News & Events
Interior Department Proposes Expansion of Hunting, Fishing Opportunities in National Wildlife Refuge System
In advance of National Hunting and Fishing Day on September 28th, Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell today announced that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is proposing to expand fishing and hunting opportunities throughout the National Wildlife Refuge System, opening up new hunting programs on six refuges and expanding existing hunting and fishing programs on another 20 refuges. The proposed rule also modifies existing refuge-specific regulations for more than 75 additional refuges and wetland management districts.
Appalachian LCC Chair David Whitehurst Receives Seth Gordon Award
David Whitehurst, Steering Committee Chair of the Appalachian Landscape Conservation Cooperative (LCC) and Director of the Bureau of Wildlife Resources for the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries, has been awarded the Seth Gordon Award at the Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies' (AFWA) 103rd Annual Meeting held September 10th in Portland, Oregon.
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Lists Neosho Mucket as Endangered and Rabbitsfoot as Threatened
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is listing the Neosho mucket as endangered and the Rabbitsfoot as threatened under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). Both species are freshwater mussels found in river systems in the eastern half of the United States.
Kimberly Terrell: Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute
Kimberly Terrell describes her work studying the biological constraints of salamanders to adjust to climate change and how the regional nature of the LCC can ensure efficiencies for conservation efforts as well as bring managers and researchers together to work towards common conservation goals.
Cindy Schulz: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service - Virginia
Cindy Schulz highlights the value of bringing together many federal, state, and NGO groups to establish relationships and how acquiring access and knowledge of GIS and other information-sharing tools can greatly benefit conservation work being done around the region.
Jim Schaberl: Shenandoah National Park
Jim Schaberl talks about specific research projects taking place in Shenandoah, what he hopes the LCC can accomplish, and why the National Park service is involved in this endeavor
Thomas Minney: The Nature Conservancy
Thomas Minney discusses the potential of the Appalachian LCC, how this organization can address large-scale issues like climate change, and the need to achieve common conservation goals.
Nels Johnson: The Nature Conservancy - Pennsylvania
Nels Johnson discusses how LCCs are important vehicles for increasing efficiencies in conservation, and through collective capacity how LCCs can address environmental challenges that are beyond the ability of any one organization.
Hugh Irwin: The Wilderness Society
Hugh Irwin, Landscape Conservation Planner at the Wilderness Society, talks on how the Appalachian LCC can begin to fill in research gaps and develop common research needs across the region to preserve natural resources.
Mark Hudy: U.S. Geological Survey
Mark Hudy, Senior Science Advisor in Fisheries for the U.S. Geological Survey, highlights the importance of connecting scientific efforts across the region and what the Appalachian LCC can achieve by bringing together various organizations and expertise
Mark Ford: Virginia Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit
Mark Ford, Unit Leader of the Virginia Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit, discusses his research on threatened, rare, and endangered species, how the LCC can link up various expertise around the region, and the types of science needs the Cooperative can address that will result in on-the-ground conservation.
Marquette Crockett: Canaan Valley National Wildlife Refuge
Wildlife biologist Marquette Crockett (formerly of the Canaan Valley National Wildlife Refuge) talks about the unique habitats and common problems that stretch across the Appalachians and how Appalachian LCC meetings are developing relationships and products that will help conservation in National Refuges.
Braven Beaty: The Nature Conservancy - Clinch Valley Program
Braven Beaty discusses his work in the Appalachian region with mussels, the biological importance of the Clinch-Powell River Basin, and how the Appalachian LCC helped to preserve freshwater mussel populations.
Downscaling Scenarios of Climate Change Project to Map Entire Appalachian LCC Region
A DOI Southeast Climate Science Center funded project will be evaluating the latest generation of global climate models to generate scenarios of future change to climate, hydrology, and vegetation for the Southeastern U.S. as well as the entire range of the Appalachian LCC.
Welcome Home, Winged Mapleleaf Mussel
An endangered mussel came home to a Tennessee River last week, a monumental reintroduction effort seven years in the making. On Wednesday, federal and state biologists placed 103 winged mapleleaf mussels in the middle portion of the Duck River. The last time the species was seen in the river was more than two decades ago, when empty shells were collected in 1990 and 1991.
Virginia’s Climate Modeling and Species Vulnerability Assessment
The National Wildlife Federation (NWF) is excited to announce the publication of Virginia’s Climate Modeling and Species Vulnerability Assessment: How Climate Data Can Inform Management and Conservation. This report is the culmination of over 4 years of effort by NWF, Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries (DGIF), Conservation Management Institute, and Kutztown University to downscale climate data for Virginia and use that in a species modeling effort to project how a selections of species (wildlife, fish, and plants) may change their distribution across the landscape based on climate change.
LCC National Council Convening
The U.S. Institute for Environmental Conflict Resolution is currently convening the Landscape Conservation Cooperatives (LCC) National Council, and is currently accepting nominations for one LCC participant on the Council.
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Identifies Critical Habitat for Diamond Darter
The endangered diamond darter, a tiny fish that has faced serious threats to its home, depends on 123 miles of habitat for its survival, the Service today announced. Once found along the southern Appalachians from Ohio to Tennessee, this native darter has been restricted to one stream along the Elk River by years of changes from dams, water quality degradation and other threats.
The Planning for Growth and Open Space Conservation Webinar Series
Planning for Climate Change Adaptation: Considerations for Forests, Wildlife, and Land Use
Partners in Flight Consortium Seeks Solutions to Migratory Bird Declines
Scientists who have spent decades trying to reverse the broad decline of migratory birds in the Americas will converge by the hundreds later this month in Snowbird, Utah, to seek solutions to the threats migratory birds are facing at northern breeding grounds, southern wintering grounds, and numerous migration stopovers.
