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Marbled Murrelet, one threatened species included in the Washington State Wildlife Action Plan. Credit: Rich MacIntosh/USFWS
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Guiding Conservation
Adding value to the Washington Department of Fish & Wildlife (WDFW) State Wildlife Action Plan: This year, the NPLCC assisted WDFW with integrating climate change information into the Washington State Wildlife Action Plan (SWAP). WDFW wanted to do a thorough job looking at how climate change would impact species and habitats covered in their SWAP. "Support from the NPLCC helped us to add critical substance to the SWAP and made it more useful to us as managers," said Lynn Helbrecht, State Wildlife Action Plan Coordinator. The goal for the SWAP is to evaluate climate change threats and actions not as a stand-alone concept but in the context of existing stressors and conservation challenges. More info on the project
Mapping where and when it's too hot for fish - NorWest Stream Temperature Database: NPLCC partnered with Dr. Dan Isaak and his team to expand the stream temperature database into coastal Washington and Oregon. Since collecting data for this area was completed, the database has continued to gain interest from fish managers and biologists in neighboring regions, and is now being expanded into Canada. In January, over 170 conservation partners convened for a science-management webinar (view here) to learn how this information could benefit their conservation work.
The information is helping managers make better and more efficient management decisions about species of interest that depend on cold waters. This database is also informing other science projects including research on how Pacific lamprey will be affected by climate change, a project led by USFWS' Columbia River Fisheries Program Office.
This work was also recently featured in The Oregonian; read the article here.
Using beaver to restore streams: The recently released, NPLCC-supported, Beaver Restoration Guidebook is being used around the region and across the country. Since its release in July, we've tracked over 2,200 opens on the NPLCC website alone, and over 11,000 views on the official announcement. The NPLCC partnered with USFWS' Dr. Janine Castro and her team to develop this guidebook at the request of our conservation partners.
Other organizations are already implementing the Guidebook into their efforts. Steve Schmidt, Regional Supervisor for the Idaho Department of Fish and Game Upper Snake Region stated "The Upper Snake Beaver Cooperative in eastern Idaho was pursuing its own set of beaver guidelines. Likely we will table that effort and instead focus on using The Beaver Restoration Guidebook as the foundation for our beaver management efforts." The Occidental Arts & Ecology Center in California has said "This Guidebook is the most thorough treatment to date on how to conduct beaver restoration in the West."
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Lower Columbia River Landscape Conservation Design Work
At the request of USFWS and other conservation partners, the NPLCC is helping launch a new Landscape Conservation Design project in the Lower Columbia River Basin and outer coast. Partners in the region agreed over the lack of a large landscape conservation blueprint within the region and this project will help fulfill those needs. Earlier in October, we began brainstorming the launch of the project. Main topics covered were development of initial over-all goals and phases, discussing potential geographic boundaries, reviewing other regional LCD examples, considering partnerships, and developing a communication plan. Stay tuned for more information as the project moves into its next stages.
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The LCC Network is made up of 22 LCCs in North America
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Across the LCC Network
LCC Council Updates: We are pleased to announce that NPLCC Coordinator, John Mankowski has been asked to represent the 22 LCCs on the LCC Council. In addition to John, two new tribal representatives, Courtenay Carty from Bristol Bay Native Association and Steve Terry of the United South and Eastern Tribes were appointed to continue bettering LCC Network relations with Tribes and First Nations. The purpose of the Council is to support the cooperative conservation and sustainable resource management efforts of the LCC Network, to assist the LCC Network in achieving its goals, to contribute to building a constituency of partners, and to help sustain the LCC initiative.
Strategic Planning: Additionally, the LCC Network is in the process of finalizing its Science Plan, which will guide the Network and 22 LCCs across North America. The Science Plan uses a strategic conservation framework to identify and describe the common science and technical priorities and practices that support the LCC Network's Vision and Mission. The Plan identifies four strategic goal areas including Conservation Strategy, Collaborative Conservation, Science, and Communication. The Plan is set to be finalized and released for the LCC Network All Hands meeting in late October.
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Tribes/First Nations
Tribal Climate Change Webinars - BIA’s Climate Change Competitive Award Process Overview:
Speakers:
- Sean Hart, BIA Climate Change Coordinator
- Rachael Novak, BIA Climate Science Coordinator
Session 2 (registration not yet available)
Date: November 10, 2015
Time: 10:00-11:00 a.m. PST (1:00-2:00 pm EST)
BIA expects that the Notification of Available Funding announcement will be out, and due to restrictions of competitive funding, the speakers will only be able to take written questions which will be posted on the BIA website.
For information on Session 2 of this series, please contact: Sue Wotkyns, Program Manager, at Susan.Wotkyns@nau.edu/928-523-1488 OR Nikki Cooley, Program Coordinator, Sr. at Nikki.Cooley@nau.edu.
Point No Point Treaty Council Seeking Climate Change Action Analyst: The Point No Point Treaty Council, an intertribal natural resources management agency serving two Western Washington Treaty Tribes, is seeking qualified applicants to fill the position of Climate Change Action Analyst at the Central Office located in Poulsbo, Washington. Learn more
Klamath Basin Traditional Ecological Knowledge and Climate Change Science Internship: In 2014, NPLCC & Northwest Climate Science Center provided funding to the Quartz Valley Indian Reservation to hire five tribal youth for a ten week Traditional Ecological Knowledge and Climate Change Science internship.
During the ten week internship, college-age students from the Klamath Tribes, QVIR, Karuk Tribe, Hoopa Valley Indian Reservation, and the Yurok Tribe were trained in both western science and traditional ecological knowledge. Students had the chance to work with mentors from tribes and federal agencies to study topics like fire; drought and forest related effects of climate on tribal traditional foods; aquatic habitat restoration approaches; stream temperature refugia critical to fisheries; and climate effects to species valuable to tribes. Learn more about the project and read the students' final reports here
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