Peninsular Florida Landscape Conservation Cooperative
Marine and Estuarine Priority Resources
and Conservation Targets
Why are we here today?
Workshop Goals:
• Develop a list of potential conservation targets for Priority Resources
• Develop potential metrics for conservation targets
• Begin prioritization of potential conservation targets – review criteria
• 22 individual, self-directed partnerships• North American continent, Pacific Islands
and the Caribbean
Applied conservation science partnerships:• Federal agencies• Regional organizations• State agencies• Tribes• NGOs• Private stakeholders• Universities• Other entities
The Landscape Conservation Cooperatives
State Partners
Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, Florida Department of Transportation, Southwest Florida Water Management District, Florida Department of Environmental Protection
Federal Partners
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, U.S. Geological Survey, National Park Service, U.S. Forest Service, Natural Resources Conservation Service, Department of Defense
Tribal Partners
Miccosukee Tribe of Indians of Florida
Universities
University of Florida – Institute for Food and Agricultural Science and Center for Landscape Conservation and Ecology, Florida State University – Florida Natural Areas Inventory
Conservation Organizations
Florida Farm Bureau Federation, Florida Forestry Association, The Nature Conservancy, National Wildlife Refuge Association, Florida Wildlife Corridor, The Land Trust, Native Plant Society
Private Landowner Representation
Plum Creek, The Florida Land Council, Family Lands Remembered
The LCCs are designed to:
1) inform resource management decisions in an integrated fashion across landscapes at a broader scale than any individual partner’s responsibility,
2) consider landscape - scale stressors, including climate change, habitat fragmentation, invasive species, and water scarcity, and
3) facilitate landscape-level planning, design, and implementation of conservation strategies for fish and wildlife species.
Landscape Conservation Cooperatives
An applied conservation science partnership among local, state, and federal agencies, tribes, non-governmental organizations, universities, and other stakeholders to benefit fish and wildlife and associated habitats.
Peninsular Florida Landscape Conservation Cooperative (PFLCC)
Mission:The mission of the PFLCC is to foster landscape scale conservation to sustain natural and cultural resources for future generations.
PFLCC Science Plan:
• Ecological Planning• Conservation Design• Conservation Delivery• Research and Monitoring• Data Sharing and Coordination
Identifying priority resources and establishing conservation targets is an essential part of the Ecological Planning component
PFLCC partner mission synthesis
Key components
Connectivity
Landscape sustainability, resiliency
Mosaic of public, private lands
Working landscapes
Functional, sustainable ecosystems
Maintenance of current conservation lands
Water supply
Restoration of natural hydrology
Freshwater quantity, quality
Coastal system resiliency, sustainability
Public support for conservation
Conservation ethic
Ecosystem services
Priority resources are the set of biological, ecological, and cultural features and ecological processes collaboratively identified as most important, and are the focus of the PFLCC’s planning.
Priority resources should represent the most significant resources for the focus geography, embody the key components, and reflect the mission, vision, common interests, and values of the focus geography partners.
PFLCC Technical Team – by recommendation of PFLCC Steering
Committee members
• USFWS, FWC
• State Wildlife Action Plan (SWAP) – serve as starting point to
define priority resources (PFLCC Steering Committee)
• Habitats in SWAP should be selected to best represent key
components
• Additional priority resources beyond SWAP may be
necessary and should be included to completely represent
key components
Development of Priority Resources
PFLCC Priority Resources
• DRAFT list developed by Technical Team and approved by PFLCC Steering Committee
• Identified 12 priority resources:• 9 habitat based• 3 additional PRs, non-habitat based
High Pine and Scrub
Coastal Uplands
Pine Flatwoods and Dry Prairie
Freshwater Forested Wetlands
Hardwood Forested Uplands
Freshwater Non-Forested Wetland
Freshwater Aquatic
Estuarine
Marine
Cultural
Working Lands and Socio-economic
Landscape Connectivity
Conservation targets (indicators) are the measurable expressions of desired resource conditions. More specifically, conservation targets are the quantifiable biological, chemical, physical, or cultural attributes of a landscape that are important or valued to stakeholders identified during the biological planning process.
Conservation targets consist of three elements: • the measurable attribute: quantifiable characteristic that
informs about landscape conditions
• the metric: unit of measure
• the target: numerical endpoint of measurable attribute
Examples of Conservation Targets
Priority Resource: Estuarine
Priority Resource Measurable Attribute
Metric Target
Mangrove Extent Hectares (ha) Maintain 230,704 ha
Coastal Uplands Amount of altered beach
Linear miles Reduce amount of altered beach by 25% by 2030
Pine Flatwoods and Dry Prairie
Bird habitat suitability
Index of habitatsuitability
Achieve and maintain “high” status on 80% of pine flatwoods
• Gulf Indicators • NatureServe• Gulf-wide• Habitat only
• Statewide Ecosystem Assessment of Coastal and Aquatic Resources (SEACAR)• FL DEP – Coastal Management Program• Coastal Aquatic Preserves
• Survey/Monitoring Projects• Seagrass Integrated Mapping and Monitoring (SIMM)• Coastal Habitat Integrated Mapping and Monitoring Program
(CHIMMP)• Oyster Integrated Mapping and Monitoring Program (OIMMP)
Other Ongoing Projects – Marine/Estuarine
• Similarities/Collaboration• Shared resource classes
• Seagrass, Coral, Mangrove, Saltmarsh• Shared Indicators/Targets (where possible)• Sharing Data• Collaborative processes
• Differences• PFLCC – Inclusion of “endpoints” (goals)• PFLCC – not just marine & include cultural resources/working lands• PFLCC – Oysters not a resource (yet?) (SEACAR and Nature Serve)• NatureServe – focusing on habitat, includes Ecosystem Services
• PFLCC - all coastal waters, Gulf and Atlantic, 200 m bathymetric line• NatureServe – just Gulf – to EEZ• SEACAR – focus on Florida Coastal Aquatic Preserves
Alignment with other “indicator” Projects
Date and Time Priority Resource Session
Tuesday 1:00 – 5:00 pm Salt Marsh
Wednesday 8:00 am -12:00 pm Mangrove
Wednesday 1:00 – 5:00 pm Seagrass
Thursday 8:00 am – 12:00 pm Coral
Thursday 1:00 – 5:00 pm System-wide
Workshop Sessions
Process
Step 1. Brainstorm conservation targets
Step 2. Identify potential metrics/refine targets
Step 3. Prioritize conservation targets
Other Activities
Generate list of conservation target team members
Review maps of Priority resources – add comments/edits
Workshop Process
Questions ??
• Staff:• Todd Hopkins – Coordinator, [email protected]• Beth Stys – Science Coordinator, [email protected]• Steve Traxler – Science Coordinator, [email protected]• Sarah Friedl – Marine/Estuarine Project Lead, [email protected]• Cherie Keller – GIS Coordinator, [email protected]• Caroline Gorga – FWC Legacy Initiative, [email protected]
• Web page – http://peninsularfloridalcc.org/
• Conservation Planning Atlas – https://pflcc.databasin.org/
• Guidance document –• http://peninsularfloridalcc.org/page/conservation-targets