Projects By Product: Report

Landscape Conservation Cooperatives use a collaborative approach to identify landscape scale conservation solutions. LCCs work across jurisdictional and political boundaries to work with partners to: meet unfilled conservation needs, develop decision support tools, share data and knowledge, and facilitate and foster partnerships.

As part of a shared science strategy, LCCs coordinate closely with the National Climate Change and Wildlife Center and the eight regional Climate Science Centers.

Of the vital rates that determine recruitment, breeding propensity (i.e., the proportion of females that lay at least one egg) and nest success appear to have the greatest influence, but breeding propensity remains poorly studied.

The decline in the monarch butterfly has led to it being considered for listing under the Endangered Species Act.

The decline in the monarch butterfly has led to it being considered for listing under the Endangered Species Act.

The Red River Stakeholder Engagement project’s primary objective was to uncover areas of concern for stakeholders who live, work, and play along the Red River Basin. It examined the complexity of the cultural-geographic landscape across the Red River Basin.

We propose to empirically characterize hydrology/fish-production relationships for different ecological groups of fishes living in the Red River and associated reservoir habitats by: 1. Correlating historic hydrologic data with catch curve residuals, and 2.

The GCP LCC Steering Committee tasked the GCP LCC Science Team to reduce to 25 a list Surrogate Species (from a long list of Priority, and Focal Species) for use in conservation planning.

In response to the rapid and dramatic hydroecological deterioration of the Rio Grande through Big Bend, the Big Bend Conservation Cooperative (BBCC), a multi-disciplinary group of natural resource agencies, research institutions, and conservation organizations have been organizing and implementin

Land managers and resource and conservation professionals across political and organizational boundaries (e.g. state and federal agencies, non-governmental organizations, private landowners) often lack a common framework for planning and coordinated decision-making on a regional scale.

This project will use existing climate change scenarios and sea-level rise projections to create a Climate Change Adaptation Plan in collaboration with the Chitimacha Tribe of Louisiana.

In 2012, the South Atlantic Landscape Conservation Cooperative (SALCC) began development of its process to select natural resource indicators and targets as specific landscape scale measures of success for natural resources.

There are myriad barriers to aquatic connectivity beyond dams, with culverts at road crossings primary among them. UGA will lead the effort to develop a database of these non-dam blockages and model the likelihood that each is a barrier to fish movement, including mussel hosts.

The primary objective of this project is to develop a short synthesis report assessing 11 habitats, using a variety of ecological indicators.

The South Atlantic LCC is seeking technical assistance in the testing process for their newly chosen terrestrial natural resource indicators (http://www.southatlanticlcc.org/indicators).

The South Atlantic LCC is seeking technical assistance in evaluating the past, current, and future condition of the ecological systems of the South Atlantic.

The Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation – Natural Heritage Program (DCRDNH) and the Florida Natural Areas Inventory (FNAI) at Florida State University (collectively, Project Partners) were funded by the South Atlantic Landscape Conservation Cooperative (SALCC) in April 2015 to deve

This carbon sequestration research is part of a new pilot grassland conservation program to protect at-risk grasslands from conversion to cropland in the northern Great Plains. Natural resources partners have leveraged more than $3 million in private and federal funding to support an innovative p

The Midwest Glacial Lakes Partnership (MGLP), a Fish Habitat Partnership (FHP) recognized by the National Fish Habitat Action Plan (NFHAP) Board in March 2009, has been developing a dataset for the Midwest glacial lakes, equivalent to the NHD, since 2008.

Submersed aquatic vegetation, a critical component of highly productive coastal ecosystems, is greatly affected by sea level rise.

The goal of the project is to determine biodiversity impacts of land restoration associated with clean and renewable energy development; specifically, natural gas production through anaerobic digestion of hog manure and native plant material, as being forwarded by Roeslein Alternative Energy (RAE

Urban communities are increasingly shaping the conservation future of the South Atlantic. Major metropolitan areas present both direct threats, such as loss habitat and open space, and indirect threats, such as creating barriers to connectivity.

The Desert LCC will provide the 50% of the Federal component of funds, and the work designed will support the science objectives for the Desert LCC and its partners as well as provide needed improvements to the National Hydrography Dataset (NHD) in the Lower Colorado River Region, and beyond.

There are few resources that provide managers cross-scale information for planning climate adaptation strategies for species and taxa at risk. Appropriate allocation of resources requires an understanding of mechanisms influencing a species’ risk to global change. Dr.

The project had four explicit objectives: 1) Conduct a climate vulnerability assessment of Species of Greatest Need of Conservation and major habitat types 2) Identify conservation strategies that increase resiliency or adaptive capacity, or mitigate the effects of climate change 3) Outline an ad

After two funding cycles, the Upper Midwest and Great Lakes (UM&GL) Landscape Conservation Cooperative (LCC) decided a more strategic approach was needed to address theconservation priorities of the region.

In the United States, many resources devoted to conservation are routed through states, but animal and plant populations do not conform to state boundaries. Consequently, neighboring states can enhance their collective conservation impact by coordinating natural resources management.

This project connects scientists and managers from federal, tribal and state agencies and nongovernmental organizations to exchange information and establish common priorities for management of terrestrial wildlife populations.

    As a major threat to global biodiversity, climate change will alter where and how we manage conservation lands (e.g., parks, refuges, wildlife management areas, natural areas).

Capacity to prioritize barrier removals in the Great Lakes basin is currently limited by lack of data on the passability of road crossings and dams for both unwanted invasive species and desirable native migratory fishes.

In June 2015, the Eastern Tallgrass Prairie and Big Rivers Landscape Conservation Cooperative (LCC) of the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service (USFWS) granted $80,000 to the City of St.

Habitat fragmentation is considered to be a leading cause that is responsible for the long-term population declines of Northern Bobwhites.

Habitat loss and degradation due to urban expansion and other human activities have raised concerns for the Western Gulf Coast Mottled Duck population. This species relies on tidal, palustrine, and agricultural wetlands as well as grasslands for all of its life cycle needs.

Flow alteration -- from new and existing water supply projects, increased urbanization, and drought conditions -- is a pervasive threat to aquatic wildlife throughout the Gulf Coast Prairie region.

Alligator Gar, *Atractosteus spatula*, is an iconic species native to lowland floodplain river systems where they play an important role as top predators and by linking landscapes through their movement. Alligator Gar is also an important native fisheries species in the Trinity River.

The southeast United States’ rivers and streams support the most diverse unionid (freshwater mussel) fauna on earth.

Habitat fragmentation and degradation are considered to be a leading causes of long-term population declines of Northern Bobwhites and many other species of grassland birds, such as Eastern Meadowlark.  Research is needed to understand the factors causing habitat loss and fragmentation and to ide

Grasslands are among the most threatened ecosystems on the planet (Hoekstra et al 2004). Recently, the bird conservation and grasslands communities have united around a forward looking approach to conservation planning. To accomplish this the following information is needed:

This project proposes development of a spatial decision support system (DSS) designed to address an identified major conservation goal of the Eastern Tallgrass Prairie and Big Rivers Landscape Conservation Cooperative (ETPBR LCC), in collaboration with adjacent LCCs in the Midwestern U.S.

Monarch butterfly and other pollinators are in trouble. Monarch butterfly habitat— including milkweed host plants and nectar food sources—has declined drastically throughout most of the United States.

This project will improve tribal and First Nation engagement in cooperative natural resource conservation efforts.  Researchers are fostering networking among tribes, First Nations and other relevant partners in the upper Midwest – Great Lakes region, and engaging tribal and First Nation represen

The study seeks to provide a retrospective analysis of the relationships among bird abundance and distribution and changes in land cover and climate in the upper Midwest and Great Lakes region.  The resultant models will be used to provide spatially explicit forecasts of future avian responses. 

The Nature Conservancy - Great Lakes Program is leading the development of a scalable (Great Lakes wide, individual lake basin, to coastal reach within a lake basin) rule-based spatial model for ranking the relative importance of coastal lands and waters as habitat for migrating birds.

Researchers assessed how an expansion of forest reserves and climate-adaptive  management may improve ecological connectivity and resilience under different climate scenarios.  Resilience is measured as the capacity for these systems to maintain extant forest communities and aboveground live biom

Mayflies (Ephemeroptera), stoneflies (Plecoptera), and caddisflies (Trichoptera) (a.k.a. EPT taxa) are the most environmentally sensitive of freshwater insects. They are utilized the world over as indicators of water quality in flowing waters.

Full life-cycle vulnerability assessments are identifying the effects of climate change on nongame migratory birds that are of conservation concern and breed in the upper Midwest and Great Lakes region.

Working within the constraints of the SWAP revision timeline, we propose to advance biodiversity conservation within the region by enhancing the regional effectiveness of SWAPs and the ability of the LCC to address regional biodiversity priorities.

For management agencies, there is a growing need to understand (1) how climate change affects and will continue to affect wildlife populations of conservation concern, and (2) how the negative Upper Midwest Great Lakes Landscape Conservation Cooperative Request for Funding 2013 demographic effect

Forest-dominated landscapes provide a wide range of ecosystem services to many different sectors of society, including forest products (e.g., timber), recreational opportunities and support of tourism, carbon sequestration, and habitat for fish and wildlife and other biodiversity.

The primary goals of this proposed project are to help identify and prioritize threats to endangered mussels and to determine whether existing environmental concentrations of ammonia, copper, and major ions in sediment pore-water are contributing to the decline of native mussel populations, as in

Great Lakes coastal wetlands provide critical habitat for many species of birds, mammals, reptiles, and amphibians, and provide essential spawning and nursery habitat for many fish species of ecologic and economic importance.

This project directly addresses the need for integration of climate change information and strategies into Wisconsin’s Wildlife Action Plan (WWAP) as identified by Upper Midwest and Great Lakes Land Conservation Cooperative.