Resources

Springs are keystone ecosystems in the Sky Island Region, exert disproportionate influence on surrounding landscapes, and are known to be biodiversity hotspots. Although they are abundant in this arid region, they are poorly documented and little studied. They also suffer from extensive human modification and are among the most threatened ecosystems. Lack of information on their location, management context, and biological, hydrological, and ecological characteristics hinders effective stewardship of these resources.

This presentation describes the attributes of rivers of the Southwest US and northern Mexico and how those physical attributes, especially sediment transport and geomorphology, might be considered in developing environmental flows. The primary examples are drawn from the Rio Grande in far west Texas and different parts of the Colorado River basin.

The need for better integration of science and decision making in environmental management is widely documented. In light of anticipated climate change and associated changes in demographics, land use, and water management practices, decision makers are confronted with the need to make major decisions in the face of high system complexity and uncertainty. The integration of useful and relevant scientific information is necessary and critical to enable informed decision-making.

Today a range of monumental conservation challenges confronts the Appalachians. This includes the loss and fragmentation of natural habitats; disruptions in natural disturbance regimes; and expanding major land-use changes that are occurring on a grand scale. Climate change will further exacerbate these challenges. The magnitude of these landscape-level changes requires a shift from traditional local and single-species conservation approaches toward a more comprehensive scale to protect species, habitats, and ecosystems.

The Gulf Coast Prairie LCC has reached a significant milestone in its development with the completion of its Science Strategy. An effort begun October 2013 by the Science Team, this strategy focuses on the Top Tier Focal Species and their associated habitats. It will help LCC partners align their efforts to address species and habitat needs, direct science resources, and communicate about conservation work.

Changes in the timing of phenological events—such as hibernation, migration, and breeding —have been called a 'globally coherent fingerprint of climate change impacts' on plants and animals. Not surprisingly, phenology is now widely accepted as a robust ecological indicator of the impacts of climate change. Climate-induced changes in phenology have been linked to increases in wildfire activity and pest outbreaks, shifts in species distributions, declines in the abundance of native species, the spread of invasive species, and changes in carbon cycling in forests.

The 3D Elevation Program (3DEP) initiative is being developed to respond to growing needs for high-quality topographic data and for a wide range of other three-dimensional representations of the Nation's natural and constructed features. The primary goal of 3DEP is to systematically collect enhanced elevation data in the form of high-quality light detection and ranging (lidar) data over the conterminous United States, Hawaii, and the U.S. territories.

We prioritize our efforts based on decision maker’s science needs and on opportunities to leverage our resources.  Within this framework, focusing on a particular topic or theme allows us to refine our selection and form a suite of integrated activities to fund, resulting in a number of synergistic benefits:

This is a webinar for the Bird Alliance Education for Conservation hosted by the Sonoran Joint Venture and the Desert Landscape Conservation Cooperative. The presenter is Trica Hawkins from Tucson's Environmental Education Exchange, and the topic is human dimensions of wildlife conservation and the role of ethics and values in decision making and partnership building. Trica has been very involved in the bighorn sheep reintroduction here in Tucson and will be using that as a case study.

About the Presenter:

As one of the cornerstones of the U.S. Geological Survey's (USGS) National Geospatial Program, The National Map is a collaborative effort among the USGS and other Federal, State, and local partners to improve and deliver topographic information for the Nation. The National Map comprises a variety of products and services that provide access to base geospatial information (such as orthoimagery, elevation data, and hydrography) to describe the landscape of the United States.

Rapid ongoing climate change presents new challenges to natural resource managers. Effects are usually at large landscape scales and management actions must account for future uncertainty, often based solely on locally available data. Because birds are known to be indicators of ecosystem health and function and are cost effective to survey at multiple scales, they can provide early warnings of broader changes that may accompany climate change and other landscape-scale level environmental stressors.

The Strategic Plan guides the GCPO LCC, defining its vision, mission, challenges, long-range goals, way of working and 5-year strategies for work in its 180-million acre geography.

The Nature Conservancy, in partnership with the Upper Midwest and Great Lakes LCC, launched the Great Lakes Migratory Bird Stopover Portal in 2014, an online database available to natural resources managers across the Great Lakes that identifies and projects important migratory bird stopover habitat for landbirds, shorebirds and waterfowl.

Reporting on activities and achievement for the Appalachian Landscape Conservation Cooperative in 2013.

Reporting on activities and achievement for the California Landscape Conservation Cooperative in 2013.

Reporting on activities and achievement for the Eastern Tallgrass Prairie and Big Rivers Landscape Conservation Cooperative in 2013.

Reporting on activities and achievement for the Great Northern Landscape Conservation Cooperative in 2013.

Reporting on activities and achievement for the Gulf Coast Prairie Landscape Conservation Cooperative in 2013.

Reporting on activities and achievement for the entire Landscape Conservation Cooperative Network in 2013.

Reporting on activities and achievement for the North Pacific Landscape Conservation Cooperative in 2013.

Reporting on activities and achievement for the Pacific Islands Landscape Conservation Cooperative in 2013.

Reporting on activities and achievement for the Plains and Prairie Potholes Landscape Conservation Cooperative in 2013.

The 2013 Southern Rockies LCC annual report highlights science projects as well as accomplishments and activities. Initiated in April 2011, the Southern Rockies LCC has established itself as a diverse partnership. In 2013, SRLCC partners contributed over $1.6 million to support science acquisition and capacity to address landscape-level conservation planning. Of the $1.6 million, $669,000 was leveraged for an additional $808,000 in matching funds and/or in-kind services, generating a total of $1.48 million for science that informs management decisions.