Resource managers and conservation practitioners work to preserve, protect, and understand the lands, waters, and wildlife of our country. What do these professionals need in order to address the challenges posed by climate change in their work? We spent a year asking 195 natural and cultural resource managers, conservation practitioners, and researchers this question.

These professionals work along the west coast of North America in the North Pacific Landscape Conservation Cooperative (NPLCC) region. This is a dynamic and beautiful place filled with dense evergreen forests, spectacular coastlines, some of America’s longest rivers, and such iconic species as salmon, orca, and grizzly bear. While their toolbox is full of strategies and actions applied over the decades, they requested more support to address the particular challenges presented by climate change.

Decision-support systems and tools

By gathering the most relevant documents, data, and other resources in one place, decision-support systems and tools enable managers and decision makers to make more informed decisions. For the managers, conservation practitioners, and researchers we engaged, decision-support systems and tools were the most requested type of support. These systems and tools may include:

• Maps showing where a particular type of habitat is located
• Climate change vulnerability assessments for a specific forest, beach or other location
• Computer- or web-based tools that visualize climate change impacts, alternative ways to respond to impacts, and the pros and cons of choosing one alternative over another

Collaboration and other capacity-building activities

The NPLCC region traverses the Pacific coastline from southern Alaska to northwest California. It crosses state and national boundaries and encompasses federal, tribal, state, and non-governmental jurisdictions. As such, the professionals we engaged emphasized the need to pursue projects and plans that meet the objectives of multiple partners working to address climate change effects on diverse ecosystems. They also emphasized the need to work together to maintain or improve the health and status of the region’s ecosystems over time; in other words, to build or maintain landscape resilience over time. Requested capacity-building activities include:

Bald eagles are found in much of the NPLCC region. Credit: Robert Palmer

• Guidance such as “Best Management Practices” manuals that outline how to incorporate climate change considerations into planning efforts. Or, assessments of the pros and cons of applying new or controversial research to make management decisions.
• Case studies of progress or success in climate change adaptation
• Development of synthesis products, such as an assessment of when, where and under what conditions to use tools for climate change analyses and/or planning. Or, a web-based “climate clearinghouse” that compiles contact information, scientific literature on climate change, and/or an inventory of existing research.
• Facilitation of collaboration among people, projects, institutions, and funding sources

New or different science, data and information

Some data gaps and information needs identified by the managers, conservation practitioners, and researchers we engaged are shared throughout the NPLCC region, while others are particular to a specific location or ecosystem.

The beauty and complexity of the region is breathtaking. This is just the type of system scientists would like to model. Credit: Patricia Tillmann

• Hydrologic data (i.e., water data) in Alaska and British Columbia such as data on how much water flows in a stream per year, per season, per month, or per day.
• Regional and local models of ocean conditions. These may include water temperature, patterns of ocean currents, the level of nutrients in the water, and other conditions.
• Scenarios of climate and socioeconomic conditions, developed in collaboration with decision makers and stakeholders. Scenarios are different but equally possible “visions of the future.” They provide specific descriptions of what the future will look like based on hypothetical (or in some cases, real) decisions made today.

Science communication and outreach

The professionals we engaged identified three audiences for targeted communication and outreach: resource managers, conservation practitioners, and researchers; the public and educators; and, decision makers. They also emphasized that promoting effective science communication and outreach will require targeted messaging and a user-to-consumer approach. Examples of requested communication and outreach needs and activities include:

• Use of visualization tools to communicate climate change effects and examine potentially vulnerable areas
• Making the connection between social, economic, and ecological impacts, especially when communicating with decision makers and the public

Learn more and support our work to build capacity to address climate change

Download the full report: Advancing Landscape-Scale Conservation: An Assessment of Climate Change-Related Challenges, Needs, and Opportunities for the NPLCC (pdf)

Learn more about our work to build capacity to address climate change

Take action in the Pacific Region

NWF’s recent report Wildlife in a Warming World: Confronting the Climate Crisis details how wildlife and wild places across the nation are already dealing with climate change. As we celebrate the many wonderful ways trees touch our lives and benefit wildlife during this year’s National Wildlife Week, we also take a moment to step back and consider what climate change means for trees today and into the future.

Forests Facing New Climate Challenges

The trees that define the landscape in many parts of the United States are expected to undergo significant range shifts in the decades to come. As temperatures increase and patterns of rain/snow change, many tree species will have to find ways to adjust. And, this means that the birds, mammals, and other wildlife that depend on these forests will also have to adjust, not to mention the livelihoods and communities that are closely tied to the many services provided by the forests.

Here are a few examples of what climate change means for our forests:

• In the Rockies, forests are facing major changes as a result of droughts, wildfires, and insect outbreaks, all fueled by the warming conditions. More than 6 million acres of pine forest in Colorado and Wyoming alone have been devastated by mountain pine beetle outbreaks, drastically affecting the heart of the region’s tourism industry. The loss of white-bark pine has wildlife managers worried about the impacts on wildlife—including grizzly bears—that depend on pine nuts as an important food source.
• As the Southwest faces more intense and frequent megadroughts, chances are that we won’t be able to have forests in many of the places they are currently found. A recent study based on tree-ring analysis found that these megadroughts are now happening about 14 percent of the time, up from about 5 percent during the past 1000 years. If we keep polluting at the same rate, the Southwest could be in megadrought conditions 80 percent of the time during the second half of this century.
• In Alaska, forests are already beginning to encroach on the tundra. Wildlife species that are specifically adapted to tundra conditions are especially at risk. For example the arctic fox is facing new competition from forest-adapted red foxes.
• Climate change is projected to make parts of the Northwest much less suitable for many of the conifers for which the region is famous. In Washington State, for example, Douglas fir could be lost from over 32 percent of its current range.
• In the Northeast, spruce-fir forests are expected to recede up mountain slopes as temperatures become too warm for their survival, to be replaced by oak-dominated forests. Eastern hemlock is expected to be lost across most of its U.S. range as warmer winter temperatures allow the destructive hemlock woody aldegid to survive and spread. Many wildlife species rely upon the year-round cover of these evergreen species.

Conservation Approaches Branching Out, Too

Forest and wildlife managers are realizing that our approaches to conservation need to match the new challenges confronting our forests. When making plans for how and where we protect forests, we now need to think about possible shifts in forest ranges, changes in wildfire and pest outbreaks, and the impacts of more heat waves, droughts, and heavy rainfall events.

National Wildlife Federation is helping lead efforts to make conservation efforts climate-smart. For example, in a project to restore Ohio’s Black River, NWF made recommendations about which tree species to plant based on climate model projections of how tree ranges will shift. Our efforts with rural landowners in Alabama have helped them understand the value of longleaf pine as a native species that is more resilient to climate extremes than other pine species.

At the same time, conservationists, city planners, and water managers are looking to trees and forests as a way to increase the resiliency of our communities to climate change. Trees are critical infrastructure for cities and towns, and tree plantings, like those NWF is urging for National Wildlife Week, can help create more shade and reduce the need for air conditioning during heat waves. Healthy forests also help soak up heavy rainfall, reducing the likelihood of downstream floods while providing natural filtration for drinking water.

Don’t Forget Carbon Storage

When it comes to climate change, perhaps the most compelling reason to protect our forests and urban canopies is the crucial role trees play in removing carbon from the atmosphere and storing it for a long time. In fact, the regrowth of trees in the Northeast currently offsets about 16 percent of the nation’s carbon pollution from burning coal, oil, and gas.

Trees are a bigger part of the carbon pollution equation than many people realize.  That’s why NWF is working hard to fight deforestation in the Amazon and support forestry programs here at home. And, that’s why we hope that you’ll take a moment to plant a tree (or even better, a LOT of trees!) this year.

During the roaring 20’s, Detroit glittered as a global center of automobile manufacturing. With a population that soared from 285,000 in 1900 to 1.6 million by 1930, it was the fourth largest city in the United States. As more and more Americans clamored for cars, workers flocked to the Motor City seeking the American Dream, dark plumes of “progress” loomed over manufacturing facilities, and art deco skyscrapers dotted the skyline.  Today, the population has dipped to just shy of 706,000, about one-third of properties are vacant, and 10,000 homes are slated for demolition in 2013. To add insult to injury, climate change impacts are being felt in the Great Lakes Region. These impacts are not only adversely affecting wildlife, but are also affecting the places where people live: for example, when increased rain events exacerbate stormwater flooding and create sewage back-ups in basements and streets.

Andrew Moore, Cooper Elementary School, East Side, 2008, digital chromogenic print scanned from film negative, 62 x 78 in., Collection of Fred and Laura Ruth Bidwell. Credit: Andrew Moore

Andrew Moore, House on Walden Street, East Side, 2008, digital chromogenic print scanned from film negative, 36 x 45.5 in., Collection of Fred and Laura Ruth Bidwell. Credit: Andrew Moore

In Detroit Disassembled, Andrew Moore’s stunning large-format photographs are a nod to the style of 17th Century paintings, featuring crumbling buildings and streetscapes that are now overtaken by nature.  In one over-sized print, an abandoned elementary school is surrounded and swallowed by prairie beneath bucolic blue skies, a stark juxtaposition in a once-booming metropolis. In another photograph, birch trees are growing out of decayed tomes left behind in a former book depository. In another, foliage has literally overtaken a two-story home, covering it in green leaves.

Camilo José Vergara takes more of a retrospective approach in his exhibition, Detroit is No Dry Bones, documenting locations of the city over time, profiling the transition of the former industrial capital.  Vergara posits that Detroit’s “ruins” should be preserved, constant reminders of the Detroit’s cultural heritage and the capacity of its residents to survive in the face of adversity. Should modern ruins like the Michigan Theater, a once-grand renaissance-style building that is arguably the most beautiful parking garage in the world (cars are literally parked inside the theater’s shell, perhaps even in the spot where Sammy Davis Jr. met Frank Sinatra), remain as links to the city’s past?

Is there hope to revitalize decaying and declining urban centers, like Detroit, as they struggle to find their new identities? Of course there is, and nature can actually drive that transformation in the Motor City and elsewhere, but it requires us to be urban visionaries.

We need to take an approach that doesn’t exclusively focus on problem-fixing, but envisions the potential of our cities and towns, and recognizes that nature is critical, functional infrastructure and is just as important as buildings and roads. Instead of riding shot-gun, we need to put nature in the driver seat of our cities and towns.

Putting Nature in the Driver’s Seat

We know that nature can survive and thrive in urban areas, while benefiting the humans that live there — we just need to place a premium on our green infrastructure and be smarter about designing spaces to function in this way.

Here are some ideas:

• Establish networks of Certified Wildlife Habitats® that help restore wildlife in cities and suburbs, sequester carbon, reduce the urban heat island effect, and help manage flooding and drought.
  

  Hutchins Cole’s Garden, Rosa Parks Boulevard, Detroit, 1987 Photo © Camilo José Vergara

• Create robust urban tree canopies that provide habitat and food for wildlife, improve shade and cooling effects, and manage stormwater flooding (and reduce the urban heat island effect and air conditioning, thereby lowering GHG emissions associated with building energy use!). Climate science should inform trees species selection so that trees can survive in a changing climate.
• Transform vacant properties into wildlife gardens that grow local food, support wildlife, and provide ways for children to connect with nature.
• Restore urban streams and waterways to provide habitat for wildlife and recreation opportunities for residents. Of course, restoration projects should be designed to be “climate-smart,” meaning they can adapt to climate impacts over time.
• Enact local policies and plans that require wildlife-friendly, nature-based approaches to prepare for the impacts of climate change.

These ideas are not only relevant for communities that are re-developing and re-defining themselves due to economic downturns. Some of the same approaches can be taken in communities that are re-building and recovering from natural disasters, like those communities affected by Superstorm Sandy.

These are just a handful of ideas — learn more about climate-smart communities.

What are your ideas to make natural an integral part of our cities?
Detroit Disassembled and Detroit is No Dry Bones can be seen at the National Building Museum in Washington, DC, through 17 March 2013.

National Wildlife Photo Contest entry by Robert Postma.

Today, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced they want to add the North American wolverine, a mountain-dwelling carnivore known for its ferocity and audacity, to the Endangered Species Act list. With less than 300 wolverines existing in the wild in the lower 48 states, scientists fear that climate change could push them over the brink if actions are not taken to protect them and their dwindling habitat.

The Mountain Devil

Much like its movie and comic book counterparts, the wolverine is known for being a badass. Weighing between 26 and 40 pounds, the animal packs a big punch for its small size. They have been seen taking on 300-pound black bears and taking down prey much larger than they are, such as deer, caribou and elk.

Armed with sharp claws, strong jaws and thick, frost-proof hides, wolverines are extremely territorial animals.  And while they are famous for picking fights and having gluttonous eating habits, the reality is that wolverines have simply adapted to the harsh environments in which they live—boreal forests, alpine tundra and the snow-tipped mountains of Montana, Wyoming, Idaho and Washington.

Yet, with climate change, these animals face a threat that no amount of badassery can overcome.

Melting Snowpack Puts Wolverines At Risk

Wolverine populations have been steadily declining in the United States for quite some time. Once abundant throughout the Rocky Mountains and the Sierra Nevadas, unregulated trapping and hunting wiped out most wolverine populations in the United States by the 1930s. Combined with habitat loss and fragmentation, wild wolverine numbers have dwindled to an estimated 250-300 in the lower 48 states today.

Now, wildlife biologists have added a new threat to this list: climate change. Female wolverines need deep snow to create the dens where they birth and rear their young. With spring arriving earlier every year, wolverines are literally watching their denning habitat melt away as a result of climate change.

Endangered Species Act to the Rescue

The good news for wolverines is that the Endangered Species Act provides a safety net for wildlife on the brink of extinction. As a listed threatened species, wolverines are eligible for critical habitat designations and captive breeding and reintroduction programs. In its 40-year history, the Endangered Species Act has helped recover species like the bald eagle and grizzly bear and saved others like the black-footed ferret from disappearing completely.

Right now, the Endangered Species Act is the strongest tool available for helping wolverines survive.

Safeguarding Wildlife in a Warming World

While the best way to help species like wolverines, polar bears, and ringed and bearded seals—all of which have been listed or proposed for listing on account of climate change—is to reduce the carbon pollution driving climate change, other steps must be taken right now to help wildlife cope with the changes already happening where they live.

For wolverines, this means providing the large intact landscapes they need to survive. Making sure that wolverines and other climate change-threatened wildlife have the room they need to roam and keeping it connected is a key principle of what National Wildlife Federation calls climate-smart conservation.

Without these actions, wolverines face a bleak future. And as much fun as it is to watch Wolverine take on Sabertooth in a movie, I for one would much rather know that somewhere, in the wild, is a real wolverine taking on an entire pack of wolves, just because he can.

You can help fight for wolverines and other climate change-threatened wildlife by urging President Obama to limit carbon pollution from coal-burning power plants.

Alaska’s Inside Passage is one of many wild and iconic places in the NPLCC region. (Credit: Patricia Tillmann)

6 Management Challenges Presented by Climate Change

Using a survey and thirteen web-based focus group discussions, we asked project participants a series of questions about how climate change was affecting their work to better understand the challenges and opportunities associated with managing ecosystems, habitats, and species in light of current and potential future climate change effects. After analyzing their answers, six primary climate change-related management challenges were identified:

1. It is difficult to know how to identify and use climate-related science, data, tools, and/or information.
2. It is difficult to incorporate uncertainty related to climate change into one’s work.
   

   The NPLCC region is dominated by coastal temperate rainforests and some of the most productive marine waters in the world. (Credit: U.S. FWS)

3. Because climate change is most often framed as a new factor to consider in management, addressing climate change may compete with existing priorities or the wrong priorities may be pursued when climate change is not addressed in management practice.
4. There is a lack of capacity to address climate change, including technical, institutional, and financial capacity.
5. There are institutional, international, cultural, and/or social barriers to addressing climate change.
6. There is a lack of coordination, collaboration, and communication around climate change issues.

We then asked project participants to suggest climate-related science and information needs that, if fulfilled, would advance their ability to incorporate climate change into their work. Potential science and information needs ranged from funding the collection of basic hydrologic data to mapping the location of vulnerable habitats or species and convening workshops to allow managers and scientists from diverse fields to collaborate on identifying adaptation approaches that will work across a broad landscape. The latter suggestion – convening workshops – was already a planned activity for our project.

3 Workshops to Identify and Inform Strategic Planning and Priority-setting

The three workshops brought together ecosystem and climate change experts from agencies, conservation organizations, and universities to further define and refine the potential science and information needs identified through the surveys and web-based focus groups. Participants were asked to evaluate a potential need across four criteria, each of which provides information to the NPLCC about when, where, or for what purpose a particular need is suggested:

Focus group participants from Alaska discussed climate change effects and related managment priorities for sea lions. (Credit: Patricia Tillmann)

• Decision-relevance: what decisions this information would help answer
• Spatial and temporal scale: specify the geographic region and whether the information is needed on an annual, seasonal, daily, etc. timescale
• Timeline/urgency: when this information is needed, tell us why this is important
• Partners/ongoing efforts: who might already have this information or might be well suited to develop it

The final step in this project is to synthesize the information gathered from the survey, web-based focus groups, and in-person workshops. My colleagues and I will work closely with our partners at the University of Washington Climate Impacts Group and the NPLCC to produce a report that is thoroughly reviewed by project participants and synthesizes the information gathered in a way that both accurately reflects participants’ feedback and helps inform the NPLCC’s short- and long-term planning and prioritization efforts.

195 People to Thank for Building the Partnership

All of this work and all of these results were made possible by the 195 project participants and partners that devoted their time, energy, and expertise to thinking about how the NPLCC could best advance climate change adaptation efforts in the region. It has been inspiring, educational, and fun. We have made great strides in just the last nine months; I can’t wait to see what this partnership does in the next nine months! Thank you, project participants and partners, for your commitment and insight throughout the process.

National Wildlife Federation Partnership Wins Prestigious Department of Interior Award

September 22 – A National Wildlife Federation partnership was honored with the Department of Interior’s Partners in Conservation Award for its guidebook, Scanning the Conservation Horizon: A Guide to Climate Change Vulnerability Assessment.

The award is the highest distinction granted by the Secretary of Interior and recognizes innovative collaborations on natural resource goals. The U.S. Geological Survey, one of the partners for the guide, nominated the collaborative effort for the award.

“This Isn’t a Partisan Issue”: Sen. Udall, Rep. Kind Make the Case for Healthy Kids Outdoors

September 22 – At a congressional briefing today on the benefits of reconnecting Americans with the outdoors, Sen. Mark Udall (D-CO) and Rep. Ron Kind (D-WI) announced their intention to introduce Senate and House versions of the Healthy Kids Outdoors Act (HKOA) sometime in the near future.

The bill would support state, local and federal strategies to connect America’s youth with the outdoors through natural play; outdoor recreation like camping, hiking, hunting and fishing; public health plans; outdoor learning environments; service learning and other initiatives.

Pointing to a rise in childhood obesity rates and other health problems related to sedentary (and mostly indoor) lifestyles, Sen. Udall, chairman of the Senate’s Subcommittee on National Parks and co-chairman of the bipartisan Senate Outdoor Recreation Caucus, served notice that the work of getting kids out into nature need not be an occasion for factional squabbling.

NWF Partners with New Movie About Amazing Dolphin

September 22 – National Wildlife Federation (NWF) has teamed up with the Warner Bros. Pictures and Alcon Entertainment film Dolphin Tale to inspire kids and families to learn about dolphins and protect ocean habitat. Dolphin Tale opens nationwide on September 23, with NWF serving as the production’s environmental education partner.

The film is inspired by the amazing true story of a brave dolphin and the people who worked together to save her life. After being caught in a crab trap, the bottlenose dolphin, later named Winter, is rescued but loses her tail. A dedicated marine biologist, a brilliant doctor and a devoted young boy bring about a miracle: a prosthetic tail to help Winter swim again.

Gulf Groups Praise Senate Committee for Approving Gulf Restoration Bill

September 21 -A coalition of six groups supporting Gulf restoration praised the Senate Environment and Public Works (EPW) Committee for approving legislation today, the RESTORE the Gulf Coast States Act, with a strong showing of bipartisan support. The bill passed by voice vote with only three requested no’s recorded.

The legislation would ensure that penalties paid by BP and others responsible for last year’s Gulf oil disaster are used to restore the natural resources, ecosystems, fisheries, marine and wildlife habitats, beaches, barrier islands, dunes, coastal wetlands, and economy of the Gulf Coast; and the economies of communities and the region that were impacted by the spill.

And here are highlights from NWF in the News:

• Star-Tribune: Status of some sea turtles changes from threatened to endangered
• Houston Chronicle: TCEQ rules exacerbate drought’s impact on Galveston Bay (oped)
• KOTA Radio: Pipeline Controversy 

For more, visit www.nwf.org/News

via Tollers/Flickr

Polar bears may be Arctic icons, but even their animal rock-star status can’t always sway Congress to protect wildlife.

Global warming is melting habitat the big white bears depend on to survive, but recent and upcoming votes by the nation’s lawmakers could make the situation even worse.

This year, some members of Congress have taken a sledgehammer to America’s bedrock environmental safeguards, shattering protections that have been in place under Republican and Democratic administrations for decades.

Congressional Attacks

For polar bears, Congress has focused its attack in two ways:

1. Pushing for drilling in vital polar bear habitat:

In February, Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) introduced legislation to drill the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, putting polar bears and their onshore denning habitat at risk. More recently, House members tried to push aside the federal Clean Air Act permitting process to allow Shell Oil to rush forward with ”exploratory drilling” off of Alaska’s coast.  As NWF has reported, an oil spill in this area would be devastating to polar bears and other Arctic species.

2. Blocking the Environmental Protection Agency from controlling carbon pollution:

Congress has considered and voted on a slew of anti-EPA amendments aimed at hamstringing the agency’s court-ordered responsibility to control carbon pollution. According to scientists, we must take swift action to reduce carbon pollution if we hope to save polar bears from extinction.

Even though polar bears are one of the fiercest creatures on the planet, they are helpless against these attacks.

Speak up for Polar Bears

Help protect polar bears and urge Congress to support programs that mitigate the consequences of climate change on wildlife.  It’s not too late for lawmakers to try and make things right, but like Arctic sea ice, time is a resource we’re also running out of.

Wildlife in the Crossfire – About this Series

This four-part blog series highlights wildlife caught in the crossfire of the federal budget battle raging in Congress and gives you the tools to fight back. Congress is in recess and members are back in their home districts. Now is the time to stand up for wildlife.

Fact: America’s investment in wildlife is not to blame for the budget problems we face today. Over the past 30 years, America’s investment in parks, wildlife, clean water and clean air has fallen from 1.7%  to 0.6% of federal spending.