Transcript Presentation slides for October 2012 community meetings.

North Slope
Rapid Ecoregional Assessment
A Bureau of Land Management Project
North Slope Borough Planning Commission
Barrow
September 26, 2013
Contents of this presentation
• Who we are
• What we propose to do
• Who is guiding and assisting us
• Our community engagement strategy
• Your role
• Our future plan
Project Team
University of Alaska
• Alaska Natural Heritage Program (AKNHP - UAA)
• Institute of Social and Economic Research (ISER - UAA)
• Scenarios Network for Alaska & Arctic Planning (SNAP - UAF)
Margaret J. King & Associates
community engagement and facilitation
BLM’s Landscape Approach
Rapid & Other
Ecoregional
Assessments
Project-level
Monitoring
for Adaptive
Management
Landscapescale & other
Inventories
Science
Integration
Field
Implementation
AIMMonitoring at
multiple scales
Ecoregional
Direction
Local-scale
assessment,
inventory, and
monitoring
What is an REA?
Broadly speaking, REAs try to…
• Identify things of value in the environment
and how they are changing over time, and
what may be causing that change
• Focus on large areas and look at the really
big picture instead of a particular lake or
river
Identify Focal Areas
Identify Risks & Opportunities
What does an REA provide?
REAs do not make decisions or allocate
resources
They provide information and tools for
land managers
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•
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Current status of things of value in the environment
Future status (25, 50 years out)
Identify data gaps and science needs
Suggestions for land managers on how they might use
this information
North Slope Ecoregion Assessment Area
Who is guiding and assisting us?
Assessment Management Team (AMT)
- A team of land managers and experts in land
management from various federal and state agencies
that guide the project
Technical Team (Tech Team)
- Experts in various relevant science fields that evaluate
and advise on the technical aspects
Assessment Components
Management Questions (MQs)
Conservation Elements (CEs)
Change Agents (CAs)
Management Question Selection
Identified the most relevant outstanding
questions from previous research
AMT voted three times and identified
the 20 most important questions
Examples:
• AF 1. What are baseline characteristics and trends in fish habitat (lakes and
streams), fish distribution, and fish movements?
• AT 2. What potential impacts will oil/gas exploration and development
have on CE habitat?
• TC 4. What are the expected changes to habitat as a result of coastal
erosion and coastal salinization?
• TF 2. What are caribou preferences for vegetation communities? Where do
these vegetation communities exist?
Conservation elements (CEs)
These are the things of value in the
environment . They can be:
On land
In water
Environment and
associated conditions
Land cover (Ex: coastal Aquatic cover (Ex:
plain)
shallow connected
lakes)
Individual species
Ex: Caribou
Ex: Arctic grayling
Land Cover CEs
Tidal marsh - high bird use
Marine beach/beach
meadow
Coastal Plain - Fresh water
marsh
Coastal Plain - High-centered
polygons
Land Species CEs
Important as consumers but also as prey
(including carcasses) for the large and
medium-sized predators. Important
subsistence resources.
Caribou
Nearctic collared lemming
Arctic Fox
Lapland Longspur
Raptor concentration areas
Willow ptarmigan
Spectacled Eider
Aquatic Cover CEs
Classes based on winter water availability
and connection to stream network
Deep connected lakes
Shallow connected lakes
Disconnected lakes
Classes based on differences in origin
Glacial rivers
Clear water rivers
Coastal plain rivers
Mountain streams
Coastal plain streams
Estuaries
Aquatic Species CEs
Broad whitefish
Arctic grayling
Dolly Varden
Lake trout (or burbot)
Change agents
They change the status of the conservation
elements
Five primary agents of change:
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•
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Human uses
Climate change
Fire
Permafrost
Invasive species
Human Uses
Any use of land by humans or associated
activities
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Subsistence
Natural resource extraction
Transportation and communication
Recreation
Energy development
Climate Change
Impacts at regional and local level
Multiple aspects of climate change (e.g.
mean temperature & precipitation,
extremes, seasonal timing)
Drives multiple types of change
Fire
Changing fire dynamics impact
• landscape
• Land cover
• Permafrost
Frequency of fires change
Invasive Species
Non-native species that causes
economic or environmental harm or
harm to human health (Executive
Order 13112)
Invasive Species
They harm economic or environmental
conditions and human health
Non-Native Plant Occurrences in North Slope
How it all works
REAs collect and compile data, and estimate
these impacts
Change Agent
Conservation Element
Management Question
Land managers, at all levels, can use this
information in their decisions
Example of CA effects on CEs
The effects of wildfire on caribou range
Caribou herd
range map
Fire history
Example of CA effects on CEs
Community Engagement
News letters for all interested stakeholders
Community meetings to inform and get
feedback
• North Slope Borough Planning Commission
• Is representative
• Makes decisions on land use
• Approves land use plans
• Often may have need for information on possible future
situations
What we request from you
Encourage dialogue in your communities
Follow our newsletters and keep yourself
informed
Feel free to contact us with your ideas
Encourage others to contact us with their ideas
We will come back after some progress in early
Spring 2014
Review
Questions?
Observations?
Comments?