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Southeast Conservation Adaptation Strategy Fall 2015 Briefing

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Southeast Conservation Adaptation Strategy

Fall 2015 Briefing13

PHOTO amp MAP CREDITS

Credits on Cover clockwise from top left (courtesy of Flickr Creative Commons unless otherwise noted)

Storm on the Gulf of Mexico Longboat Key FL - David Beyer Dam proposed for removal from

the Roaring River in Tennessee - Chris Simpson TWRA Freezing rain on a tree bud December

2013 Falls Church VA - Lance Cheung USDA Hurricane Irene over Puerto Rico August 2011

- NASArsquos Earth Observatory Dead and dying hemlock trees suffering from hemlock woolly

adelgid infestation Chattahoochee Oconee National Forest GA - ChattOconeeNF Monarch

butterfly emblematic of complex issues affecting native pollinators and honeybees - USFWS

South Carolina National Guard assisting during flooding October 2015 Charleston SC -

National Guard Business-as-usual urbanization scenario for the Southeast US - Adam J

Terando et al Plos One July 23 2014 center Blanco River during the big drought of 2011

Texas - Earl McGehee

SECAS wordle in the report created using wordlenet from the manuscript entitled The

Southeastern Conservation Adaptation Strategy A Conservation Landscape for the Future

presented by Greg Wathen et al (2013)

1

The trends for growth and economic development predicted in recent assessments show that the Southeastrsquos population grew at a rate roughly 40 percent faster than any other region over the past six decades Cities are getting bigger rural communities are getting smaller These are just some of the challenges we are seeing on the landscape Between now and 2060 more than half the nationrsquos population growth and an estimated 65 percent of its economic growth will occur in 10 mega-regions across the country mdash three are in the Southeast Region

At least 65 percent of the nationrsquos economic growth will be packed into those mega-regions as well The gross regional product for the Piedmont mega-region alone is $11 trillion ndash and that number is already outdated for a region that snakes from north of Nashville south to Birmingham Alabama over to Atlanta Georgia then dog-legs northeast through Columbia and Greenville South Carolina Charlotte North Carolina and finally to the Research Triangle of Raleigh Durham and Chapel Hill In that same time frame we are likely to lose an amount of land to development the size of the State of South Carolina Globally demand for food will grow by 35 percent Demand for energy will grow by 50 percent Demand for water will grow by 40 percent Most people

will have little contact with nature and the outdoors All these pressures ndash on conservationists business owners private landowners policymakers and farmers ndash affect all of us Decisions are being made to address population growth increasing urbanization traffic congestion struggling educational systems increasing global competition and wildlife conservation needs In addition there is farmland conversion ecosystem degradation declining air quality droughts and competition for water resources as a result of all that pressure

The challenges are clear and the opportunities within those challenges are even clearer

From SLEUTH urban growth projections partially funded by LCCs

Why an Adaptation Strategy for the Southeast

2

The Southeast Conservation Adaptation Strategy (SECAS) is an ambitious effort to harness the power of collaboration and leverage scientific technical and financial resources to proactively pursue a more resilient landscape to sustain fish and wildlife The goal of SECAS is to define and realize an ecologically connected network of landscapes and seascapes in the Southeast that represents a collective conservation vision that will sustain fish and wildlife through the 21st century An adaptation strategy recognizes that the dynamic nature of landscape change across the Southeast demands that we deliver conservation action strategically based on past experiences and considering future projections more comprehensively Any vision of the future in the Southeast will be imperfect but working collaboratively now and taking action with deliberate consideration of alternative futures will expedite learning in the face of uncertainty There is sufficient information about future change to know that unplanned degradation of current conservation landscapes will not be adequate to sustain fish and wildlife for the rest of the 21st century Where are the priority landscapes of the future Where should conservation invest capital today that will ensure a more sustainable and resilient future Are the fish and wildlife communities talking to all the people who are influencing decisions that will impact these lands by 2060 What steps can be taken to connect with the right people to give fish and wildlife the best chances for tomorrow These are some of the questions a Southeast Conservation Adaptation Strategy seeks to address

The Southeast Conservation Adaptation Strategy (SECAS) was approved by the Directors of the Southeastern Association of Fish amp Wildlife Agencies (SEAFWA) at their 2011 Annual Conference in Nashville Tennessee Their expectation was that the Landscape Conservation Cooperatives (LCCs) and Climate Science Centers overlapping the SEAFWA region would use their collaborative forums with partners and partnerships (including the Southeast Aquatic Resources Partnership Joint Ventures etc) and their scientific capacity to provide a blueprint of the future conservation landscape of the southeastern United States The blueprint would build upon the conservation priorities of the states and federal and non-governmental partners (aka the conservation community) as well as incorporate the perspectives and needs of landowners businesses planning and transportation agencies and chambers of commerce It would incorporate future changes (climate change population growth urbanization etc) to provide a comprehensive and strategic vision of the future conservation landscape SECAS will better position the states and the conservation community at large to address the challenges of a rapidly changing world in the 21st century

Next year 2016 represents an important five-year milestone for SECAS When first proposed in 2011 the LCCs asked for five years to develop the first iteration of SECAS Since then considerable progress has been made to define the future conservation landscape of the Southeast A summary of some of the most important accomplishments and products is provided in ldquoProgress Highlightsrdquo In the past year there have been a number of achievements that are worth noting

Background

3

Dennis Figg was hired to serve as a SECAS Coordinator to help the LCCs and SE Climate Science Center better organize and integrate conservation planning activities into SECAS He served through September 2015 and a new SECAS Coordinator will be hired by early 2016

Partners of the LCCs are engaged in a number of Landscape Conservation Design (LCD) projects that will form the foundation of the SECAS Conservation Blueprint and emerging conservation landscape of the future Many of these LCDs will be presented at a SECAS Symposium scheduled for the morning of Wednesday November 4 2015

SECAS is already presenting a more comprehensive and collective vision for conservation in the southeastern United States Identifying the most important lands and waters that will meet the needs of fish and wildlife for future generations is not the only outcome of SECAS but it is a critically important element For example shared longleaf pine restoration priorities identified in the South Atlantic LCCrsquos Conservation Blueprint were a key factor in a recent decision by Interiorrsquos Wildland Fire Resilient Landscapes Program to award $770000 in perpetual federal funding to support restoration in six states Building on conservation planning efforts already in place such as the recently updated State Wildlife Action Plans (SWAPs) SECAS is bringing to the broad conservation community a spatially explicit depiction of the network of landscapes and seascapes ndash the emerging conservation blueprint Following is a summary of some of the projects that are producing that emerging conservation blueprint

Building a Conservation Adaptation Strategy

4

Progress Highlightsbull South Atlantic Conservation Blueprint ndash Private state and federal organizations have developed a

vision for the South Atlantic LCC geography The SALCC Conservation Blueprint 20 is the second iteration of a spatially explicit living plan with an online user interface (the Simple Viewer) designed to facilitate its application in a variety of conservation scenarios The Blueprint identifies priority areas for shared conservation action based on the current condition of natural and cultural resource indicators for terrestrial marine and freshwater environments The Simple Viewer also provides information on ecosystem indicators landcover partnership opportunities and conservation status

bull Gulf Coast Strategic Conservation Assessment and associated projects ndash The four Gulf Coast LCCs have made tremendous progress over the last year in collaborations with many Gulf partners to facilitate conservation planning and adaptation focused on wildlife habitats as well as human communities and the economy Adaptation to sea level rise (SLR) and other effects of climate change is a theme along the Gulf LCC-led projects of this type include

(1) The Strategic Conservation Assessment (recently included in the draft Funded Priorities List by the RESTORE Council) which aims to use the conservation priorities of existing partnerships agencies and entities to develop a suite of web-based tools to help evaluate the benefits of land conservation projects (2) The recently completed Gulf Coast Vulnerability Assessment (GCVA) which assessed 4 ecosystems and 11 species across the Gulf (3) an assessment of conditions and variables affecting barrier island vulnerability and a project that addressed gaps in coverage of the Sea Level Affecting Marshes Model (SLAMM) both of which provide key data to the GCVA and (4)The Tidal Saline Wetland Migration project which identifies important zones for conservation to facilitate the landward migration of wetlands in response to SLR while avoiding projected conflicts with urbanization

Other key projects in which LCCs are partnering include (a) a Gulf Coast Biological Objectives project led by the US Fish and Wildlife Service which is developing a suite of conservation targets representative of broader habitat sustainability in the Gulf and (b) a coastal resilience project led by The Nature Conservancy which aims to quantify not only the ecological benefits of land conservation but also its cost-effectiveness for reducing and avoiding damage from storm surge and flooding to the built environment across the Gulf region

bull Rapid Ecological Assessments and Landscape Conservation Designs for nine priority habitats ndash Over the past year the GCPO LCC has undertaken the rapid assessment of the nine priority habitats

Simple Viewer Overview of The South Atlantic LCC Blueprint

5

identified in its science plan relying on a combination of existing datasets and novel analyses of Landsat and other habitat data These assessments are being incorporated into the ongoing landscape conservation design (LCD) process which is being led by a group of science advisors LCDs will build on the approach developed in 2014 for the Ozark Highlands which also incorporates priorities from recently revised State Wildlife Action Plans

bull Integration of conservation planning across Texas Oklahoma and LCCs - Partners from the Gulf Coast Prairie and Great Plains LCCs in Texas and Oklahoma made great strides this year on advancing landcover data that can support conservation planning and actions across these two states This improved landcover is a cornerstone of both the Texas and Oklahoma state wildlife conservation action plans and enables the partnerships to integrate landscape conservation design efforts in the southern plains across state lines and LCC borders

bull Ecosystem Governance a central pillar in the work of the Caribbean LCC - To discover gaps in governance or science foster cross-scale communication and meet the conservation needs of research and management agencies and organizations in the Caribbean the Caribbean LCC launched the ldquoConnecting the Dots in Conservationrdquo project The current outputs of this project are an interactive map published reports and compendiums of conservation organizations available online It is envisioned that the information will be an important resource for the Caribbeanrsquos entire conservation community in addressing both urgent problems and planning for long-term sustainability

The issue of governance relates directly to the existence and effectiveness of conservation mechanisms The Caribbean LCC has launched the Protected Areas Conservation Action Team which has an objective to develop a holistic view of existing conservation mechanisms as a basis for shared prioritization and planning This includes developing a common language regarding protected areas and other conservation mechanisms developing integrated and commonly maintained spatial datasets that define a wide range of conservation mechanisms and assessing legal and jurisdictional effectiveness for given mechanisms within a spatial context

bull Southeast Aquatic Resources Partnership progress in aquatic conservation - Several of the LCCs continue to work with the Southeast Aquatic Resources Partnership (SARP) to represent aquatic resources throughout the Southeast Region and to ensure that the latest aquatic assessment data and decision-support tools are included in the landscape planning process One example is the series of partner workshops that are being held in the Great Plains LCC region to plan prioritize and identify projects and key partners and to facilitate implementation

Caribbean Protected Areas Dataset

6

bull Integration of statewide priorities across LCC boundaries - The Peninsular Florida LCC is using state Critical Land and Waters Identification Project (CLIP) GIS datasets as a basis for integrating its planning efforts with those of the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission and the South Atlantic LCC (at the LCCsrsquo boundaries) The Peninsular Florida and South Atlantic LCCs share geographic overlap within the state of Florida Both LCCsrsquo Steering Committees agreed to designate the northern portion of the Lower St Johns watershed as a Special Integration Zone The northern half of the Lower St Johns watershed is located in the South Atlantic LCC geography while the rest of the St Johns watershed is in the Peninsular Florida LCC geography

The Peninsular Florida LCC will serve as lead for the planning and management of the St Johns River watershed This designation does not mean that this area has been removed from the South Atlantic LCC it will continue to be included in mapping and assessment of the South Atlantic LCC geography This Special Integration Zone provides additional opportunity for these two neighboring LCCs to work together across the landscape In addition the Big Bend region of Florida mdash also split between the Peninsular Florida and South Atlantic LCCs mdash has been identified as a priority in both LCCs through their respective blueprint processes The Steering Committees from both LCCs have agreed to designate this area as a Special Focus Area in recognition of its high natural resource value Both LCCs will work to ensure that activities within this region are well coordinated

bull Formal designation of priority ecosystems and associated resources across the Appalachians - Resource managers and wildlife administrators from throughout the region formally designated priority ecosystems and associated resources in July 2015 These priority resources along with the integration of further aquatic and cultural components will focus and refine the second phase of the Appalachian LCCrsquos planning and landscape conservation design modeling The findings from the first phase have already provided key direction resulting in Steering Committee support for the implementation of a conservation design partnership across the Tennessee River Basin Its aim is to identify opportunities and shared resources while initiating long-term collaborative planning to protect and improve aquatic biodiversity in this region

bull Sharing Data and Decision Support Tools - Three LCCs in the Southeast working with the Conservation Biology Institute have developed Conservation Planning Atlases (CPA) to share datasets and decision support tools developed as a result of research projects The CPAs also make transparent the spatial elements of the ecological assessments and conservation design processes of each LCC

bull Southeast Climate Science Center assessment of the implications of climate change and other drivers of landscape change ndash In the kickoff stakeholder workshop for this three-year project participants will help articulate a vision for conservation success over the next 50 years highlight factors that could impede realization of that vision and identify priority research needs and adaptation approaches that

Appalachian LCC priority ecosystems

7

could contribute to realizing the SECAS vision for sustaining fish and wildlife The project seeks to develop regionally appropriate principles and approaches for adapting current and future conservation plans and actions in response to climatic and other landscape-scale changes

The Southeast Climate Science Center is funding a three-year project to sustain SECAS beyond 2016 The project which will be led by the University of South Carolina National Wildlife Federation and North Carolina State University will support the SECAS effort by assessing the implications of climate change and other drivers of landscape change for existing conservation goals and management objectives across the region It will also facilitate development of regionally appropriate principles and approaches for adapting current and future conservation plans and actions in response to climatic and other landscape-scale changes This project will host a kick-off SECAS Workshop at this yearrsquos SEAFWA Annual Conference scheduled for Wednesday afternoon November 4 2015

This is an exciting time to be involved in the SECAS effort As progress continues toward the fall of 2016 a blueprint for the desired future conservation landscape is emerging through various avenues of conservation planning The states have recently completed revisions of their State Wildlife Action Plans (SWAPs) which for the first time include the impacts of climate change on wildlife and their habitats LCCs are integrating these revised SWAPs into their conservation planning processes as they endeavor to design landscapes that will sustain fish and wildlife

LCDs are being developed at multiple scales across the Southeast and will provide the foundation for the SECAS Conservation Blueprint The Blueprint will be rolled out over the next year leading up to a SECAS Leadership Summit in fall 2016 where the Blueprint and other SECAS products will be discussed updated and built upon Upcoming milestones include

bull Efforts are being taken to connect with important decision makers representing interests and constituencies that also have a stake in the future of the southeastern landscapes between now and 2060

bull In December additional stories will bring this work to life and demonstrate in clear terms the impact this broader strategy can have on conservation efforts

bull At the same time Directors and partners will receive links to all of the discussions and material that will be presented during the SECAS Symposium and the session led by the Southeast Climate Science Center the University of South Carolina and the National Wildlife Federation

bull Additional ecological assessments decision support tools and inclusive landscape conservation design processes will be released over the next 6-12 months

bull By July 2016 a preliminary version of Southeast Conservation Adaptation Strategy Version 10 will include elements of landscape conservation design an analysis of governance issues in the Southeast and the beginnings of a Southeast leadership summit in fall 2016

bull Finally in October 2016 the Southeast Conservation Adaptation Strategy Version 10 and its associated tools will be a part of the SEAFWA conference

What to Expect in 2016

PHOTO amp MAP CREDITS

Credits on Cover clockwise from top left (courtesy of Flickr Creative Commons unless otherwise noted)

Storm on the Gulf of Mexico Longboat Key FL - David Beyer Dam proposed for removal from

the Roaring River in Tennessee - Chris Simpson TWRA Freezing rain on a tree bud December

2013 Falls Church VA - Lance Cheung USDA Hurricane Irene over Puerto Rico August 2011

- NASArsquos Earth Observatory Dead and dying hemlock trees suffering from hemlock woolly

adelgid infestation Chattahoochee Oconee National Forest GA - ChattOconeeNF Monarch

butterfly emblematic of complex issues affecting native pollinators and honeybees - USFWS

South Carolina National Guard assisting during flooding October 2015 Charleston SC -

National Guard Business-as-usual urbanization scenario for the Southeast US - Adam J

Terando et al Plos One July 23 2014 center Blanco River during the big drought of 2011

Texas - Earl McGehee

SECAS wordle in the report created using wordlenet from the manuscript entitled The

Southeastern Conservation Adaptation Strategy A Conservation Landscape for the Future

presented by Greg Wathen et al (2013)

1

The trends for growth and economic development predicted in recent assessments show that the Southeastrsquos population grew at a rate roughly 40 percent faster than any other region over the past six decades Cities are getting bigger rural communities are getting smaller These are just some of the challenges we are seeing on the landscape Between now and 2060 more than half the nationrsquos population growth and an estimated 65 percent of its economic growth will occur in 10 mega-regions across the country mdash three are in the Southeast Region

At least 65 percent of the nationrsquos economic growth will be packed into those mega-regions as well The gross regional product for the Piedmont mega-region alone is $11 trillion ndash and that number is already outdated for a region that snakes from north of Nashville south to Birmingham Alabama over to Atlanta Georgia then dog-legs northeast through Columbia and Greenville South Carolina Charlotte North Carolina and finally to the Research Triangle of Raleigh Durham and Chapel Hill In that same time frame we are likely to lose an amount of land to development the size of the State of South Carolina Globally demand for food will grow by 35 percent Demand for energy will grow by 50 percent Demand for water will grow by 40 percent Most people

will have little contact with nature and the outdoors All these pressures ndash on conservationists business owners private landowners policymakers and farmers ndash affect all of us Decisions are being made to address population growth increasing urbanization traffic congestion struggling educational systems increasing global competition and wildlife conservation needs In addition there is farmland conversion ecosystem degradation declining air quality droughts and competition for water resources as a result of all that pressure

The challenges are clear and the opportunities within those challenges are even clearer

From SLEUTH urban growth projections partially funded by LCCs

Why an Adaptation Strategy for the Southeast

2

The Southeast Conservation Adaptation Strategy (SECAS) is an ambitious effort to harness the power of collaboration and leverage scientific technical and financial resources to proactively pursue a more resilient landscape to sustain fish and wildlife The goal of SECAS is to define and realize an ecologically connected network of landscapes and seascapes in the Southeast that represents a collective conservation vision that will sustain fish and wildlife through the 21st century An adaptation strategy recognizes that the dynamic nature of landscape change across the Southeast demands that we deliver conservation action strategically based on past experiences and considering future projections more comprehensively Any vision of the future in the Southeast will be imperfect but working collaboratively now and taking action with deliberate consideration of alternative futures will expedite learning in the face of uncertainty There is sufficient information about future change to know that unplanned degradation of current conservation landscapes will not be adequate to sustain fish and wildlife for the rest of the 21st century Where are the priority landscapes of the future Where should conservation invest capital today that will ensure a more sustainable and resilient future Are the fish and wildlife communities talking to all the people who are influencing decisions that will impact these lands by 2060 What steps can be taken to connect with the right people to give fish and wildlife the best chances for tomorrow These are some of the questions a Southeast Conservation Adaptation Strategy seeks to address

The Southeast Conservation Adaptation Strategy (SECAS) was approved by the Directors of the Southeastern Association of Fish amp Wildlife Agencies (SEAFWA) at their 2011 Annual Conference in Nashville Tennessee Their expectation was that the Landscape Conservation Cooperatives (LCCs) and Climate Science Centers overlapping the SEAFWA region would use their collaborative forums with partners and partnerships (including the Southeast Aquatic Resources Partnership Joint Ventures etc) and their scientific capacity to provide a blueprint of the future conservation landscape of the southeastern United States The blueprint would build upon the conservation priorities of the states and federal and non-governmental partners (aka the conservation community) as well as incorporate the perspectives and needs of landowners businesses planning and transportation agencies and chambers of commerce It would incorporate future changes (climate change population growth urbanization etc) to provide a comprehensive and strategic vision of the future conservation landscape SECAS will better position the states and the conservation community at large to address the challenges of a rapidly changing world in the 21st century

Next year 2016 represents an important five-year milestone for SECAS When first proposed in 2011 the LCCs asked for five years to develop the first iteration of SECAS Since then considerable progress has been made to define the future conservation landscape of the Southeast A summary of some of the most important accomplishments and products is provided in ldquoProgress Highlightsrdquo In the past year there have been a number of achievements that are worth noting

Background

3

Dennis Figg was hired to serve as a SECAS Coordinator to help the LCCs and SE Climate Science Center better organize and integrate conservation planning activities into SECAS He served through September 2015 and a new SECAS Coordinator will be hired by early 2016

Partners of the LCCs are engaged in a number of Landscape Conservation Design (LCD) projects that will form the foundation of the SECAS Conservation Blueprint and emerging conservation landscape of the future Many of these LCDs will be presented at a SECAS Symposium scheduled for the morning of Wednesday November 4 2015

SECAS is already presenting a more comprehensive and collective vision for conservation in the southeastern United States Identifying the most important lands and waters that will meet the needs of fish and wildlife for future generations is not the only outcome of SECAS but it is a critically important element For example shared longleaf pine restoration priorities identified in the South Atlantic LCCrsquos Conservation Blueprint were a key factor in a recent decision by Interiorrsquos Wildland Fire Resilient Landscapes Program to award $770000 in perpetual federal funding to support restoration in six states Building on conservation planning efforts already in place such as the recently updated State Wildlife Action Plans (SWAPs) SECAS is bringing to the broad conservation community a spatially explicit depiction of the network of landscapes and seascapes ndash the emerging conservation blueprint Following is a summary of some of the projects that are producing that emerging conservation blueprint

Building a Conservation Adaptation Strategy

4

Progress Highlightsbull South Atlantic Conservation Blueprint ndash Private state and federal organizations have developed a

vision for the South Atlantic LCC geography The SALCC Conservation Blueprint 20 is the second iteration of a spatially explicit living plan with an online user interface (the Simple Viewer) designed to facilitate its application in a variety of conservation scenarios The Blueprint identifies priority areas for shared conservation action based on the current condition of natural and cultural resource indicators for terrestrial marine and freshwater environments The Simple Viewer also provides information on ecosystem indicators landcover partnership opportunities and conservation status

bull Gulf Coast Strategic Conservation Assessment and associated projects ndash The four Gulf Coast LCCs have made tremendous progress over the last year in collaborations with many Gulf partners to facilitate conservation planning and adaptation focused on wildlife habitats as well as human communities and the economy Adaptation to sea level rise (SLR) and other effects of climate change is a theme along the Gulf LCC-led projects of this type include

(1) The Strategic Conservation Assessment (recently included in the draft Funded Priorities List by the RESTORE Council) which aims to use the conservation priorities of existing partnerships agencies and entities to develop a suite of web-based tools to help evaluate the benefits of land conservation projects (2) The recently completed Gulf Coast Vulnerability Assessment (GCVA) which assessed 4 ecosystems and 11 species across the Gulf (3) an assessment of conditions and variables affecting barrier island vulnerability and a project that addressed gaps in coverage of the Sea Level Affecting Marshes Model (SLAMM) both of which provide key data to the GCVA and (4)The Tidal Saline Wetland Migration project which identifies important zones for conservation to facilitate the landward migration of wetlands in response to SLR while avoiding projected conflicts with urbanization

Other key projects in which LCCs are partnering include (a) a Gulf Coast Biological Objectives project led by the US Fish and Wildlife Service which is developing a suite of conservation targets representative of broader habitat sustainability in the Gulf and (b) a coastal resilience project led by The Nature Conservancy which aims to quantify not only the ecological benefits of land conservation but also its cost-effectiveness for reducing and avoiding damage from storm surge and flooding to the built environment across the Gulf region

bull Rapid Ecological Assessments and Landscape Conservation Designs for nine priority habitats ndash Over the past year the GCPO LCC has undertaken the rapid assessment of the nine priority habitats

Simple Viewer Overview of The South Atlantic LCC Blueprint

5

identified in its science plan relying on a combination of existing datasets and novel analyses of Landsat and other habitat data These assessments are being incorporated into the ongoing landscape conservation design (LCD) process which is being led by a group of science advisors LCDs will build on the approach developed in 2014 for the Ozark Highlands which also incorporates priorities from recently revised State Wildlife Action Plans

bull Integration of conservation planning across Texas Oklahoma and LCCs - Partners from the Gulf Coast Prairie and Great Plains LCCs in Texas and Oklahoma made great strides this year on advancing landcover data that can support conservation planning and actions across these two states This improved landcover is a cornerstone of both the Texas and Oklahoma state wildlife conservation action plans and enables the partnerships to integrate landscape conservation design efforts in the southern plains across state lines and LCC borders

bull Ecosystem Governance a central pillar in the work of the Caribbean LCC - To discover gaps in governance or science foster cross-scale communication and meet the conservation needs of research and management agencies and organizations in the Caribbean the Caribbean LCC launched the ldquoConnecting the Dots in Conservationrdquo project The current outputs of this project are an interactive map published reports and compendiums of conservation organizations available online It is envisioned that the information will be an important resource for the Caribbeanrsquos entire conservation community in addressing both urgent problems and planning for long-term sustainability

The issue of governance relates directly to the existence and effectiveness of conservation mechanisms The Caribbean LCC has launched the Protected Areas Conservation Action Team which has an objective to develop a holistic view of existing conservation mechanisms as a basis for shared prioritization and planning This includes developing a common language regarding protected areas and other conservation mechanisms developing integrated and commonly maintained spatial datasets that define a wide range of conservation mechanisms and assessing legal and jurisdictional effectiveness for given mechanisms within a spatial context

bull Southeast Aquatic Resources Partnership progress in aquatic conservation - Several of the LCCs continue to work with the Southeast Aquatic Resources Partnership (SARP) to represent aquatic resources throughout the Southeast Region and to ensure that the latest aquatic assessment data and decision-support tools are included in the landscape planning process One example is the series of partner workshops that are being held in the Great Plains LCC region to plan prioritize and identify projects and key partners and to facilitate implementation

Caribbean Protected Areas Dataset

6

bull Integration of statewide priorities across LCC boundaries - The Peninsular Florida LCC is using state Critical Land and Waters Identification Project (CLIP) GIS datasets as a basis for integrating its planning efforts with those of the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission and the South Atlantic LCC (at the LCCsrsquo boundaries) The Peninsular Florida and South Atlantic LCCs share geographic overlap within the state of Florida Both LCCsrsquo Steering Committees agreed to designate the northern portion of the Lower St Johns watershed as a Special Integration Zone The northern half of the Lower St Johns watershed is located in the South Atlantic LCC geography while the rest of the St Johns watershed is in the Peninsular Florida LCC geography

The Peninsular Florida LCC will serve as lead for the planning and management of the St Johns River watershed This designation does not mean that this area has been removed from the South Atlantic LCC it will continue to be included in mapping and assessment of the South Atlantic LCC geography This Special Integration Zone provides additional opportunity for these two neighboring LCCs to work together across the landscape In addition the Big Bend region of Florida mdash also split between the Peninsular Florida and South Atlantic LCCs mdash has been identified as a priority in both LCCs through their respective blueprint processes The Steering Committees from both LCCs have agreed to designate this area as a Special Focus Area in recognition of its high natural resource value Both LCCs will work to ensure that activities within this region are well coordinated

bull Formal designation of priority ecosystems and associated resources across the Appalachians - Resource managers and wildlife administrators from throughout the region formally designated priority ecosystems and associated resources in July 2015 These priority resources along with the integration of further aquatic and cultural components will focus and refine the second phase of the Appalachian LCCrsquos planning and landscape conservation design modeling The findings from the first phase have already provided key direction resulting in Steering Committee support for the implementation of a conservation design partnership across the Tennessee River Basin Its aim is to identify opportunities and shared resources while initiating long-term collaborative planning to protect and improve aquatic biodiversity in this region

bull Sharing Data and Decision Support Tools - Three LCCs in the Southeast working with the Conservation Biology Institute have developed Conservation Planning Atlases (CPA) to share datasets and decision support tools developed as a result of research projects The CPAs also make transparent the spatial elements of the ecological assessments and conservation design processes of each LCC

bull Southeast Climate Science Center assessment of the implications of climate change and other drivers of landscape change ndash In the kickoff stakeholder workshop for this three-year project participants will help articulate a vision for conservation success over the next 50 years highlight factors that could impede realization of that vision and identify priority research needs and adaptation approaches that

Appalachian LCC priority ecosystems

7

could contribute to realizing the SECAS vision for sustaining fish and wildlife The project seeks to develop regionally appropriate principles and approaches for adapting current and future conservation plans and actions in response to climatic and other landscape-scale changes

The Southeast Climate Science Center is funding a three-year project to sustain SECAS beyond 2016 The project which will be led by the University of South Carolina National Wildlife Federation and North Carolina State University will support the SECAS effort by assessing the implications of climate change and other drivers of landscape change for existing conservation goals and management objectives across the region It will also facilitate development of regionally appropriate principles and approaches for adapting current and future conservation plans and actions in response to climatic and other landscape-scale changes This project will host a kick-off SECAS Workshop at this yearrsquos SEAFWA Annual Conference scheduled for Wednesday afternoon November 4 2015

This is an exciting time to be involved in the SECAS effort As progress continues toward the fall of 2016 a blueprint for the desired future conservation landscape is emerging through various avenues of conservation planning The states have recently completed revisions of their State Wildlife Action Plans (SWAPs) which for the first time include the impacts of climate change on wildlife and their habitats LCCs are integrating these revised SWAPs into their conservation planning processes as they endeavor to design landscapes that will sustain fish and wildlife

LCDs are being developed at multiple scales across the Southeast and will provide the foundation for the SECAS Conservation Blueprint The Blueprint will be rolled out over the next year leading up to a SECAS Leadership Summit in fall 2016 where the Blueprint and other SECAS products will be discussed updated and built upon Upcoming milestones include

bull Efforts are being taken to connect with important decision makers representing interests and constituencies that also have a stake in the future of the southeastern landscapes between now and 2060

bull In December additional stories will bring this work to life and demonstrate in clear terms the impact this broader strategy can have on conservation efforts

bull At the same time Directors and partners will receive links to all of the discussions and material that will be presented during the SECAS Symposium and the session led by the Southeast Climate Science Center the University of South Carolina and the National Wildlife Federation

bull Additional ecological assessments decision support tools and inclusive landscape conservation design processes will be released over the next 6-12 months

bull By July 2016 a preliminary version of Southeast Conservation Adaptation Strategy Version 10 will include elements of landscape conservation design an analysis of governance issues in the Southeast and the beginnings of a Southeast leadership summit in fall 2016

bull Finally in October 2016 the Southeast Conservation Adaptation Strategy Version 10 and its associated tools will be a part of the SEAFWA conference

What to Expect in 2016

1

The trends for growth and economic development predicted in recent assessments show that the Southeastrsquos population grew at a rate roughly 40 percent faster than any other region over the past six decades Cities are getting bigger rural communities are getting smaller These are just some of the challenges we are seeing on the landscape Between now and 2060 more than half the nationrsquos population growth and an estimated 65 percent of its economic growth will occur in 10 mega-regions across the country mdash three are in the Southeast Region

At least 65 percent of the nationrsquos economic growth will be packed into those mega-regions as well The gross regional product for the Piedmont mega-region alone is $11 trillion ndash and that number is already outdated for a region that snakes from north of Nashville south to Birmingham Alabama over to Atlanta Georgia then dog-legs northeast through Columbia and Greenville South Carolina Charlotte North Carolina and finally to the Research Triangle of Raleigh Durham and Chapel Hill In that same time frame we are likely to lose an amount of land to development the size of the State of South Carolina Globally demand for food will grow by 35 percent Demand for energy will grow by 50 percent Demand for water will grow by 40 percent Most people

will have little contact with nature and the outdoors All these pressures ndash on conservationists business owners private landowners policymakers and farmers ndash affect all of us Decisions are being made to address population growth increasing urbanization traffic congestion struggling educational systems increasing global competition and wildlife conservation needs In addition there is farmland conversion ecosystem degradation declining air quality droughts and competition for water resources as a result of all that pressure

The challenges are clear and the opportunities within those challenges are even clearer

From SLEUTH urban growth projections partially funded by LCCs

Why an Adaptation Strategy for the Southeast

2

The Southeast Conservation Adaptation Strategy (SECAS) is an ambitious effort to harness the power of collaboration and leverage scientific technical and financial resources to proactively pursue a more resilient landscape to sustain fish and wildlife The goal of SECAS is to define and realize an ecologically connected network of landscapes and seascapes in the Southeast that represents a collective conservation vision that will sustain fish and wildlife through the 21st century An adaptation strategy recognizes that the dynamic nature of landscape change across the Southeast demands that we deliver conservation action strategically based on past experiences and considering future projections more comprehensively Any vision of the future in the Southeast will be imperfect but working collaboratively now and taking action with deliberate consideration of alternative futures will expedite learning in the face of uncertainty There is sufficient information about future change to know that unplanned degradation of current conservation landscapes will not be adequate to sustain fish and wildlife for the rest of the 21st century Where are the priority landscapes of the future Where should conservation invest capital today that will ensure a more sustainable and resilient future Are the fish and wildlife communities talking to all the people who are influencing decisions that will impact these lands by 2060 What steps can be taken to connect with the right people to give fish and wildlife the best chances for tomorrow These are some of the questions a Southeast Conservation Adaptation Strategy seeks to address

The Southeast Conservation Adaptation Strategy (SECAS) was approved by the Directors of the Southeastern Association of Fish amp Wildlife Agencies (SEAFWA) at their 2011 Annual Conference in Nashville Tennessee Their expectation was that the Landscape Conservation Cooperatives (LCCs) and Climate Science Centers overlapping the SEAFWA region would use their collaborative forums with partners and partnerships (including the Southeast Aquatic Resources Partnership Joint Ventures etc) and their scientific capacity to provide a blueprint of the future conservation landscape of the southeastern United States The blueprint would build upon the conservation priorities of the states and federal and non-governmental partners (aka the conservation community) as well as incorporate the perspectives and needs of landowners businesses planning and transportation agencies and chambers of commerce It would incorporate future changes (climate change population growth urbanization etc) to provide a comprehensive and strategic vision of the future conservation landscape SECAS will better position the states and the conservation community at large to address the challenges of a rapidly changing world in the 21st century

Next year 2016 represents an important five-year milestone for SECAS When first proposed in 2011 the LCCs asked for five years to develop the first iteration of SECAS Since then considerable progress has been made to define the future conservation landscape of the Southeast A summary of some of the most important accomplishments and products is provided in ldquoProgress Highlightsrdquo In the past year there have been a number of achievements that are worth noting

Background

3

Dennis Figg was hired to serve as a SECAS Coordinator to help the LCCs and SE Climate Science Center better organize and integrate conservation planning activities into SECAS He served through September 2015 and a new SECAS Coordinator will be hired by early 2016

Partners of the LCCs are engaged in a number of Landscape Conservation Design (LCD) projects that will form the foundation of the SECAS Conservation Blueprint and emerging conservation landscape of the future Many of these LCDs will be presented at a SECAS Symposium scheduled for the morning of Wednesday November 4 2015

SECAS is already presenting a more comprehensive and collective vision for conservation in the southeastern United States Identifying the most important lands and waters that will meet the needs of fish and wildlife for future generations is not the only outcome of SECAS but it is a critically important element For example shared longleaf pine restoration priorities identified in the South Atlantic LCCrsquos Conservation Blueprint were a key factor in a recent decision by Interiorrsquos Wildland Fire Resilient Landscapes Program to award $770000 in perpetual federal funding to support restoration in six states Building on conservation planning efforts already in place such as the recently updated State Wildlife Action Plans (SWAPs) SECAS is bringing to the broad conservation community a spatially explicit depiction of the network of landscapes and seascapes ndash the emerging conservation blueprint Following is a summary of some of the projects that are producing that emerging conservation blueprint

Building a Conservation Adaptation Strategy

4

Progress Highlightsbull South Atlantic Conservation Blueprint ndash Private state and federal organizations have developed a

vision for the South Atlantic LCC geography The SALCC Conservation Blueprint 20 is the second iteration of a spatially explicit living plan with an online user interface (the Simple Viewer) designed to facilitate its application in a variety of conservation scenarios The Blueprint identifies priority areas for shared conservation action based on the current condition of natural and cultural resource indicators for terrestrial marine and freshwater environments The Simple Viewer also provides information on ecosystem indicators landcover partnership opportunities and conservation status

bull Gulf Coast Strategic Conservation Assessment and associated projects ndash The four Gulf Coast LCCs have made tremendous progress over the last year in collaborations with many Gulf partners to facilitate conservation planning and adaptation focused on wildlife habitats as well as human communities and the economy Adaptation to sea level rise (SLR) and other effects of climate change is a theme along the Gulf LCC-led projects of this type include

(1) The Strategic Conservation Assessment (recently included in the draft Funded Priorities List by the RESTORE Council) which aims to use the conservation priorities of existing partnerships agencies and entities to develop a suite of web-based tools to help evaluate the benefits of land conservation projects (2) The recently completed Gulf Coast Vulnerability Assessment (GCVA) which assessed 4 ecosystems and 11 species across the Gulf (3) an assessment of conditions and variables affecting barrier island vulnerability and a project that addressed gaps in coverage of the Sea Level Affecting Marshes Model (SLAMM) both of which provide key data to the GCVA and (4)The Tidal Saline Wetland Migration project which identifies important zones for conservation to facilitate the landward migration of wetlands in response to SLR while avoiding projected conflicts with urbanization

Other key projects in which LCCs are partnering include (a) a Gulf Coast Biological Objectives project led by the US Fish and Wildlife Service which is developing a suite of conservation targets representative of broader habitat sustainability in the Gulf and (b) a coastal resilience project led by The Nature Conservancy which aims to quantify not only the ecological benefits of land conservation but also its cost-effectiveness for reducing and avoiding damage from storm surge and flooding to the built environment across the Gulf region

bull Rapid Ecological Assessments and Landscape Conservation Designs for nine priority habitats ndash Over the past year the GCPO LCC has undertaken the rapid assessment of the nine priority habitats

Simple Viewer Overview of The South Atlantic LCC Blueprint

5

identified in its science plan relying on a combination of existing datasets and novel analyses of Landsat and other habitat data These assessments are being incorporated into the ongoing landscape conservation design (LCD) process which is being led by a group of science advisors LCDs will build on the approach developed in 2014 for the Ozark Highlands which also incorporates priorities from recently revised State Wildlife Action Plans

bull Integration of conservation planning across Texas Oklahoma and LCCs - Partners from the Gulf Coast Prairie and Great Plains LCCs in Texas and Oklahoma made great strides this year on advancing landcover data that can support conservation planning and actions across these two states This improved landcover is a cornerstone of both the Texas and Oklahoma state wildlife conservation action plans and enables the partnerships to integrate landscape conservation design efforts in the southern plains across state lines and LCC borders

bull Ecosystem Governance a central pillar in the work of the Caribbean LCC - To discover gaps in governance or science foster cross-scale communication and meet the conservation needs of research and management agencies and organizations in the Caribbean the Caribbean LCC launched the ldquoConnecting the Dots in Conservationrdquo project The current outputs of this project are an interactive map published reports and compendiums of conservation organizations available online It is envisioned that the information will be an important resource for the Caribbeanrsquos entire conservation community in addressing both urgent problems and planning for long-term sustainability

The issue of governance relates directly to the existence and effectiveness of conservation mechanisms The Caribbean LCC has launched the Protected Areas Conservation Action Team which has an objective to develop a holistic view of existing conservation mechanisms as a basis for shared prioritization and planning This includes developing a common language regarding protected areas and other conservation mechanisms developing integrated and commonly maintained spatial datasets that define a wide range of conservation mechanisms and assessing legal and jurisdictional effectiveness for given mechanisms within a spatial context

bull Southeast Aquatic Resources Partnership progress in aquatic conservation - Several of the LCCs continue to work with the Southeast Aquatic Resources Partnership (SARP) to represent aquatic resources throughout the Southeast Region and to ensure that the latest aquatic assessment data and decision-support tools are included in the landscape planning process One example is the series of partner workshops that are being held in the Great Plains LCC region to plan prioritize and identify projects and key partners and to facilitate implementation

Caribbean Protected Areas Dataset

6

bull Integration of statewide priorities across LCC boundaries - The Peninsular Florida LCC is using state Critical Land and Waters Identification Project (CLIP) GIS datasets as a basis for integrating its planning efforts with those of the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission and the South Atlantic LCC (at the LCCsrsquo boundaries) The Peninsular Florida and South Atlantic LCCs share geographic overlap within the state of Florida Both LCCsrsquo Steering Committees agreed to designate the northern portion of the Lower St Johns watershed as a Special Integration Zone The northern half of the Lower St Johns watershed is located in the South Atlantic LCC geography while the rest of the St Johns watershed is in the Peninsular Florida LCC geography

The Peninsular Florida LCC will serve as lead for the planning and management of the St Johns River watershed This designation does not mean that this area has been removed from the South Atlantic LCC it will continue to be included in mapping and assessment of the South Atlantic LCC geography This Special Integration Zone provides additional opportunity for these two neighboring LCCs to work together across the landscape In addition the Big Bend region of Florida mdash also split between the Peninsular Florida and South Atlantic LCCs mdash has been identified as a priority in both LCCs through their respective blueprint processes The Steering Committees from both LCCs have agreed to designate this area as a Special Focus Area in recognition of its high natural resource value Both LCCs will work to ensure that activities within this region are well coordinated

bull Formal designation of priority ecosystems and associated resources across the Appalachians - Resource managers and wildlife administrators from throughout the region formally designated priority ecosystems and associated resources in July 2015 These priority resources along with the integration of further aquatic and cultural components will focus and refine the second phase of the Appalachian LCCrsquos planning and landscape conservation design modeling The findings from the first phase have already provided key direction resulting in Steering Committee support for the implementation of a conservation design partnership across the Tennessee River Basin Its aim is to identify opportunities and shared resources while initiating long-term collaborative planning to protect and improve aquatic biodiversity in this region

bull Sharing Data and Decision Support Tools - Three LCCs in the Southeast working with the Conservation Biology Institute have developed Conservation Planning Atlases (CPA) to share datasets and decision support tools developed as a result of research projects The CPAs also make transparent the spatial elements of the ecological assessments and conservation design processes of each LCC

bull Southeast Climate Science Center assessment of the implications of climate change and other drivers of landscape change ndash In the kickoff stakeholder workshop for this three-year project participants will help articulate a vision for conservation success over the next 50 years highlight factors that could impede realization of that vision and identify priority research needs and adaptation approaches that

Appalachian LCC priority ecosystems

7

could contribute to realizing the SECAS vision for sustaining fish and wildlife The project seeks to develop regionally appropriate principles and approaches for adapting current and future conservation plans and actions in response to climatic and other landscape-scale changes

The Southeast Climate Science Center is funding a three-year project to sustain SECAS beyond 2016 The project which will be led by the University of South Carolina National Wildlife Federation and North Carolina State University will support the SECAS effort by assessing the implications of climate change and other drivers of landscape change for existing conservation goals and management objectives across the region It will also facilitate development of regionally appropriate principles and approaches for adapting current and future conservation plans and actions in response to climatic and other landscape-scale changes This project will host a kick-off SECAS Workshop at this yearrsquos SEAFWA Annual Conference scheduled for Wednesday afternoon November 4 2015

This is an exciting time to be involved in the SECAS effort As progress continues toward the fall of 2016 a blueprint for the desired future conservation landscape is emerging through various avenues of conservation planning The states have recently completed revisions of their State Wildlife Action Plans (SWAPs) which for the first time include the impacts of climate change on wildlife and their habitats LCCs are integrating these revised SWAPs into their conservation planning processes as they endeavor to design landscapes that will sustain fish and wildlife

LCDs are being developed at multiple scales across the Southeast and will provide the foundation for the SECAS Conservation Blueprint The Blueprint will be rolled out over the next year leading up to a SECAS Leadership Summit in fall 2016 where the Blueprint and other SECAS products will be discussed updated and built upon Upcoming milestones include

bull Efforts are being taken to connect with important decision makers representing interests and constituencies that also have a stake in the future of the southeastern landscapes between now and 2060

bull In December additional stories will bring this work to life and demonstrate in clear terms the impact this broader strategy can have on conservation efforts

bull At the same time Directors and partners will receive links to all of the discussions and material that will be presented during the SECAS Symposium and the session led by the Southeast Climate Science Center the University of South Carolina and the National Wildlife Federation

bull Additional ecological assessments decision support tools and inclusive landscape conservation design processes will be released over the next 6-12 months

bull By July 2016 a preliminary version of Southeast Conservation Adaptation Strategy Version 10 will include elements of landscape conservation design an analysis of governance issues in the Southeast and the beginnings of a Southeast leadership summit in fall 2016

bull Finally in October 2016 the Southeast Conservation Adaptation Strategy Version 10 and its associated tools will be a part of the SEAFWA conference

What to Expect in 2016

2

The Southeast Conservation Adaptation Strategy (SECAS) is an ambitious effort to harness the power of collaboration and leverage scientific technical and financial resources to proactively pursue a more resilient landscape to sustain fish and wildlife The goal of SECAS is to define and realize an ecologically connected network of landscapes and seascapes in the Southeast that represents a collective conservation vision that will sustain fish and wildlife through the 21st century An adaptation strategy recognizes that the dynamic nature of landscape change across the Southeast demands that we deliver conservation action strategically based on past experiences and considering future projections more comprehensively Any vision of the future in the Southeast will be imperfect but working collaboratively now and taking action with deliberate consideration of alternative futures will expedite learning in the face of uncertainty There is sufficient information about future change to know that unplanned degradation of current conservation landscapes will not be adequate to sustain fish and wildlife for the rest of the 21st century Where are the priority landscapes of the future Where should conservation invest capital today that will ensure a more sustainable and resilient future Are the fish and wildlife communities talking to all the people who are influencing decisions that will impact these lands by 2060 What steps can be taken to connect with the right people to give fish and wildlife the best chances for tomorrow These are some of the questions a Southeast Conservation Adaptation Strategy seeks to address

The Southeast Conservation Adaptation Strategy (SECAS) was approved by the Directors of the Southeastern Association of Fish amp Wildlife Agencies (SEAFWA) at their 2011 Annual Conference in Nashville Tennessee Their expectation was that the Landscape Conservation Cooperatives (LCCs) and Climate Science Centers overlapping the SEAFWA region would use their collaborative forums with partners and partnerships (including the Southeast Aquatic Resources Partnership Joint Ventures etc) and their scientific capacity to provide a blueprint of the future conservation landscape of the southeastern United States The blueprint would build upon the conservation priorities of the states and federal and non-governmental partners (aka the conservation community) as well as incorporate the perspectives and needs of landowners businesses planning and transportation agencies and chambers of commerce It would incorporate future changes (climate change population growth urbanization etc) to provide a comprehensive and strategic vision of the future conservation landscape SECAS will better position the states and the conservation community at large to address the challenges of a rapidly changing world in the 21st century

Next year 2016 represents an important five-year milestone for SECAS When first proposed in 2011 the LCCs asked for five years to develop the first iteration of SECAS Since then considerable progress has been made to define the future conservation landscape of the Southeast A summary of some of the most important accomplishments and products is provided in ldquoProgress Highlightsrdquo In the past year there have been a number of achievements that are worth noting

Background

3

Dennis Figg was hired to serve as a SECAS Coordinator to help the LCCs and SE Climate Science Center better organize and integrate conservation planning activities into SECAS He served through September 2015 and a new SECAS Coordinator will be hired by early 2016

Partners of the LCCs are engaged in a number of Landscape Conservation Design (LCD) projects that will form the foundation of the SECAS Conservation Blueprint and emerging conservation landscape of the future Many of these LCDs will be presented at a SECAS Symposium scheduled for the morning of Wednesday November 4 2015

SECAS is already presenting a more comprehensive and collective vision for conservation in the southeastern United States Identifying the most important lands and waters that will meet the needs of fish and wildlife for future generations is not the only outcome of SECAS but it is a critically important element For example shared longleaf pine restoration priorities identified in the South Atlantic LCCrsquos Conservation Blueprint were a key factor in a recent decision by Interiorrsquos Wildland Fire Resilient Landscapes Program to award $770000 in perpetual federal funding to support restoration in six states Building on conservation planning efforts already in place such as the recently updated State Wildlife Action Plans (SWAPs) SECAS is bringing to the broad conservation community a spatially explicit depiction of the network of landscapes and seascapes ndash the emerging conservation blueprint Following is a summary of some of the projects that are producing that emerging conservation blueprint

Building a Conservation Adaptation Strategy

4

Progress Highlightsbull South Atlantic Conservation Blueprint ndash Private state and federal organizations have developed a

vision for the South Atlantic LCC geography The SALCC Conservation Blueprint 20 is the second iteration of a spatially explicit living plan with an online user interface (the Simple Viewer) designed to facilitate its application in a variety of conservation scenarios The Blueprint identifies priority areas for shared conservation action based on the current condition of natural and cultural resource indicators for terrestrial marine and freshwater environments The Simple Viewer also provides information on ecosystem indicators landcover partnership opportunities and conservation status

bull Gulf Coast Strategic Conservation Assessment and associated projects ndash The four Gulf Coast LCCs have made tremendous progress over the last year in collaborations with many Gulf partners to facilitate conservation planning and adaptation focused on wildlife habitats as well as human communities and the economy Adaptation to sea level rise (SLR) and other effects of climate change is a theme along the Gulf LCC-led projects of this type include

(1) The Strategic Conservation Assessment (recently included in the draft Funded Priorities List by the RESTORE Council) which aims to use the conservation priorities of existing partnerships agencies and entities to develop a suite of web-based tools to help evaluate the benefits of land conservation projects (2) The recently completed Gulf Coast Vulnerability Assessment (GCVA) which assessed 4 ecosystems and 11 species across the Gulf (3) an assessment of conditions and variables affecting barrier island vulnerability and a project that addressed gaps in coverage of the Sea Level Affecting Marshes Model (SLAMM) both of which provide key data to the GCVA and (4)The Tidal Saline Wetland Migration project which identifies important zones for conservation to facilitate the landward migration of wetlands in response to SLR while avoiding projected conflicts with urbanization

Other key projects in which LCCs are partnering include (a) a Gulf Coast Biological Objectives project led by the US Fish and Wildlife Service which is developing a suite of conservation targets representative of broader habitat sustainability in the Gulf and (b) a coastal resilience project led by The Nature Conservancy which aims to quantify not only the ecological benefits of land conservation but also its cost-effectiveness for reducing and avoiding damage from storm surge and flooding to the built environment across the Gulf region

bull Rapid Ecological Assessments and Landscape Conservation Designs for nine priority habitats ndash Over the past year the GCPO LCC has undertaken the rapid assessment of the nine priority habitats

Simple Viewer Overview of The South Atlantic LCC Blueprint

5

identified in its science plan relying on a combination of existing datasets and novel analyses of Landsat and other habitat data These assessments are being incorporated into the ongoing landscape conservation design (LCD) process which is being led by a group of science advisors LCDs will build on the approach developed in 2014 for the Ozark Highlands which also incorporates priorities from recently revised State Wildlife Action Plans

bull Integration of conservation planning across Texas Oklahoma and LCCs - Partners from the Gulf Coast Prairie and Great Plains LCCs in Texas and Oklahoma made great strides this year on advancing landcover data that can support conservation planning and actions across these two states This improved landcover is a cornerstone of both the Texas and Oklahoma state wildlife conservation action plans and enables the partnerships to integrate landscape conservation design efforts in the southern plains across state lines and LCC borders

bull Ecosystem Governance a central pillar in the work of the Caribbean LCC - To discover gaps in governance or science foster cross-scale communication and meet the conservation needs of research and management agencies and organizations in the Caribbean the Caribbean LCC launched the ldquoConnecting the Dots in Conservationrdquo project The current outputs of this project are an interactive map published reports and compendiums of conservation organizations available online It is envisioned that the information will be an important resource for the Caribbeanrsquos entire conservation community in addressing both urgent problems and planning for long-term sustainability

The issue of governance relates directly to the existence and effectiveness of conservation mechanisms The Caribbean LCC has launched the Protected Areas Conservation Action Team which has an objective to develop a holistic view of existing conservation mechanisms as a basis for shared prioritization and planning This includes developing a common language regarding protected areas and other conservation mechanisms developing integrated and commonly maintained spatial datasets that define a wide range of conservation mechanisms and assessing legal and jurisdictional effectiveness for given mechanisms within a spatial context

bull Southeast Aquatic Resources Partnership progress in aquatic conservation - Several of the LCCs continue to work with the Southeast Aquatic Resources Partnership (SARP) to represent aquatic resources throughout the Southeast Region and to ensure that the latest aquatic assessment data and decision-support tools are included in the landscape planning process One example is the series of partner workshops that are being held in the Great Plains LCC region to plan prioritize and identify projects and key partners and to facilitate implementation

Caribbean Protected Areas Dataset

6

bull Integration of statewide priorities across LCC boundaries - The Peninsular Florida LCC is using state Critical Land and Waters Identification Project (CLIP) GIS datasets as a basis for integrating its planning efforts with those of the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission and the South Atlantic LCC (at the LCCsrsquo boundaries) The Peninsular Florida and South Atlantic LCCs share geographic overlap within the state of Florida Both LCCsrsquo Steering Committees agreed to designate the northern portion of the Lower St Johns watershed as a Special Integration Zone The northern half of the Lower St Johns watershed is located in the South Atlantic LCC geography while the rest of the St Johns watershed is in the Peninsular Florida LCC geography

The Peninsular Florida LCC will serve as lead for the planning and management of the St Johns River watershed This designation does not mean that this area has been removed from the South Atlantic LCC it will continue to be included in mapping and assessment of the South Atlantic LCC geography This Special Integration Zone provides additional opportunity for these two neighboring LCCs to work together across the landscape In addition the Big Bend region of Florida mdash also split between the Peninsular Florida and South Atlantic LCCs mdash has been identified as a priority in both LCCs through their respective blueprint processes The Steering Committees from both LCCs have agreed to designate this area as a Special Focus Area in recognition of its high natural resource value Both LCCs will work to ensure that activities within this region are well coordinated

bull Formal designation of priority ecosystems and associated resources across the Appalachians - Resource managers and wildlife administrators from throughout the region formally designated priority ecosystems and associated resources in July 2015 These priority resources along with the integration of further aquatic and cultural components will focus and refine the second phase of the Appalachian LCCrsquos planning and landscape conservation design modeling The findings from the first phase have already provided key direction resulting in Steering Committee support for the implementation of a conservation design partnership across the Tennessee River Basin Its aim is to identify opportunities and shared resources while initiating long-term collaborative planning to protect and improve aquatic biodiversity in this region

bull Sharing Data and Decision Support Tools - Three LCCs in the Southeast working with the Conservation Biology Institute have developed Conservation Planning Atlases (CPA) to share datasets and decision support tools developed as a result of research projects The CPAs also make transparent the spatial elements of the ecological assessments and conservation design processes of each LCC

bull Southeast Climate Science Center assessment of the implications of climate change and other drivers of landscape change ndash In the kickoff stakeholder workshop for this three-year project participants will help articulate a vision for conservation success over the next 50 years highlight factors that could impede realization of that vision and identify priority research needs and adaptation approaches that

Appalachian LCC priority ecosystems

7

could contribute to realizing the SECAS vision for sustaining fish and wildlife The project seeks to develop regionally appropriate principles and approaches for adapting current and future conservation plans and actions in response to climatic and other landscape-scale changes

The Southeast Climate Science Center is funding a three-year project to sustain SECAS beyond 2016 The project which will be led by the University of South Carolina National Wildlife Federation and North Carolina State University will support the SECAS effort by assessing the implications of climate change and other drivers of landscape change for existing conservation goals and management objectives across the region It will also facilitate development of regionally appropriate principles and approaches for adapting current and future conservation plans and actions in response to climatic and other landscape-scale changes This project will host a kick-off SECAS Workshop at this yearrsquos SEAFWA Annual Conference scheduled for Wednesday afternoon November 4 2015

This is an exciting time to be involved in the SECAS effort As progress continues toward the fall of 2016 a blueprint for the desired future conservation landscape is emerging through various avenues of conservation planning The states have recently completed revisions of their State Wildlife Action Plans (SWAPs) which for the first time include the impacts of climate change on wildlife and their habitats LCCs are integrating these revised SWAPs into their conservation planning processes as they endeavor to design landscapes that will sustain fish and wildlife

LCDs are being developed at multiple scales across the Southeast and will provide the foundation for the SECAS Conservation Blueprint The Blueprint will be rolled out over the next year leading up to a SECAS Leadership Summit in fall 2016 where the Blueprint and other SECAS products will be discussed updated and built upon Upcoming milestones include

bull Efforts are being taken to connect with important decision makers representing interests and constituencies that also have a stake in the future of the southeastern landscapes between now and 2060

bull In December additional stories will bring this work to life and demonstrate in clear terms the impact this broader strategy can have on conservation efforts

bull At the same time Directors and partners will receive links to all of the discussions and material that will be presented during the SECAS Symposium and the session led by the Southeast Climate Science Center the University of South Carolina and the National Wildlife Federation

bull Additional ecological assessments decision support tools and inclusive landscape conservation design processes will be released over the next 6-12 months

bull By July 2016 a preliminary version of Southeast Conservation Adaptation Strategy Version 10 will include elements of landscape conservation design an analysis of governance issues in the Southeast and the beginnings of a Southeast leadership summit in fall 2016

bull Finally in October 2016 the Southeast Conservation Adaptation Strategy Version 10 and its associated tools will be a part of the SEAFWA conference

What to Expect in 2016

3

Dennis Figg was hired to serve as a SECAS Coordinator to help the LCCs and SE Climate Science Center better organize and integrate conservation planning activities into SECAS He served through September 2015 and a new SECAS Coordinator will be hired by early 2016

Partners of the LCCs are engaged in a number of Landscape Conservation Design (LCD) projects that will form the foundation of the SECAS Conservation Blueprint and emerging conservation landscape of the future Many of these LCDs will be presented at a SECAS Symposium scheduled for the morning of Wednesday November 4 2015

SECAS is already presenting a more comprehensive and collective vision for conservation in the southeastern United States Identifying the most important lands and waters that will meet the needs of fish and wildlife for future generations is not the only outcome of SECAS but it is a critically important element For example shared longleaf pine restoration priorities identified in the South Atlantic LCCrsquos Conservation Blueprint were a key factor in a recent decision by Interiorrsquos Wildland Fire Resilient Landscapes Program to award $770000 in perpetual federal funding to support restoration in six states Building on conservation planning efforts already in place such as the recently updated State Wildlife Action Plans (SWAPs) SECAS is bringing to the broad conservation community a spatially explicit depiction of the network of landscapes and seascapes ndash the emerging conservation blueprint Following is a summary of some of the projects that are producing that emerging conservation blueprint

Building a Conservation Adaptation Strategy

4

Progress Highlightsbull South Atlantic Conservation Blueprint ndash Private state and federal organizations have developed a

vision for the South Atlantic LCC geography The SALCC Conservation Blueprint 20 is the second iteration of a spatially explicit living plan with an online user interface (the Simple Viewer) designed to facilitate its application in a variety of conservation scenarios The Blueprint identifies priority areas for shared conservation action based on the current condition of natural and cultural resource indicators for terrestrial marine and freshwater environments The Simple Viewer also provides information on ecosystem indicators landcover partnership opportunities and conservation status

bull Gulf Coast Strategic Conservation Assessment and associated projects ndash The four Gulf Coast LCCs have made tremendous progress over the last year in collaborations with many Gulf partners to facilitate conservation planning and adaptation focused on wildlife habitats as well as human communities and the economy Adaptation to sea level rise (SLR) and other effects of climate change is a theme along the Gulf LCC-led projects of this type include

(1) The Strategic Conservation Assessment (recently included in the draft Funded Priorities List by the RESTORE Council) which aims to use the conservation priorities of existing partnerships agencies and entities to develop a suite of web-based tools to help evaluate the benefits of land conservation projects (2) The recently completed Gulf Coast Vulnerability Assessment (GCVA) which assessed 4 ecosystems and 11 species across the Gulf (3) an assessment of conditions and variables affecting barrier island vulnerability and a project that addressed gaps in coverage of the Sea Level Affecting Marshes Model (SLAMM) both of which provide key data to the GCVA and (4)The Tidal Saline Wetland Migration project which identifies important zones for conservation to facilitate the landward migration of wetlands in response to SLR while avoiding projected conflicts with urbanization

Other key projects in which LCCs are partnering include (a) a Gulf Coast Biological Objectives project led by the US Fish and Wildlife Service which is developing a suite of conservation targets representative of broader habitat sustainability in the Gulf and (b) a coastal resilience project led by The Nature Conservancy which aims to quantify not only the ecological benefits of land conservation but also its cost-effectiveness for reducing and avoiding damage from storm surge and flooding to the built environment across the Gulf region

bull Rapid Ecological Assessments and Landscape Conservation Designs for nine priority habitats ndash Over the past year the GCPO LCC has undertaken the rapid assessment of the nine priority habitats

Simple Viewer Overview of The South Atlantic LCC Blueprint

5

identified in its science plan relying on a combination of existing datasets and novel analyses of Landsat and other habitat data These assessments are being incorporated into the ongoing landscape conservation design (LCD) process which is being led by a group of science advisors LCDs will build on the approach developed in 2014 for the Ozark Highlands which also incorporates priorities from recently revised State Wildlife Action Plans

bull Integration of conservation planning across Texas Oklahoma and LCCs - Partners from the Gulf Coast Prairie and Great Plains LCCs in Texas and Oklahoma made great strides this year on advancing landcover data that can support conservation planning and actions across these two states This improved landcover is a cornerstone of both the Texas and Oklahoma state wildlife conservation action plans and enables the partnerships to integrate landscape conservation design efforts in the southern plains across state lines and LCC borders

bull Ecosystem Governance a central pillar in the work of the Caribbean LCC - To discover gaps in governance or science foster cross-scale communication and meet the conservation needs of research and management agencies and organizations in the Caribbean the Caribbean LCC launched the ldquoConnecting the Dots in Conservationrdquo project The current outputs of this project are an interactive map published reports and compendiums of conservation organizations available online It is envisioned that the information will be an important resource for the Caribbeanrsquos entire conservation community in addressing both urgent problems and planning for long-term sustainability

The issue of governance relates directly to the existence and effectiveness of conservation mechanisms The Caribbean LCC has launched the Protected Areas Conservation Action Team which has an objective to develop a holistic view of existing conservation mechanisms as a basis for shared prioritization and planning This includes developing a common language regarding protected areas and other conservation mechanisms developing integrated and commonly maintained spatial datasets that define a wide range of conservation mechanisms and assessing legal and jurisdictional effectiveness for given mechanisms within a spatial context

bull Southeast Aquatic Resources Partnership progress in aquatic conservation - Several of the LCCs continue to work with the Southeast Aquatic Resources Partnership (SARP) to represent aquatic resources throughout the Southeast Region and to ensure that the latest aquatic assessment data and decision-support tools are included in the landscape planning process One example is the series of partner workshops that are being held in the Great Plains LCC region to plan prioritize and identify projects and key partners and to facilitate implementation

Caribbean Protected Areas Dataset

6

bull Integration of statewide priorities across LCC boundaries - The Peninsular Florida LCC is using state Critical Land and Waters Identification Project (CLIP) GIS datasets as a basis for integrating its planning efforts with those of the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission and the South Atlantic LCC (at the LCCsrsquo boundaries) The Peninsular Florida and South Atlantic LCCs share geographic overlap within the state of Florida Both LCCsrsquo Steering Committees agreed to designate the northern portion of the Lower St Johns watershed as a Special Integration Zone The northern half of the Lower St Johns watershed is located in the South Atlantic LCC geography while the rest of the St Johns watershed is in the Peninsular Florida LCC geography

The Peninsular Florida LCC will serve as lead for the planning and management of the St Johns River watershed This designation does not mean that this area has been removed from the South Atlantic LCC it will continue to be included in mapping and assessment of the South Atlantic LCC geography This Special Integration Zone provides additional opportunity for these two neighboring LCCs to work together across the landscape In addition the Big Bend region of Florida mdash also split between the Peninsular Florida and South Atlantic LCCs mdash has been identified as a priority in both LCCs through their respective blueprint processes The Steering Committees from both LCCs have agreed to designate this area as a Special Focus Area in recognition of its high natural resource value Both LCCs will work to ensure that activities within this region are well coordinated

bull Formal designation of priority ecosystems and associated resources across the Appalachians - Resource managers and wildlife administrators from throughout the region formally designated priority ecosystems and associated resources in July 2015 These priority resources along with the integration of further aquatic and cultural components will focus and refine the second phase of the Appalachian LCCrsquos planning and landscape conservation design modeling The findings from the first phase have already provided key direction resulting in Steering Committee support for the implementation of a conservation design partnership across the Tennessee River Basin Its aim is to identify opportunities and shared resources while initiating long-term collaborative planning to protect and improve aquatic biodiversity in this region

bull Sharing Data and Decision Support Tools - Three LCCs in the Southeast working with the Conservation Biology Institute have developed Conservation Planning Atlases (CPA) to share datasets and decision support tools developed as a result of research projects The CPAs also make transparent the spatial elements of the ecological assessments and conservation design processes of each LCC

bull Southeast Climate Science Center assessment of the implications of climate change and other drivers of landscape change ndash In the kickoff stakeholder workshop for this three-year project participants will help articulate a vision for conservation success over the next 50 years highlight factors that could impede realization of that vision and identify priority research needs and adaptation approaches that

Appalachian LCC priority ecosystems

7

could contribute to realizing the SECAS vision for sustaining fish and wildlife The project seeks to develop regionally appropriate principles and approaches for adapting current and future conservation plans and actions in response to climatic and other landscape-scale changes

The Southeast Climate Science Center is funding a three-year project to sustain SECAS beyond 2016 The project which will be led by the University of South Carolina National Wildlife Federation and North Carolina State University will support the SECAS effort by assessing the implications of climate change and other drivers of landscape change for existing conservation goals and management objectives across the region It will also facilitate development of regionally appropriate principles and approaches for adapting current and future conservation plans and actions in response to climatic and other landscape-scale changes This project will host a kick-off SECAS Workshop at this yearrsquos SEAFWA Annual Conference scheduled for Wednesday afternoon November 4 2015

This is an exciting time to be involved in the SECAS effort As progress continues toward the fall of 2016 a blueprint for the desired future conservation landscape is emerging through various avenues of conservation planning The states have recently completed revisions of their State Wildlife Action Plans (SWAPs) which for the first time include the impacts of climate change on wildlife and their habitats LCCs are integrating these revised SWAPs into their conservation planning processes as they endeavor to design landscapes that will sustain fish and wildlife

LCDs are being developed at multiple scales across the Southeast and will provide the foundation for the SECAS Conservation Blueprint The Blueprint will be rolled out over the next year leading up to a SECAS Leadership Summit in fall 2016 where the Blueprint and other SECAS products will be discussed updated and built upon Upcoming milestones include

bull Efforts are being taken to connect with important decision makers representing interests and constituencies that also have a stake in the future of the southeastern landscapes between now and 2060

bull In December additional stories will bring this work to life and demonstrate in clear terms the impact this broader strategy can have on conservation efforts

bull At the same time Directors and partners will receive links to all of the discussions and material that will be presented during the SECAS Symposium and the session led by the Southeast Climate Science Center the University of South Carolina and the National Wildlife Federation

bull Additional ecological assessments decision support tools and inclusive landscape conservation design processes will be released over the next 6-12 months

bull By July 2016 a preliminary version of Southeast Conservation Adaptation Strategy Version 10 will include elements of landscape conservation design an analysis of governance issues in the Southeast and the beginnings of a Southeast leadership summit in fall 2016

bull Finally in October 2016 the Southeast Conservation Adaptation Strategy Version 10 and its associated tools will be a part of the SEAFWA conference

What to Expect in 2016

4

Progress Highlightsbull South Atlantic Conservation Blueprint ndash Private state and federal organizations have developed a

vision for the South Atlantic LCC geography The SALCC Conservation Blueprint 20 is the second iteration of a spatially explicit living plan with an online user interface (the Simple Viewer) designed to facilitate its application in a variety of conservation scenarios The Blueprint identifies priority areas for shared conservation action based on the current condition of natural and cultural resource indicators for terrestrial marine and freshwater environments The Simple Viewer also provides information on ecosystem indicators landcover partnership opportunities and conservation status

bull Gulf Coast Strategic Conservation Assessment and associated projects ndash The four Gulf Coast LCCs have made tremendous progress over the last year in collaborations with many Gulf partners to facilitate conservation planning and adaptation focused on wildlife habitats as well as human communities and the economy Adaptation to sea level rise (SLR) and other effects of climate change is a theme along the Gulf LCC-led projects of this type include

(1) The Strategic Conservation Assessment (recently included in the draft Funded Priorities List by the RESTORE Council) which aims to use the conservation priorities of existing partnerships agencies and entities to develop a suite of web-based tools to help evaluate the benefits of land conservation projects (2) The recently completed Gulf Coast Vulnerability Assessment (GCVA) which assessed 4 ecosystems and 11 species across the Gulf (3) an assessment of conditions and variables affecting barrier island vulnerability and a project that addressed gaps in coverage of the Sea Level Affecting Marshes Model (SLAMM) both of which provide key data to the GCVA and (4)The Tidal Saline Wetland Migration project which identifies important zones for conservation to facilitate the landward migration of wetlands in response to SLR while avoiding projected conflicts with urbanization

Other key projects in which LCCs are partnering include (a) a Gulf Coast Biological Objectives project led by the US Fish and Wildlife Service which is developing a suite of conservation targets representative of broader habitat sustainability in the Gulf and (b) a coastal resilience project led by The Nature Conservancy which aims to quantify not only the ecological benefits of land conservation but also its cost-effectiveness for reducing and avoiding damage from storm surge and flooding to the built environment across the Gulf region

bull Rapid Ecological Assessments and Landscape Conservation Designs for nine priority habitats ndash Over the past year the GCPO LCC has undertaken the rapid assessment of the nine priority habitats

Simple Viewer Overview of The South Atlantic LCC Blueprint

5

identified in its science plan relying on a combination of existing datasets and novel analyses of Landsat and other habitat data These assessments are being incorporated into the ongoing landscape conservation design (LCD) process which is being led by a group of science advisors LCDs will build on the approach developed in 2014 for the Ozark Highlands which also incorporates priorities from recently revised State Wildlife Action Plans

bull Integration of conservation planning across Texas Oklahoma and LCCs - Partners from the Gulf Coast Prairie and Great Plains LCCs in Texas and Oklahoma made great strides this year on advancing landcover data that can support conservation planning and actions across these two states This improved landcover is a cornerstone of both the Texas and Oklahoma state wildlife conservation action plans and enables the partnerships to integrate landscape conservation design efforts in the southern plains across state lines and LCC borders

bull Ecosystem Governance a central pillar in the work of the Caribbean LCC - To discover gaps in governance or science foster cross-scale communication and meet the conservation needs of research and management agencies and organizations in the Caribbean the Caribbean LCC launched the ldquoConnecting the Dots in Conservationrdquo project The current outputs of this project are an interactive map published reports and compendiums of conservation organizations available online It is envisioned that the information will be an important resource for the Caribbeanrsquos entire conservation community in addressing both urgent problems and planning for long-term sustainability

The issue of governance relates directly to the existence and effectiveness of conservation mechanisms The Caribbean LCC has launched the Protected Areas Conservation Action Team which has an objective to develop a holistic view of existing conservation mechanisms as a basis for shared prioritization and planning This includes developing a common language regarding protected areas and other conservation mechanisms developing integrated and commonly maintained spatial datasets that define a wide range of conservation mechanisms and assessing legal and jurisdictional effectiveness for given mechanisms within a spatial context

bull Southeast Aquatic Resources Partnership progress in aquatic conservation - Several of the LCCs continue to work with the Southeast Aquatic Resources Partnership (SARP) to represent aquatic resources throughout the Southeast Region and to ensure that the latest aquatic assessment data and decision-support tools are included in the landscape planning process One example is the series of partner workshops that are being held in the Great Plains LCC region to plan prioritize and identify projects and key partners and to facilitate implementation

Caribbean Protected Areas Dataset

6

bull Integration of statewide priorities across LCC boundaries - The Peninsular Florida LCC is using state Critical Land and Waters Identification Project (CLIP) GIS datasets as a basis for integrating its planning efforts with those of the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission and the South Atlantic LCC (at the LCCsrsquo boundaries) The Peninsular Florida and South Atlantic LCCs share geographic overlap within the state of Florida Both LCCsrsquo Steering Committees agreed to designate the northern portion of the Lower St Johns watershed as a Special Integration Zone The northern half of the Lower St Johns watershed is located in the South Atlantic LCC geography while the rest of the St Johns watershed is in the Peninsular Florida LCC geography

The Peninsular Florida LCC will serve as lead for the planning and management of the St Johns River watershed This designation does not mean that this area has been removed from the South Atlantic LCC it will continue to be included in mapping and assessment of the South Atlantic LCC geography This Special Integration Zone provides additional opportunity for these two neighboring LCCs to work together across the landscape In addition the Big Bend region of Florida mdash also split between the Peninsular Florida and South Atlantic LCCs mdash has been identified as a priority in both LCCs through their respective blueprint processes The Steering Committees from both LCCs have agreed to designate this area as a Special Focus Area in recognition of its high natural resource value Both LCCs will work to ensure that activities within this region are well coordinated

bull Formal designation of priority ecosystems and associated resources across the Appalachians - Resource managers and wildlife administrators from throughout the region formally designated priority ecosystems and associated resources in July 2015 These priority resources along with the integration of further aquatic and cultural components will focus and refine the second phase of the Appalachian LCCrsquos planning and landscape conservation design modeling The findings from the first phase have already provided key direction resulting in Steering Committee support for the implementation of a conservation design partnership across the Tennessee River Basin Its aim is to identify opportunities and shared resources while initiating long-term collaborative planning to protect and improve aquatic biodiversity in this region

bull Sharing Data and Decision Support Tools - Three LCCs in the Southeast working with the Conservation Biology Institute have developed Conservation Planning Atlases (CPA) to share datasets and decision support tools developed as a result of research projects The CPAs also make transparent the spatial elements of the ecological assessments and conservation design processes of each LCC

bull Southeast Climate Science Center assessment of the implications of climate change and other drivers of landscape change ndash In the kickoff stakeholder workshop for this three-year project participants will help articulate a vision for conservation success over the next 50 years highlight factors that could impede realization of that vision and identify priority research needs and adaptation approaches that

Appalachian LCC priority ecosystems

7

could contribute to realizing the SECAS vision for sustaining fish and wildlife The project seeks to develop regionally appropriate principles and approaches for adapting current and future conservation plans and actions in response to climatic and other landscape-scale changes

The Southeast Climate Science Center is funding a three-year project to sustain SECAS beyond 2016 The project which will be led by the University of South Carolina National Wildlife Federation and North Carolina State University will support the SECAS effort by assessing the implications of climate change and other drivers of landscape change for existing conservation goals and management objectives across the region It will also facilitate development of regionally appropriate principles and approaches for adapting current and future conservation plans and actions in response to climatic and other landscape-scale changes This project will host a kick-off SECAS Workshop at this yearrsquos SEAFWA Annual Conference scheduled for Wednesday afternoon November 4 2015

This is an exciting time to be involved in the SECAS effort As progress continues toward the fall of 2016 a blueprint for the desired future conservation landscape is emerging through various avenues of conservation planning The states have recently completed revisions of their State Wildlife Action Plans (SWAPs) which for the first time include the impacts of climate change on wildlife and their habitats LCCs are integrating these revised SWAPs into their conservation planning processes as they endeavor to design landscapes that will sustain fish and wildlife

LCDs are being developed at multiple scales across the Southeast and will provide the foundation for the SECAS Conservation Blueprint The Blueprint will be rolled out over the next year leading up to a SECAS Leadership Summit in fall 2016 where the Blueprint and other SECAS products will be discussed updated and built upon Upcoming milestones include

bull Efforts are being taken to connect with important decision makers representing interests and constituencies that also have a stake in the future of the southeastern landscapes between now and 2060

bull In December additional stories will bring this work to life and demonstrate in clear terms the impact this broader strategy can have on conservation efforts

bull At the same time Directors and partners will receive links to all of the discussions and material that will be presented during the SECAS Symposium and the session led by the Southeast Climate Science Center the University of South Carolina and the National Wildlife Federation

bull Additional ecological assessments decision support tools and inclusive landscape conservation design processes will be released over the next 6-12 months

bull By July 2016 a preliminary version of Southeast Conservation Adaptation Strategy Version 10 will include elements of landscape conservation design an analysis of governance issues in the Southeast and the beginnings of a Southeast leadership summit in fall 2016

bull Finally in October 2016 the Southeast Conservation Adaptation Strategy Version 10 and its associated tools will be a part of the SEAFWA conference

What to Expect in 2016

5

identified in its science plan relying on a combination of existing datasets and novel analyses of Landsat and other habitat data These assessments are being incorporated into the ongoing landscape conservation design (LCD) process which is being led by a group of science advisors LCDs will build on the approach developed in 2014 for the Ozark Highlands which also incorporates priorities from recently revised State Wildlife Action Plans

bull Integration of conservation planning across Texas Oklahoma and LCCs - Partners from the Gulf Coast Prairie and Great Plains LCCs in Texas and Oklahoma made great strides this year on advancing landcover data that can support conservation planning and actions across these two states This improved landcover is a cornerstone of both the Texas and Oklahoma state wildlife conservation action plans and enables the partnerships to integrate landscape conservation design efforts in the southern plains across state lines and LCC borders

bull Ecosystem Governance a central pillar in the work of the Caribbean LCC - To discover gaps in governance or science foster cross-scale communication and meet the conservation needs of research and management agencies and organizations in the Caribbean the Caribbean LCC launched the ldquoConnecting the Dots in Conservationrdquo project The current outputs of this project are an interactive map published reports and compendiums of conservation organizations available online It is envisioned that the information will be an important resource for the Caribbeanrsquos entire conservation community in addressing both urgent problems and planning for long-term sustainability

The issue of governance relates directly to the existence and effectiveness of conservation mechanisms The Caribbean LCC has launched the Protected Areas Conservation Action Team which has an objective to develop a holistic view of existing conservation mechanisms as a basis for shared prioritization and planning This includes developing a common language regarding protected areas and other conservation mechanisms developing integrated and commonly maintained spatial datasets that define a wide range of conservation mechanisms and assessing legal and jurisdictional effectiveness for given mechanisms within a spatial context

bull Southeast Aquatic Resources Partnership progress in aquatic conservation - Several of the LCCs continue to work with the Southeast Aquatic Resources Partnership (SARP) to represent aquatic resources throughout the Southeast Region and to ensure that the latest aquatic assessment data and decision-support tools are included in the landscape planning process One example is the series of partner workshops that are being held in the Great Plains LCC region to plan prioritize and identify projects and key partners and to facilitate implementation

Caribbean Protected Areas Dataset

6

bull Integration of statewide priorities across LCC boundaries - The Peninsular Florida LCC is using state Critical Land and Waters Identification Project (CLIP) GIS datasets as a basis for integrating its planning efforts with those of the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission and the South Atlantic LCC (at the LCCsrsquo boundaries) The Peninsular Florida and South Atlantic LCCs share geographic overlap within the state of Florida Both LCCsrsquo Steering Committees agreed to designate the northern portion of the Lower St Johns watershed as a Special Integration Zone The northern half of the Lower St Johns watershed is located in the South Atlantic LCC geography while the rest of the St Johns watershed is in the Peninsular Florida LCC geography

The Peninsular Florida LCC will serve as lead for the planning and management of the St Johns River watershed This designation does not mean that this area has been removed from the South Atlantic LCC it will continue to be included in mapping and assessment of the South Atlantic LCC geography This Special Integration Zone provides additional opportunity for these two neighboring LCCs to work together across the landscape In addition the Big Bend region of Florida mdash also split between the Peninsular Florida and South Atlantic LCCs mdash has been identified as a priority in both LCCs through their respective blueprint processes The Steering Committees from both LCCs have agreed to designate this area as a Special Focus Area in recognition of its high natural resource value Both LCCs will work to ensure that activities within this region are well coordinated

bull Formal designation of priority ecosystems and associated resources across the Appalachians - Resource managers and wildlife administrators from throughout the region formally designated priority ecosystems and associated resources in July 2015 These priority resources along with the integration of further aquatic and cultural components will focus and refine the second phase of the Appalachian LCCrsquos planning and landscape conservation design modeling The findings from the first phase have already provided key direction resulting in Steering Committee support for the implementation of a conservation design partnership across the Tennessee River Basin Its aim is to identify opportunities and shared resources while initiating long-term collaborative planning to protect and improve aquatic biodiversity in this region

bull Sharing Data and Decision Support Tools - Three LCCs in the Southeast working with the Conservation Biology Institute have developed Conservation Planning Atlases (CPA) to share datasets and decision support tools developed as a result of research projects The CPAs also make transparent the spatial elements of the ecological assessments and conservation design processes of each LCC

bull Southeast Climate Science Center assessment of the implications of climate change and other drivers of landscape change ndash In the kickoff stakeholder workshop for this three-year project participants will help articulate a vision for conservation success over the next 50 years highlight factors that could impede realization of that vision and identify priority research needs and adaptation approaches that

Appalachian LCC priority ecosystems

7

could contribute to realizing the SECAS vision for sustaining fish and wildlife The project seeks to develop regionally appropriate principles and approaches for adapting current and future conservation plans and actions in response to climatic and other landscape-scale changes

The Southeast Climate Science Center is funding a three-year project to sustain SECAS beyond 2016 The project which will be led by the University of South Carolina National Wildlife Federation and North Carolina State University will support the SECAS effort by assessing the implications of climate change and other drivers of landscape change for existing conservation goals and management objectives across the region It will also facilitate development of regionally appropriate principles and approaches for adapting current and future conservation plans and actions in response to climatic and other landscape-scale changes This project will host a kick-off SECAS Workshop at this yearrsquos SEAFWA Annual Conference scheduled for Wednesday afternoon November 4 2015

This is an exciting time to be involved in the SECAS effort As progress continues toward the fall of 2016 a blueprint for the desired future conservation landscape is emerging through various avenues of conservation planning The states have recently completed revisions of their State Wildlife Action Plans (SWAPs) which for the first time include the impacts of climate change on wildlife and their habitats LCCs are integrating these revised SWAPs into their conservation planning processes as they endeavor to design landscapes that will sustain fish and wildlife

LCDs are being developed at multiple scales across the Southeast and will provide the foundation for the SECAS Conservation Blueprint The Blueprint will be rolled out over the next year leading up to a SECAS Leadership Summit in fall 2016 where the Blueprint and other SECAS products will be discussed updated and built upon Upcoming milestones include

bull Efforts are being taken to connect with important decision makers representing interests and constituencies that also have a stake in the future of the southeastern landscapes between now and 2060

bull In December additional stories will bring this work to life and demonstrate in clear terms the impact this broader strategy can have on conservation efforts

bull At the same time Directors and partners will receive links to all of the discussions and material that will be presented during the SECAS Symposium and the session led by the Southeast Climate Science Center the University of South Carolina and the National Wildlife Federation

bull Additional ecological assessments decision support tools and inclusive landscape conservation design processes will be released over the next 6-12 months

bull By July 2016 a preliminary version of Southeast Conservation Adaptation Strategy Version 10 will include elements of landscape conservation design an analysis of governance issues in the Southeast and the beginnings of a Southeast leadership summit in fall 2016

bull Finally in October 2016 the Southeast Conservation Adaptation Strategy Version 10 and its associated tools will be a part of the SEAFWA conference

What to Expect in 2016

6

bull Integration of statewide priorities across LCC boundaries - The Peninsular Florida LCC is using state Critical Land and Waters Identification Project (CLIP) GIS datasets as a basis for integrating its planning efforts with those of the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission and the South Atlantic LCC (at the LCCsrsquo boundaries) The Peninsular Florida and South Atlantic LCCs share geographic overlap within the state of Florida Both LCCsrsquo Steering Committees agreed to designate the northern portion of the Lower St Johns watershed as a Special Integration Zone The northern half of the Lower St Johns watershed is located in the South Atlantic LCC geography while the rest of the St Johns watershed is in the Peninsular Florida LCC geography

The Peninsular Florida LCC will serve as lead for the planning and management of the St Johns River watershed This designation does not mean that this area has been removed from the South Atlantic LCC it will continue to be included in mapping and assessment of the South Atlantic LCC geography This Special Integration Zone provides additional opportunity for these two neighboring LCCs to work together across the landscape In addition the Big Bend region of Florida mdash also split between the Peninsular Florida and South Atlantic LCCs mdash has been identified as a priority in both LCCs through their respective blueprint processes The Steering Committees from both LCCs have agreed to designate this area as a Special Focus Area in recognition of its high natural resource value Both LCCs will work to ensure that activities within this region are well coordinated

bull Formal designation of priority ecosystems and associated resources across the Appalachians - Resource managers and wildlife administrators from throughout the region formally designated priority ecosystems and associated resources in July 2015 These priority resources along with the integration of further aquatic and cultural components will focus and refine the second phase of the Appalachian LCCrsquos planning and landscape conservation design modeling The findings from the first phase have already provided key direction resulting in Steering Committee support for the implementation of a conservation design partnership across the Tennessee River Basin Its aim is to identify opportunities and shared resources while initiating long-term collaborative planning to protect and improve aquatic biodiversity in this region

bull Sharing Data and Decision Support Tools - Three LCCs in the Southeast working with the Conservation Biology Institute have developed Conservation Planning Atlases (CPA) to share datasets and decision support tools developed as a result of research projects The CPAs also make transparent the spatial elements of the ecological assessments and conservation design processes of each LCC

bull Southeast Climate Science Center assessment of the implications of climate change and other drivers of landscape change ndash In the kickoff stakeholder workshop for this three-year project participants will help articulate a vision for conservation success over the next 50 years highlight factors that could impede realization of that vision and identify priority research needs and adaptation approaches that

Appalachian LCC priority ecosystems

7

could contribute to realizing the SECAS vision for sustaining fish and wildlife The project seeks to develop regionally appropriate principles and approaches for adapting current and future conservation plans and actions in response to climatic and other landscape-scale changes

The Southeast Climate Science Center is funding a three-year project to sustain SECAS beyond 2016 The project which will be led by the University of South Carolina National Wildlife Federation and North Carolina State University will support the SECAS effort by assessing the implications of climate change and other drivers of landscape change for existing conservation goals and management objectives across the region It will also facilitate development of regionally appropriate principles and approaches for adapting current and future conservation plans and actions in response to climatic and other landscape-scale changes This project will host a kick-off SECAS Workshop at this yearrsquos SEAFWA Annual Conference scheduled for Wednesday afternoon November 4 2015

This is an exciting time to be involved in the SECAS effort As progress continues toward the fall of 2016 a blueprint for the desired future conservation landscape is emerging through various avenues of conservation planning The states have recently completed revisions of their State Wildlife Action Plans (SWAPs) which for the first time include the impacts of climate change on wildlife and their habitats LCCs are integrating these revised SWAPs into their conservation planning processes as they endeavor to design landscapes that will sustain fish and wildlife

LCDs are being developed at multiple scales across the Southeast and will provide the foundation for the SECAS Conservation Blueprint The Blueprint will be rolled out over the next year leading up to a SECAS Leadership Summit in fall 2016 where the Blueprint and other SECAS products will be discussed updated and built upon Upcoming milestones include

bull Efforts are being taken to connect with important decision makers representing interests and constituencies that also have a stake in the future of the southeastern landscapes between now and 2060

bull In December additional stories will bring this work to life and demonstrate in clear terms the impact this broader strategy can have on conservation efforts

bull At the same time Directors and partners will receive links to all of the discussions and material that will be presented during the SECAS Symposium and the session led by the Southeast Climate Science Center the University of South Carolina and the National Wildlife Federation

bull Additional ecological assessments decision support tools and inclusive landscape conservation design processes will be released over the next 6-12 months

bull By July 2016 a preliminary version of Southeast Conservation Adaptation Strategy Version 10 will include elements of landscape conservation design an analysis of governance issues in the Southeast and the beginnings of a Southeast leadership summit in fall 2016

bull Finally in October 2016 the Southeast Conservation Adaptation Strategy Version 10 and its associated tools will be a part of the SEAFWA conference

What to Expect in 2016

7

could contribute to realizing the SECAS vision for sustaining fish and wildlife The project seeks to develop regionally appropriate principles and approaches for adapting current and future conservation plans and actions in response to climatic and other landscape-scale changes

The Southeast Climate Science Center is funding a three-year project to sustain SECAS beyond 2016 The project which will be led by the University of South Carolina National Wildlife Federation and North Carolina State University will support the SECAS effort by assessing the implications of climate change and other drivers of landscape change for existing conservation goals and management objectives across the region It will also facilitate development of regionally appropriate principles and approaches for adapting current and future conservation plans and actions in response to climatic and other landscape-scale changes This project will host a kick-off SECAS Workshop at this yearrsquos SEAFWA Annual Conference scheduled for Wednesday afternoon November 4 2015

This is an exciting time to be involved in the SECAS effort As progress continues toward the fall of 2016 a blueprint for the desired future conservation landscape is emerging through various avenues of conservation planning The states have recently completed revisions of their State Wildlife Action Plans (SWAPs) which for the first time include the impacts of climate change on wildlife and their habitats LCCs are integrating these revised SWAPs into their conservation planning processes as they endeavor to design landscapes that will sustain fish and wildlife

LCDs are being developed at multiple scales across the Southeast and will provide the foundation for the SECAS Conservation Blueprint The Blueprint will be rolled out over the next year leading up to a SECAS Leadership Summit in fall 2016 where the Blueprint and other SECAS products will be discussed updated and built upon Upcoming milestones include

bull Efforts are being taken to connect with important decision makers representing interests and constituencies that also have a stake in the future of the southeastern landscapes between now and 2060

bull In December additional stories will bring this work to life and demonstrate in clear terms the impact this broader strategy can have on conservation efforts

bull At the same time Directors and partners will receive links to all of the discussions and material that will be presented during the SECAS Symposium and the session led by the Southeast Climate Science Center the University of South Carolina and the National Wildlife Federation

bull Additional ecological assessments decision support tools and inclusive landscape conservation design processes will be released over the next 6-12 months

bull By July 2016 a preliminary version of Southeast Conservation Adaptation Strategy Version 10 will include elements of landscape conservation design an analysis of governance issues in the Southeast and the beginnings of a Southeast leadership summit in fall 2016

bull Finally in October 2016 the Southeast Conservation Adaptation Strategy Version 10 and its associated tools will be a part of the SEAFWA conference

What to Expect in 2016