Collaborative Landscape Conservation Planning and Delivery in the

NortheastJohn Kanter, NH Fish and Game

Northeast Fish and Wildlife Diversity Technical Committee

“I also doubt, as a matter of hindsight, whether anything but ultimate discredit can come to the wildlife movement if it encourages or participates in orgies of incontinent public

expenditures of half baked plans for wildlife betterment”Aldo Leopold

Landscape Conservation Cooperatives in the Northeast Region

Appalachian

Eastern Tallgrass Prairie and Big Rivers

North Atlantic

South Atlantic

Upper Midwest and Great Lakes0 190 38095 Miles

Northeast Region

NEAFWA (state Boundaries)

Landscape Conservation Cooperatives

Population Land Area (sq miles)

People/area

Maine 1,329,192 30,843 43.1New Jersey 8,864,590 7,354 1,195.5West Virginia

1,855,413 24,038 77.1

Northeast 72,445,315 229,802 305.5Montana 1,005,141 145,546 6.8

Region Dominated by Human UsesHuman population by county

Conservation in Transition• Unprecedented scale, pace and complexity

of resource management challenges– Habitat loss, fragmentation and degradation– Invasive species– Contaminants– Hydrologic impacts

• Accelerated climate change is magnifying impacts on water and land resources, agriculture and biological diversity

Major Challenge:

We cannot effectively or efficiently address these challenges by working aloneSo how do we organize our separate agencies, organizations and missions to collectively understand and address these challenges and uncertainty and achieve the conservation outcomes that society wants and expects from us?

RCN Program• The northeast states answer to that question

is to pool resources to address issues common to multiple states and State Wildlife Action Plans.

• In 2006 at and subsequent to a workshop in Albany (“Albany I”) sponsored by NFWF and Doris Duke, the states agreed to pool 4% of their State Wildlife Grant funding for Regional Conservation Needs (RCN).

• RCN program was developed by NEAFWA, the Wildlife Management Institute and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

• Annual process administered by WMI and involving NEAFWA administrators, technical committees and Directors

• First RFP was issued in 2007, 27 projects funded to date

rcngrants.org

Aligning NA LCC and NEAFWA• Co-location of meetings with NEAFWA• Synchronized annual LCC/RCN timeline • Grant administration through WMI• Common conservation framework & needs• Projects at Northeast Regional scale (across LCC

boundaries)• Joint efforts to develop regional information for

SWAP Updates

Developing a list of Regional Species of Conservation Concern

• Northeast regional list (Therres 1999) “replace” category 2 candidates

• Combined list of State Species of Greatest Conservation Need (Whitlock 2007)

• Northeast Fish and Wildlife Diversity CommitteeNE Partners in Amphibian and Reptile

Conservation, Partners in Flight

DRAFT RSGCN Screening Process

• 1. State identifies a list of SGCN based on State Level Screening Criteria

• 2. SGCN are compiled into Composite SGCN List• 3. Composite SGCN list is screened For regional

Responsibility• 4. Composite SGCN list is screened for regional

Conservation Need• 5. Need will be based on regional Conservation

Need Ranking Criteria (next steps)

Conservation Need= Regional Responsibility

States in need High Low

States in NE range

>50% of Range <50% of Range

Very High (>10 states) 1 2

High (7-10 states) 3 4

Moderate (4-6 states) 5

Low (3 states) 6

<3 states 7

538 Regional Species of Conservation Need

What order and what process will we use to address RSGCN?1)RCN Status Assessment

Wood turtle Brook floater

2)Review and Evaluation3)Preventing listing

New England cottontail

Northeast Regional List

My state’s list

Integrating RSGCN into Wildlife Action Plan Revisions

Wildlife Habitats

TNCNEAFWANALCC

• Number one priority action agreed to at Albany 1

Northeast Terrestrial Habitat Map

NE Regional Habitat Map

My State Map cut out

of the NE Regional

Map

Included in each Northeast state’s wildlife action plan

Northeast Highest Ranked

Habitats by Ecological Condition

My States Habitat

Map

Scaled rankingof my state

My State’s Map with My state’s Stuff

We agree that all states will insert these as they are completed

Appalachian Oak Pine Forest

APPALACHIAN OAK PINE FOREST

Northeast Regional Conservation Framework Workshop“Albany II”

June 14-16, 2011Crowne Plaza Hotel, Albany, New York

Hosted by

Northeast Association of Fish & Wildlife AgenciesNorth Atlantic Landscape Conservation Cooperative

Photo Credit: James Weliver/USFWS

Most importantly-

The Northeast Regional effort represents a partnership and a willingness of the partners to collectively and intentionally work in an organized fashion towards a larger landscape conservation vision