Departmental Highlights	 DH - 35	 Cooperative Landscape Conservation

The American landscape is changing – impacting lives and livelihoods in communities across

the Nation. Some communities face increasing

problems with water availability and drought, impacting farming and other uses, while other urban

and rural areas are beset by catastrophic flooding.

Diseased and infested forests are one of the factors

causing fires to be more severe than normal. The

fire season is getting longer, increasing the threat

to nearby communities, while those who live along

the Nation’s coastlines confront acceleratederosion

and increasing risks to structures and infrastructure. Those making their living from agriculture

and others who depend on the land, increasingly

face challenges from new pests and unwanted yet

virulent invasive species that have never been a

problem before. A key factor contributing to these

problems is climate change.

These same challenges also face Interior’s land and

wildlife managers who are stewards of America’s

Cooperative Landscape

Conservation

Through our Climate Science Centers and Landscape Conservation 

Cooperatives, Interior is partnering with others to leverage information 

and develop the tools and strategies needed to help make future land 

management decisions in the face of a changing American landscape. 

Ken Salazar, Secretary of the Interior

January 25, 2011

Priority Goal

Interior is working to integrate science,

adaptation, and mitigation expertise and

make this information and best management practices available to public and

private land managers across the United

States.

The Department’s Priority Goal for this

effort is:

By the end of 2012, for 50 percent 

of the Nation, the Department will 

identify resources that are particularly 

vulnerable to climate change, and 

implement coordinated adaptation 

response actions.

Interior’s strategy for accomplishing the

goal is outlined in this chapter.

natural and cultural resources. Interior manages

20 percent of the Nation’s lands, about 500 million

acres within its 394 national park units, 553 wildlife

refuges, 71 fish hatcheries, and 248 million acres of

public land that include 21 national conservation

areas and16nationalmonuments. TheDepartment

is also the largest supplier and manager of water

in the 17 western States, delivering irrigation to 31

million people, one out of every five western farmers, and ten million acres of farmland. 
Cooperative Landscape Conservation	 DH - 36 Departmental Highlights

The Department is making significant progress in

developingsciencecapability,conservationcooperatives, and othertools that are being used to manage

lands and resources in the face of these challenges.

These efforts are assisting Federal, State, tribal, and

local decision makers in their efforts to understand,

adaptively manage, and reduce adverse impacts

from ongoing land and resource management challenges. Interior is maximizing the effectiveness of

these efforts by leveraging information, activities,

and fiscal resources with other Federal agencies,

States, Tribes, and non-governmental partners.

As stewardsofAmerica’snaturalresources,Interior

hasdevelopedastrategytokeeppacewiththechanging landscape. The strategy has three important

elements – strengthening scientific capabilities and

knowledge base, developing connections between

natural resource professionals and scientists to develop strategies to meet on-the-ground challenges,

andimplementingthese strategies throughongoing

resource management programs. 

To implement this strategy, Interior will complete

a network of Landscape Conservation Cooperatives, where natural resource professionals work

collaboratively with others to understand and

manage changes in specific ecosystems and landscapes. This network is linking existing programs

and leveraging them at the Federal, State and local

level through real and virtual connections to facilitate sharing of knowledge and solutions among

professionals. The network is supported by science

centers that translate global scientific understanding of change into solutions at the landscape level.

Science provides the framework for this strategy

and plays a large role in addressing challenges to

conservation of the Nation’s lands and resources,

includingclimate change. ThroughClimateScience

CentersandLandscapeConservationCooperatives,

Interioris working to translate cutting edge science

into hands-on solutions that land and resource

managers need to be effective stewards. A science

based understanding of these issues and practical

Landscape Conservation Cooperatives
Departmental Highlights	 DH - 37	 Cooperative Landscape Conservation

agencies,Statesandtribalgovernments,andprivate

organizations. Key to this strategy is leveraging

all available scientific information about resource

health and trends, including traditional knowledge

from American Indians and Alaska Natives, and

developing approaches that maximize benefit and

minimize cost.

The budget continues investments in climate variabilityscienceattheClimateScienceCentersandthe

biologic and geologic carbon sequestration projects

underway at the U.S. Geological Survey, as well

as in adaptive management with the completion

of Landscape Conservation Cooperatives and the

support of other adaptive management activities

across the Department.

Climate Variability Science

The 2012 budgetincludes continued investments in

climate variability research at USGS, with targeted

increases for the Climate Science Centers and the

USGS biological carbon sequestration project. In

total, the budget includes $72.9 million for Climate

Variability Science, an increase of $9.7 million over

the 2010 Enacted/2011 CR level. 

Climate Science Centers –The2012budgetincludes

$31.0 million forthe Climate Science Centers, an increaseof$12.8millionoverthe2010Enacted/2011CR

level. These centers provide scientific information,

tools, and techniques that land, water, wildlife, and

applications have broad benefits for resource managers that are wrestling with the need to find practical and cost effective approaches to conservation

in the face of economic challenges. The Interior

Department has assessed and refocused its science

programs to focus on those that are key to on-thegroundresults,andterminatedorreducedprograms

that do not contribute to these efforts.

Interior is working collaboratively across its bureaus, with other Federal agencies, State, and tribal

governments,andnon-governmentalorganizations

to leverage fiscal resources and expertise and focus

them on conservation of the Nation’s different ecosystems. Interior’s strategy recognizes that America’s ecosystems face highly variable challenges that

cannot be solved by working species by species or

within traditional jurisdictional land boundaries.

Instead, these challenges must be identified and

addressed by assessing the entire landscape, using

landscape-scale data and partnerships to develop

workable solutions. 

2012 Budget Summary

The 2012 budget request provides $175.0 million

for activities that contribute to Interior’s landscape

management strategy, an increase of $43.8 million

over the 2010 Enacted/2011 CR level. The Department’s approach will ensure that management

decisions are grounded in science and coordinated

with land and resource managers in other Federal

COOPERATIVE LANDSCAPE CONSERVATION

(dollars in millions)

2010 Enacted/

2011 CR 2012 Change

Climate Variability Science

	 USGS ............................................................................. 	 63.2	 72.9	 +9.7

Adaptive Management

	 BLM............................................................................... 	 15.0	 17.5	 +2.5

	 Reclamation.................................................................. 	 3.0	 7.0	 +4.0

	 FWS ............................................................................... 	 40.0	 67.5	 +27.5

	 NPS................................................................................ 	 10.0	 9.9	 -0.1

	 BIA................................................................................. 	 0.0	 0.2	 +0.2

Subtotal.......................................................................... 68.0 102.1 +34.1

Total ............................................................................. 131.2 175.0 +43.8
Cooperative Landscape Conservation	 DH - 38 Departmental Highlights

understandtheextentandimpactsof climatechange

and then work with the Landscape Conservation

Cooperatives network to develop products that can

be easily translated into solutions. The 2012 budget

completes the nationwide network of eight Climate

Science Centers serving the Alaska, Pacific Islands,

Northwest,Southwest,NorthCentral,SouthCentral,

Northeast, and Southeast regions. 

cultural managers can apply to anticipate, monitor, and adapt to climate and ecologically driven

changes atregionaltolocal scales. Scientists located

atthese centerswill collaboratewithstakeholders to

prioritize research projects through a formal Stakeholder Advisory Committee and then synthesize

data from existing and new sources. The centers

develop monitoring protocols and models to better

Climate Science Centers

Climate Science Centers

201020112012

 Alaska North Central Northeast

	 University of Alaska - Fairbanks	 Consortium of To be announced

Colorado State University

Colorado School of Mines

Iowa State

Kansas State University

Montana State University

University of Colorado

University of Montana

University of Nebraska - Lincoln

University of Wyoming

 Northwest Southwest South Central

	 Consortium of Consortium of	 To be announced

	 Oregon State University	 University of Arizona

	 University of Idaho	 University of California - Davis

	 University of Washington	 , University of California - Los Angeles

University of Colorado

Desert Research Institute (Nevada)

Scripps Institute

Southeast Pacific Islands

	 North Carolina State University	 To be announced
Departmental Highlights	 DH - 39	 Cooperative Landscape Conservation

In 2010, centers were established in three of these

regions: Alaska, the Northwest, and the Southeast.

In2011,theDepartmentannouncedthe locations for

centers inthe Southwest andNorthCentralregions.

The2012budgetwillallowUSGStoestablishcenters

in three remaining regions, the Northeast, South

Central, and Pacific Islands. The first five centers

are located at universities and, with the exception

ofAlaska,those institutionswere selectedthrougha

competitive process that requires potential hosts to

demonstrate strongscientific capabilities inthe area

of climate change andestablishedlinkswithnatural

resource management agencies and organizations.

Centers may be hosted by consortia of universities

and other partners, as is the case forthe Northwest,

North Central, and Southwest centers, leveraging

the capabilities of multiple institutions. 

As a result of collaborative research on climate

change impacts, USGS issued a number of reports

in 2010 highlighting the potential consequences of

human activity and global warming to the Nation’s

wildlife and ecosystems. One study found that

dust caused by human activities in the American

southwest desert is a contributing factor in speeding up the melting of snow and reducing runoff in

the mountains of the Colorado River Basin. The

findings have major implications for the 27 million

people in seven U.S. States and Mexico who rely on

the Colorado River for consumption and domestic

use, agriculture, and industrial water; and can be

used by resource managers to identify strategies to

lessen these impacts, such as restoring desert soils.

This is just one example of the type of work that

Climate Science Centers will provide to land and

resource managers across all levels of government

and the private sector.

Carbon Sequestration – The 2012 budget includes

$14.3 million to continue biologic and geologic

carbon sequestration research and assessments in

USGS, an increase of $4.3 million from the 2010

Enacted/2011 CR level. The USGS was directed to

undertake this research in the 2007 Energy Independence and Security Act, and since that time, the

bureau has been working to develop and complete

a national assessment of biological and geological

storage capacity. 

Evidence of a

Changing Climate

Increasingevidence links the changes seen

on the Nation’s landscape with climate

variability. Scientists began recording

globaltemperatures inthe1880sandfound

a steady rise in temperatures, particularly

sincethe1950s. Furtherinvestigationshave

linkedthechangingclimatetorealimpacts

suchasmeltingglaciers,heatwaves,rising

sea level, flowers blooming earlier, lakes

freezing later, and changes in migration

patterns of wildlife.

The changing climate is thought to be a

significant causeforthesizeandfrequency

of wildfires, insect outbreaks, disease

outbreaks, and tree mortality in the interior West, the Southwest, and Alaska. 

Evidence is growing that the changing

climate is negatively impacting cold- and

cool-water fish populations across the

Country. Alongthe coasts,risingsealevels

andincreasederosionhavebegunto affect

fish and wildlife habitats, including those

usedbyshorebirdsandseaturtles thatnest

along the shore. In oceans, subtropical

and tropical corals in shallow waters have

been bleached by increased sea surface

temperatures.
Cooperative Landscape Conservation	 DH - 40 Departmental Highlights

evaluate the Nation’s potential

resource of geological storage.

The USGS is collaborating with

partnersandconductingresearch

onanumberofotherfrontsrelated

tocarbonsequestration. These efforts include evaluatingpotential

release of greenhouse gases from

Arctic soils and permafrost, and

mappingthedistributionofrocks

suitable for potential mineral sequestration efforts.

Science Support – The 2012

budget for USGS includes $8.9

million, an increase of $3.9 million from the 2010 Enacted/2011

CR level, to provide science support for Interior bureaus with

specific research requirements to

meet land and wildlife management challenges. The USGS will

guide this research to address the

practical applications that are needed by Interior’s

bureaus to solve problems including, for example,

understanding invasive species expansions and

disease outbreaks in wildlife.

Climate Research and Development – Theincreases

in Climate Variability Science are offset by an $9.1

million reduction to the Climate Effects Network.

Thisnetwork,ledbyUSGS,isdesignedtocoordinate

andstandardizeclimatemonitoringdatathroughout

theDepartment.Since its inception,thenetworkhas

facilitatedanumberofdatacollectionandmodeling

efforts in pilot projects around the Country. Rather

than focus on expanding the network at this time,

Interior will refocus its efforts from site-specific

studies to an integrated approach among partners

at the Climate Science Centers to evaluate what

network systems are needed to share climate effects

monitoring and adaptation data.

Adaptive Management

Interior’s focus in the Cooperative Landscape Conservation initiative is to equip resource managers

withstrategies toprotecttheNation’s resources and

maximize public benefit. In response to increasing

and often unpredictable changes in the American

landscape, the Department will leverage expertise

by building partnerships with other agencies and

organizations throughtheLandscapeConservation

Biological carbon sequestration removes carbon

dioxide, or CO2, from the atmosphere for storage in

vegetation, soils,andsediments. Deliberatebiological sequestrationcanbeaccomplishedthroughforest

and soil conservation practices including restoring

and establishing forests, wetlands, and grasslands.

Thereare challenges tolong-termbiological storage,

butincreasedbiological sequestrationof carbonand

its storage could play a key role in reducing the rate

ofgreenhousegasincreases. Interior’sextensiveland

and resource management experience provides a

practical contextforassessmentofratesandcapacity

for carbon storage in ecosystems. Early scientific

analysis completed by USGS is demonstrating the

importance of biological sequestrationaspart ofthe

carbon cycle. The USGS released a peer-reviewed

and comprehensive assessment methodology with

participation from the land and resource managementcommunityinDecember2010,andhasrecently

begun to conduct the assessment.

The USGS has also developed a methodology to

assess the potentialfor carbon sequestration in geologic structures, such as oil and gas reservoirs and

saline formations. This methodology is designed

to assess the mass of carbon that can be stored in

the U.S. sedimentary basins. Factors taken into

consideration include the accessible pore volume

of a storage formation and the location ofimpermeable rock layers that can trap and hold the carbon in

place. Thenewgeological sequestrationassessment

methodology is being used in a three-year effort to

Carbon Sequestration
Departmental Highlights	 DH - 41	 Cooperative Landscape Conservation

andspecies changesandtoimplement conservation

actions to address impacts. This same approach facilitates improved management of waterresources,

historical and cultural resources, and resources of

Indian Tribes and Alaska Natives.

The Pacific Islands cooperative for example, which

includes partners such as the University of Hawaii

are collaborating on a project that downscales statistical climate data to forecast changes in the distributions of native plants in Hawaii. Researchers

developed geographic information system models

to produce range maps for over 1,000 native plants

based on current environmental conditions and

projected climate and weather variability. Managers at FWS and other agencies are using this information in designing adaptive strategies for native

plants and associated forest birds, many of which

are endangered. The cooperative is using this data

to evaluate current reserve designs, movement

corridors, and forecast seed dispersal in projected

conditions. The Pacific Islands cooperative is illustrative ofthediversity of groups connectedthrough

this development. The Steering Committee forthis

cooperative includes FWS, USGS, NPS, the Forest

Service,NationalOceanicandAtmosphericAdministration, State of Hawaii, Kameahmeah Schools,

Nature Conservancy, and others.

Cooperatives. This approach enables each

of Interior’s land management bureaus

to better meet individual missions, and

in concert with States, Tribes and other

partners,utilize each other’s resources and

expertisetobetteridentifyandaddresschallenges across broadlandscapes andimpact

resource management decisions in parks,

refuges, and on public lands.

Landscape Conservation Cooperatives 

– The 2012 budget includes $62.5 million,

an increase of $26.0 million from the 2010

Enacted/2011 CR level. The increase will

completethenationalnetworkofLandscape

Conservation Cooperatives, which engage

other Federal agencies, States, Tribes, and

local partners, as well as the public in crafting practical, landscape-level strategies for

managing resource stressors in coordinationwiththe eightregionalClimateScience

Centers. Thecooperatives focusonimpacts

suchaswildlifemigrationpatterns,wildfire

risk,drought, coastal erosion, andinvasive

species. These aremanagement challenges

thattypically extendbeyondthe borders of

any single national wildlife refuge, public

land unit, or national park. The Department supported the establishment of nine cooperatives in

2010 with an additionalthree planned for 2011. The

2012 budget will fund the remaining, bringing the

network to a total of 21 cooperatives across the U.S.,

extending into Mexico and Canada. 

Each Landscape Conservation Cooperative is directed by a diverse steering committee that prioritizes science needs and makes recommendations

forthe projects that will be implemented each year.

Individual Interior bureaus have been designated

as leads or co-leads of particular cooperatives, with

FWS leading or co-leading the majority of the cooperatives and the Bureau of Reclamation, Bureau of

Land Management, Bureau of Indian Affairs, and

National Park Service taking leadership roles in a

number of cooperatives around the Country.

With resident staff and through connections with

partners, these cooperatives develop, test, implement, and monitor conservation strategies that

are responsive to the dynamic landscape changes

resulting fromclimate change andother stressors in

the regions. The cooperatives facilitate broad availabilityofdata,modeling,andtools tolandmanagers

that will allow them to effectively forecast habitat

Landscape Conservation Cooperatives

2010 2011 2012

	 	 Southern	 Aleutian/

	 Arctic	 Rockies	 Bering Sea Islands

	 California	 Great Basin	 Appalachian

	 Great Northern	 Desert	 Eastern Tallgrass

	 	 	 Prairie and Big Rivers

	 	

	 Great Plains	 Gulf Coast

	 	 Prairie

	 Gulf Coastal Plains	 	

	 and Ozarks	 North Pacific

	 North Atlantic	 Northwestern

	 	 Interior Forest

	 Pacific Islands	 Peninsular

	 	 Florida

	 Plains and Prairie	 Upper Midwest

	 Potholes	 and Great Lakes

	 South Atlantic	 Western Alaska
Cooperative Landscape Conservation	 DH - 42 Departmental Highlights

InthenortheastU.S.,theNorthAtlantic cooperative

is developing a decision support system that will

assist managers to make decisions about conservationactions regardingfish. Theprojectwillproduce

tools such as maps of fish habitat and models for

easternbrooktroutthat conservationmanagerswill

use to evaluate the effect of different management

actions on fish in stream networks and river basins.

These maps and models will identify which conservation actions are going to be the most effective.

Managers will use this system together with other

modelinginformationtodeveloprecommendations

for comprehensive landscape-scale conservation of

aquatic species.

Alaska is another region where the cooperative

framework has allowed for increased interagency

coordination and outreach to local communities to

understand the scope ofimpacts currently affecting

the region. In 2010, cooperative partners, including

FWS, BLM, State agencies, and others are assisting

the Alaska Native Health Consortium to gather

wildlife disease data crucial to understanding the

vulnerability of wildlife species and the rural and

native communities which depend upon them. 

Bureau of Land Management – The BLM 2012

budgetrequestfortheCooperativeLandscapeConservation initiative is $17.5 million, an increase of

$2.5 million over the 2010 Enacted/2011 CR level.

The requested funding will be used to conduct

The State of the Birds: 

2010 Report on Climate Change

The FWS issued The State of the Birds: 2010 Report on Climate Change that shows that hundreds of

species of birds are facing threats from climate change that along with otherfactors are resulting

in habitat alternation, reducing food supplies, and pushing many species towards extinction. 

Research for this report was a collaboration of FWS with experts from the Nation’s leading

conservation organizations and shows that climate change will have an increasingly disruptive

effect on bird species in all habitats, with oceanic and Hawaiian birds in greatest peril.

Continued sea-level rise is expected to inundate or fragment

existing low-lying habitats such as salt marshes, barrier

islands, and mudflats. Beach-nesting black and American

oystercatchersandspecializedsaltmarshsparrowsareamong

the most vulnerable coastal birds because they rely heavily

on limited, low-elevation coastal habitats. Based on projections of marsh habitat loss in the Chesapeake Bay, significant

declines of many marsh species are predicted. Birds such

as the rare black rail that relies solely on irregularly flooded

high marsh could disappear from the Bay if breeding sites

are submerged.

Seabirds breeding on coasts may also be unsuccessful in raising

chicks iftheir hatch dates do not match patterns in the availability

of food resources. For example, common murres that time their

breeding based on temperature cues may fail to raise any young

if their chicks hatch at the wrong time, missing the window when

food is abundant.
Departmental Highlights	 DH - 43	 Cooperative Landscape Conservation

assessments, create adaptive strategies, and initiate

restoration projects. As a result of drought, altered

fire regimes, invasive plant and animal species, and

changes in land use associated with energy development and urban growth, BLM lands are experiencing a period of unprecedented environmental

change. The BLM participates in cooperatives to

gain a better understanding of stressors adversely

impacting the health of BLM lands and to develop

adaptation strategies, such as implementing broadscalesage-grousehabitatmonitoringtoascertainthe

effectiveness of habitat management actions as well

as the effect of land use authorizations.

The BLM and the Department of Agriculture’s

Natural Resources Conservation Service, with

cooperation from the Western Association of Fish

and Wildlife Agencies are developing a landscape

approach to monitoring conditions and trends of

public andprivate lands. Theprojectis coordinated

with the cooperatives and will include intensified

samplinginsage-grousehabitatpriorityfocus areas

for up to thirty populations of sage grouse in the

West. The NRCS has been monitoring rangelands

on private, State, and tribal lands for the past ten

years and will now add public lands to those that

are monitored. The project uses core indicators

and standard monitoring methods and reports will

provide a landscape view of the success of management actions taken to improve sage-grouse habitat.

The BLM will focus available funding on regional

conservation,restoration, and adaptation priorities

identifiedthroughRapidEco-regionalAssessments,

including the development of seamless vegetation

maps that can be used to measure changes in vegetative communities brought about by land health

stressorsandtoidentifywhereadaptationstrategies

are needed. The BLM will collect and store native

seedsofthoseplantspeciesdeterminedtobethemost

vulnerable to the impacts of land health stressors.

Bureau of Reclamation –Reclamation’s2012budget

requestfortheCooperativeLandscapeConservation

initiative is $7.0 million, an increase of $4.0 million

fromthe 2010Enacted/2011 CRlevel. Among other

activities,Reclamationwillassessenvironmentalimpacts and water shortages through its Basin Studies

program and conduct research on water resources

through its Science and Technology program. 

Through the Basin Studies program, Reclamation

will partner with stakeholders to evaluate basinwide water supply and demand, and identify

adaptation strategies to address water shortages;

conduct West-wide climate risk assessments to

collect baseline projections of risks and impacts

to water supplies; and provide leadership for

two Landscape Conservation Cooperatives in the

Colorado River Basin to develop applied science

tools to support adaptation strategies through local

cooperative partnerships. In conducting the basin

studies, Reclamation will partner with State, tribal,

and local partners on a 50/50 cost share basis in 17

western States to analyze the impacts of climate

change and other stressors on water resources in

keybasins andsub-basins, andidentifystrategies to

address imbalances in supply and demand. Basin

studies are currently ongoing in the following river

basins: Colorado River Basin including all seven

basin States; Yakima River Basin; Milk River Basin;

Deschutes River Basin; Henry’s Fork of the Snake

River; Niobrara River Basin; Santa Ana Watershed;

and Southeast California Regional Basin.

There are three components to the basin studies,

which involve close collaboration with States,

Indian Tribes, and local partners. One component

is theprojectionoffuturewater supplyanddemand

by river basin. The basin studies incorporate
Cooperative Landscape Conservation	 DH - 44 Departmental Highlights

state-of-the-art projections of supply and demand,

including projections of the impacts of climate

change, which leverage work done through the

cooperatives andthe climate risk assessments inthe

WaterSMARTProgram. TheWaterSMARTprogram

is furtherdiscussedintheWaterChallenges chapter.

A second component is the analysis of impacts.

Projections of supply and demand will be applied

to the basin or sub-basin of interest, taking into account existing facilities, water rights, and key elements of the hydrologic system, to determine how

changes in water supplies will impact basin water

uses. In addition to any specific issues included

by cost-share partners, Reclamation will evaluate

the impacts to the Department’s ability to deliver

water to contractors; hydroelectric power generation facilities; recreation at Reclamation facilities;

fish and wildlife habitat; applicable species listed

as an endangered, threatened, or candidate species

under the Endangered Species Act of 1973; water

quality issues; flow and water dependent ecological resiliency; and flood control management. This

component will incorporate and build on the information of operations risks developed within the

climate risk assessments.

The third component is the identification of adaptation strategies. Once impacts are identified, Reclamation and non-Federal cost-share partners will

engage basin stakeholders, through cooperatives

for instance, in the process of developing adaptation and mitigation strategies, which may include:

structuralandnon-structuralchanges;consideration

of modifying reservoir storage or operating guidelines; the development of new water management,

operating, or habitat restoration plans; water conservation; improved hydrologic models and other

decision support systems; and groundwater and

surface water storage needs. 

IncludedwithinReclamation’sScienceandTechnologyprogramis researchonimprovingcapabilityfor

managing water resources under multiple drivers,

includingclimate change. This researchagendawill

be collaborated and leveraged with capabilities of

the InteriorClimateScienceCenters. Reclamationis

alsoworkingwiththeDepartment ofEnergyandits

PowerMarketingAdministrations todetermine the

climate change impacts onhydropowergeneration.

Fish and Wildlife Service – The FWS 2012 budget

request for the Cooperative Landscape Conservation initiative is $67.5 million, an increase of $27.5

million over the 2010 Enacted/2011 CR level. The

budget allows for the development of six more cooperatives, an increase of $10.2 million, to complete

the nationwide network of 21 cooperatives, as well

as increases to adaptive science, Partners for Fish

and Wildlife, the national wildlife refuge system,

and Gulf Coast research. 

An additional $7.2 million will continue to build

scientific capacity for fish and wildlife. Inventories

offish, wildlife,plants, andtheirhabitats onrefuges

must be expanded to capture data for adaptive

management decisions to better conserve species

and habitats, and focus efforts on priority needs.

Inventories, such as biodiversity, vegetative communities, and other biotic features that support

fish and wildlife populations across a broad range

of ecosystems, are used to detect climate-driven

changes in these resources and help focus the FWS

response at multiple landscape scales and improve

managementpractices. Theinventorieswillinclude

cross-program work with migratory birds, endangered species, fisheries, and habitat conservation.

The 2012 budget includes a $2.0 million increase for

the Partners for Fish and Wildlife program, which

provides financial and technical assistance for conservation to private landowners who voluntarily

cooperate to conserve fish, wildlife, plants, and

their habitats that are affected by climate change.

Federalprojectfunds will be leveragedandhabitats

adjacentto or nearrefuges will be improvedto meet

conservation and landowner objectives. Emphasis

willbeplacedonstrategicareas thatfocusonspecies

considered most vulnerable to climate change, and

that implement cost-effective measures to restore,

enhance, and manage fish, wildlife, plants, and

their habitats.
Departmental Highlights	 DH - 45	 Cooperative Landscape Conservation

An increase of $8.0 million is requested for the

national wildlife refuge system to continue building its landscape-scale, long-term inventory and

monitoring program. A primary emphasis will be

placed on building a data architecture that can store

and serve the necessary large datasets. The FWS

will coordinate its efforts to tie thisdata architecture

with Department-wide efforts to develop a unified

monitoring and data collection strategy.

National Park Service – The 2012 budget is $9.9

million,essentiallylevelwiththe2010Enacted/2011

CR level. The NPS will assess the vulnerability of

natural and cultural resources to the effects of climate changes and other stressors at 150 park units

and develop adaptation strategies to ensure that

these resources are protected. The NPS will work

throughtheClimateScienceCentersandLandscape

Conservation Cooperatives to develop and implement these plans at the regional and park level. 

The NPS provided funding in 2010 to enable parks

to implement short-term adaptation actions and

plan forlong-term effects. For example, one project

will inventory and protect salt marshes from risks

of sea level rise at Acadia National Park in Maine.

Managers and scientists are partnering to analyze

the topography of salt marshes, and upland areas

immediatelyadjacenttothosemarshes,todetermine

adaptation potential for salt marshes to migrate

inland as sea level rises. Results of the study will

inform managers about areas needing additional

protection from development and locations where

man-made barriers may impede migration.

Another project is a multi-regional evaluation of

pollinator response to climate change in habitats

critical to survival. The distributions of bee species

in areas particularly vulnerable to climate change

are being modeled across a minimum of 75 national

parks. In 2010, a specimen processing center was

set up and sampling protocols were tested,refined,

andsenttoparticipatingparks. Approximately2,700

bees were collected overthe summerfrom 14 parks.

Early results indicate biodiversity is high, with 36

classes represented,includingsome rare specimens,

suggesting that pollinators in national parks may

not currently be vulnerable to climate change and

serving to inform researchers and the public about

how to protect pollinators.

Bureau of Indian Affairs – The BIA 2012 budget

request includes $200,000. With this funding, BIA

will co-lead the North Pacific cooperative with

FWS and support tribal outreach efforts of other

Landscape Conservation Cooperatives, particularly those in the northwestern U.S. In the North

Pacific cooperative, BIA will seek tribal input and

perspective from Tribes with traditional ecological

knowledge, and both Indian Affairs staff and local

tribal members will be involved to develop strategies to address adaptation.