Montana' Department of Fish, Wildlife & Parks convene 1st Meeting of their Climate Adaptation Working Group

The State of Montana's Department of Fish Wildlife and Parks (MFWP) convened its first meeting of its Climate Adaptation Working Group on October 16, 2009 in Helena Montana. There were 21 participants representing government and the NGO community. Montana's Climate Adaptation Working Group is the result of the State's effort to implement the Western Governors Association Wildlife Corridor Initiative and comes just after the State has compiled its new Crucial Areas and Connectivity Assessment, now provisionally called the Montana Decision Support System.

Some of the highlights from this first meeting include:

1. Building the architecture for a robust plan. Given the fact this is the first plan for the State, that climate predictions are still imprecise at the fine scale, and that capacity and resources to perform detailed modeling and monitoring for the entire State, all its biodiversity, and all ecoregions is limited, this group aspires to build a planning framework to insert climate data and climate impacts as information comes online and is refined. The building blocks for the plan include the the Montana Decision Support System; regional information from ongoing or planned efforts in the Crown of the Continent, Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, the Northern Great Plains; federal efforts to assess climate impacts on public lands; statewide climate data efforts with the University of Montana, NatureServe, the Nature Conservancy and US Geologic Survey; and interstate efforts with the activities of the Western Governors Association, with NGOs that are working to connect planning efforts between states such as National Wildlife Federation and Defenders of Wildlife. The Working Group hopes to create the basic architecture of an initial plan that the State can refine as adaptation knowledge and resources come online over time (i.e., Montana Climate Adaptation Plan version 1.0).

2. Discreet tasks. The Working Group was subdivided into several smaller task teams with discreet objectives. The overall goal of the working group is to develop a plan to assess climate impacts and develop management recommendations for conserving species, habitats and ecological processes in Montana based on observed and expected impacts. As such, task groups looking at species, habitat and ecological process exposure to climate change were established (i.e., vulnerability risk assessment). Other task groups include data collection, climate modeling, outreach (to the Governor's office, to other states and to federal partners), and Working Group coordination.

For more information please contact: Amielle DeWan at adewan@defenders.org

GAO Climate Change Adaptation Report

The U.S. Government Accountability Office report, "Climate Change Adaptation: Strategic Federal Planning Could Help Government Officials Make More Informed Decisions," GAO-10-113, is now published. Please see links below for the report and the hearing held today by Chairman Ed Markey of the U.S. House of Representatives Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming.

http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d10113.pdf



http://globalwarming.house.gov/pubs?id=0011

US Fish & Wildlife Service Draft Climate Change Strategic Plan is Available for Public Comment

US Fish & Wildlife Service Draft Climate Change Strategic Plan is Available for Public Comment

The US Fish and Wildlife Service released the draft versions of their Climate Change Strategic Plan and 5-Year Action Plan for public comment today. Please consider taking the time to look over both documents and submitting comments to USFWS for your state fish and wildlife agency. It is essential that the Service receive your individual input on their Plan. Comments are due by the 23^rd of November, 2009. To view the plan electronically, upload your comments, and find out more about Service efforts to address climate change, visit: http://www.fws.gov/home/climatechange/
Please see USFWS Director Sam Hamilton’s note below for more details.

“I’m pleased to notify you that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s Draft Climate Change Strategic Plan is available for your review and comment. The plan, which has been in development for more than a year, is intended to guide our agency’s actions over the next several years as we work to respond to the unprecedented challenge of accelerating climate change. The Service’s Strategic Plan complements the Department of the Interior’s Secretarial Order issued last week, calling for unprecedented collaboration, coordination, and information sharing among Department agencies in response to the threat of accelerated climate change. The plan outlines more specifically what the Service proposes to do to fulfill our responsibilities under the Secretarial Order.

To adequately respond to long-term climate changes, the Service is moving to establish regional climate science partnerships with the U.S. Geological Survey, other federal agencies, state fish and wildlife agencies and the conservation community, to expand our ability to turn continental climate science into knowledge that managers can use to make better decisions on the ground. We will establish landscape-level partnerships taking advantage of expertise across the conservation community to set population and habitat goals, plan and execute conservation across landscapes, and enhance our research, monitoring and evaluation tools through the establishment of a National Biological Inventory and Monitoring Partnership.

We truly value your perspective, and would appreciate your ideas and suggestions for how we can improve the plan and work together to make a difference for fish and wildlife in North America and across the globe.”

Sincerely,
Sam

Sam Hamilton
Director
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service

For more information please contact Gary Taylor at gtaylor@fishwildlife.org or Dr. Arpita Choudhury at achoudhury@fishwildlife.org

California Department of Fish and Game’s Climate Change Web Page Update

The California Department of Fish and Game’s Climate Change Web Page has been updated with new information:

-Stakeholder meeting: Information and power points presentations from the September 3rd stakeholder meeting are available at http://dfg.ca.gov/climatechange/activities/stakeholders-meeting.asp

-WAFWA: Information on the Department's activities related to the Western Association of Fish and Wildlife agencies (WAFWA)-specifically the WAFWA climate change committee can be viewed at http://dfg.ca.gov/climatechange/wafwa/. This site contains the 2009 update on climate change activities in all the western states and provinces. The PowerPoint presentations from the plenary session will be online soon.

For more information please contact Amber Pairis at: apairis@dfg.ca.gov

Or go to: http://dfg.ca.gov/climatechange/

National Climate Change and Wildlife Science Center Announces 2009 Research Awards

The USGS National Climate Change and Wildlife Science Center (NCCWSC) announces the suite of science projects that will be funded under its Fiscal Year 2009 Request for Proposals. Seventeen projects were selected from among the 175 proposals through a rigorous review process. As part of the NCCWSC’s science portfolio, these multiyear projects will greatly advance our understanding of how climate change may affect our Nation's wildlife, fish, and terrestrial and aquatic habitats.

The award announcement and list of proposals is available at the NCCWSC web site: http://nccw.usgs.gov/

For information contact Robin Schrock at: robin_schrock@usgs.gov

NY DEC Workshop Examines Climate Change Effects on Fish, Wildlife and Natural Systems

DEC's Division of Fish, Wildlife and Marine Resources and its conservation partners recently hosted a workshop entitled, Safeguarding New York's Wildlife and Natural Systems in a Changing Climate. The meeting was designed to provide a basic understanding of current climate change science and legislation, already occurring fish, wildlife and natural system adaptations, and how DEC can work collaboratively with its conservation partners in response to future adaptation needs.

More than 100 people attended the very successful workshop, held at DEC's Central Office in Albany. In addition, more than 100 participated via video-conference at 14 DEC regional offices throughout the state, and via a National Wildlife Federation (NWF) webinar link. Several DEC divisions were represented, as well as several other state agencies, the Governor's Office, federal agencies, many non-governmental organizations, and academia. The workshop was funded by a grant to NWF from the Doris Duke Foundation.

Climate change is one of the most significant challenges facing natural resources management, and one of DEC's priorities as expressed by Commissioner Pete Grannis. Changes in climate will lead to potentially dramatic changes in environmental conditions, which will in turn cause changes in fish and wildlife populations and habitat. As a result, DEC and its conservation partners need to factor climate change adaptations by fish, wildlife and natural systems into resource management decisions.

As a result of the workshop, strong interest was expressed in building a coalition to develop and implement fish, wildlife and natural systems adaptation strategies for New York, as well as determining the focus of future adaptation workshops.

For more information contact Tracey Tomajer at tmtomaje@gw.dec.state.ny.us

http://www.dec.ny.gov/energy/44992.html

Observations from the World Climate Conference-3

On Friday, September 11, 3:30- 4:30pm please sit in on a conversation with Dr. Jane Lubchenco, under secretary of commerce for oceans and atmosphere and NOAA administrator, about World Climate Conference-3. Dr. Lubchenco just returned from leading the U.S. Delegation to the conference last week in Geneva.

Hosted by the World Meteorological Organization, the conference, which brought together more than 2,000 climate scientists, sectoral experts and decision-makers, established a Global Framework for Climate Services to “strengthen production, availability, delivery and application of science-based climate prediction and services.”

Dr. Lubchenco will offer her observations and impressions from the conference, sharing some insights into the valuable collaboration and lessons learned from both the scientific segments, the meetings she attended and comments from heads of state from around the world. Climate change is a shared challenge, and this conference confirmed the pressing need for increased collaboration and coordination to improve the science and observations that support the development of climate information as well as the need to improve the coordination and delivery of climate information and services in all countries.

The call will be moderated by newly appointed NOAA Director of External Affairs, Andy Winer, and Dr. Lubchenco will take questions from participants.

Dial-in information:

Toll Free Number: 877-457-9382

International Number: 1-630-395-0031

Participant Passcode: CLIMATE

Please contact Jennifer Austin at 202-302-9047 if you have any questions.

For more information about the conference go to:

World Climate Conference 3 information: http://www.wmo.int/wcc3/page_en.php

NOAA homepage:

http://www.noaanews.noaa.gov/stories2009/20090904_wcc3closing.html