Transcript Slide 1

Stone Soup Conservation
Responding to Landscape Challenges
In the Plains and Prairie Potholes LCC
Rick Nelson, Coordinator
Plains and Prairie Potholes LCC
Bismarck, ND
Presentation Outline
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Background – Why
 Why I’m in the business
 Why LCC’s
 Why the PPP-LCC
Foundational Pieces
 How are we different than other conservation
partnerships?
Where we’ve been and where we’re going
 Integration of decision analysis
 Projects of interest
 Questions
Conservation is a Core Value
Some see things as they are and say why?
I see things as they could be and say why not?
Why Are “We” Doing This?
• The future in the modern imagination has always
stretched out ahead like a broad highway drawing
us onward with the promise of tomorrow. Now
rather suddenly, as it becomes impossible to
ignore dramatic physical changes taking place
across the Earth, the future looms like an urgent
question. Whatever the coming century brings, it
will not unfold smoothly as some improved but
largely familiar versions of life as we know it. This
is the only thing that seems certain.
Dianne Dumanoski, The End of the Long Summer
Landscape Conservation Cooperatives:
Geographic Areas
Landscape Conservation Cooperatives
A Functional Conservation Network
Vision:
“Landscapes capable of sustaining
natural and cultural resources for
current and future generations."
Landscape Conservation Cooperatives
A Functional Conservation Network
Mission
A network of cooperatives depends on LCCs to:
Develop and provide integrated science-based information about the implications
of climate change and other stressors for the sustainability of natural and cultural
resources;
Develop shared, landscape-level, conservation objectives and inform
conservation strategies that are based on a shared scientific understanding about
the landscape, including the implications of current and future environmental
stressors;
Facilitate the exchange of applied science in the implementation of conservation
strategies and products developed by the Cooperative or their partners;
Monitor and evaluate the effectiveness of LCC conservation strategies in meeting
shared objectives;
Develop appropriate linkages that connect LCCs to ensure an effective network.
“Our” Challenges
 Land use changes/Habitat
fragmentation
 Genetic isolation
 Invasive Species
 Water Scarcity
 Energy Development
 Climate change – direct
and compounding effects
 Economics – Budgets
Temperature Change,° C
1958-2008
Foundational Framework
The LCC Network
and
Landscape Scale Conservation
Why is Landscape Scale Conservation
and an Adaptive Approach Important?
Political boundaries - We’re facing challenges that are
immense in scale and cross political boundaries.
Agency/Organizational silos - Cross-organizational
coordination is critical to assuring the most efficient
use of limited resources to address issues that cross
agency missions.
Nonstationarity - Adaptive management approaches
provide the best chance to address large-scale issues
effectively in an unpredictable future.
Strategic Habitat Conservation:
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How to flourish in an era of rapid change?
Build a Strategy Network*
vision, opportunity, agility, inspired action, community
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Convene many change agents from within the ranks.
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Draw attention to front-line concerns.
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View the future from multiple angles.
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Focus passion and intelligence on the biggest opportunities.
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Think creatively to solve wicked problems.
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Eliminate collaborative barriers between organizations.
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Promote a useful flow of information and activity.
*Accelerate! J.P. Kotter. Reprint R1211B. Harvard Business Review, Nov 2012.
The LCC Niche
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Geographic scale
Work across taxa
Forward looking
Decision focused
Adaptable
Integrate human dimensions components
(economics, social science, etc…)
The LCC Network
LCCnetwork.org
Plains and Prairie Potholes LCC
Where we’ve been and
where we’re headed
PPP LCC Science Needs
25 uncertainties identified in first DA workshop
Reduced these to 7 (in order of importance):
Species responses to stressors
Energy development
Decision makers
Land use under policy scenarios
Emerging threats
Invasive species
Hydrology
First 5 years of the PPP-LCC
• Accomplishments
– Funded 40+ research projects
– Decision Analysis and SDM Workshops –
focus science needs.
– Hosted Connections Workshop
– Working with NCCSC on integration
– Collaborating on numerous multi-lcc
efforts to knit the network together
Projects of importance to the PPP LCC
Partners include…
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Effects of oil and gas development on grassland birds
Pattern tile drainage & wetland consolidation
Native Prairie Adaptive Management
Bats, Birds & Wind
Sagebrush habitat – grazing impacts.
Grassland Conversion Risk Analysis
Assist with updated SWAP’s
Grassland bird conservation on working landscapes: spatial
analysis linking populations to habitats
• Invasive species connections to energy development
• Fish Passage in response to climate change
• Aquatic Habitat models – NFHAP
Connections II Workshop
Goal: “Connect” the why and what of specific research with how managers
can use the research products – from science production to application.
Expected Outcome: Participants will know how to use recent results of PPP
LCC science in conservation plans and actions.
Connections II Workshop
Bob Gresswell, Bob Bramblett, Kathy Chase: Predicting effects of climate
change on native fishes in northern Great Plains streams
Matt Blank: Maintaining Migratory pathways of imperiled large river and
small stream prairie fishes in the face of climate change and energy
development
Ben Rashford: Targeting grassland conservation: An estimate of land-use
conversion risk in the northern Great Plains
Vicky Dreitz: Assessing Land Use Practices on the Ecological
Characteristics of Sagebrush Ecosystems: Multiple Migratory Bird
Responses
Todd Preston: Presence and Abundance of Non-Native Plant Species Near
Oil Well Pads in Native Prairie Landscapes
Connections II Workshop
Doug Johnson, Sarah Thompson: Effects of Oil and Gas Development on
Grassland Birds in North Dakota
Max Post Van der Burg: Developing a Foundation for Strategic
Management and Mitigation of Energy Development in the Northern Great
Plains
Megan Cross. Megan shared with the group an update on her human
dimensions work at the University of Minnesota. Megan is focusing on
three counties in MN, ND, IA and the decisions that landowners make
related to entering (or not entering) into a conservation reserve program
contract.
Larry Gigilotti and Lily Sweikert: Human Dimensions of Habitat Loss in
the Plains and Prairie Potholes LCC
Multi-LCC projects
How can we work together across the continent?
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How can we use decisionmaking tools for strategic
adaptation to land use and
climate impacts?
How can we combine efforts
across the Mississippi River
Basin to connect
conservation areas?
Least tern meta-population
monitoring design
Pintails – linking regional
management to continental
scale.
Using LCMap host CHAT
Sage-Steppe Partner Forum
Cross LCC project reviews
Focus for 2014 and Beyond
1. Information related to land use, land use policy and factors influencing land
use and land conversion, including potential impacts to aquatic systems.
 Improve our estimate of rates of change – linking high resolution images
to large landscape questions to assist in conservation planning. This could
include work on synthesizing what is known about land use changes (habitat
loss).
 Improve our estimates of risk related to landscape scale change
 Improve our understanding of interrelationship between land-use change
and decisions made by landowners related to these changes
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Information related to landowner decision making that will help the
partnership improve and/or incentivize conservation.
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PPP LCC Strategic Plan - 2015
Why?
The conservation community has achieved great things through the efforts of
many agencies and organizations. And, conservation success will be
measured as our willingness to be innovative, try new approaches, make
modifications as needed, embrace change, shift from reactive to proactive
conservation, and use any and all possible methods to ensure success. But, the
21st Century issues we face place us in “a whole other world” and our traditional
and highly successful place based strategies may not be well suited to meeting
landscape scale, 21st Century challenges. Therefore, “we” are building the LCC
Network to successfully navigate an unknown and uncertain future.
Relevant and “Relateable” Conservation
in an era of rapid and disruptive change .
Our conservation passion ≠ Public understanding or support
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Feedback and Questions
LCCnetwork.org
PlainsandPrairiePotholesLCC.org
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