate Change Actions

We will review the Services laws,

regulations, and policies to determinewhat, i any, changes may be necessaryto support eective adaptation andmitigation responses to climate changeWe will ocus particularly on determinithe need to develop new policies (e.g.,or managed relocationn) and necessarrevisions o existing policies (e.g., whatconstitutes native, invasive, or exoticspecies). In addition, we will identiynew (or revisions to) laws, regulations,policies, guidance, and other protocolsnecessary to provide incentives oreliminate barriers to our eorts tomitigate climate change by reducing oucarbon ootprint.

ObJECTIVE 2.4: Incorporate Climate Change in

Service Activities and Decisions

We will consider actual and projectedclimate change impacts to shand wildlie populations and theirhabitats in Service planning, decision-making, consultation and evaluation,management, and restoration eorts.Planning eorts will include resourceplanning (e.g., recovery plans, habitatconservation plans, sh habitatplans, migratory bird plans, natural

resource damage restoration plans,and Comprehensive ConservationPlans); operations planning (e.g.,acility maintenance, construction, andequipment and feet management); andadministra

FWS Strategic Plan

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Transcript of FWS Strategic Plan