Modified items

All recently modified items, latest first.

Service Estimates Economic Impact of Critical Habitat Designation for Fluted Kidneyshell and Slabside Pearlymussel: The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announces the availability of a draft economic analysis considering the impact of a proposal to designate critical habitat for two freshwater mussels proposed for listing as endangered.

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Invites Public to Provide Input to Environmental Assessment to Review Use of Genetically Modified Crops: The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is seeking public input as it evaluates the future use of genetically modified crops on national wildlife refuges that use farming in the Southeast Region. These refuges use farming as a wildlife management tool to help meet refuge specific conservation objectives for waterfowl and other species.

Fish and Wildlife Service Releases Eagle Conservation Plan Guidance: The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service released Eagle Conservation Plan Guidance to provide a pathway for the responsible development of wind energy that fosters protection for bald and golden eagles.

White-nose Syndrome Decimates North Carolina’s Bats: Biologists with the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service have determined that white-nose syndrome (WNS) continues to decimate bat populations in western North Carolina, with some infected locations showing up to a 95 percent decline in hibernating bats over the past one to two years. The disease, which has been confirmed in seven counties in western North Carolina, does not affect people.

National Strategy Will Help Safeguard Fish, Wildlife and Plants in a Changing Climate: In partnership with State and Tribal agencies, the Obama Administration today released the first nationwide strategy to help public and private decision makers address the impacts that climate change is having on natural resources and the people and economies that depend on them. Developed in response to a request by Congress, the National Fish, Wildlife, and Plants Climate Adaptation Strategy is the product of extensive national dialogue that spanned nearly two years and was shaped by comments from more than 55,000 Americans.

LANDFIRE 2010 Webinar: Kori Blankenship, Fire Ecologist on the TNC-LANDFIRE team hosts a traditional webinar which will explain how LANDFIRE 2010 products were created, what makes them unique and how to obtain support from the LANDFIRE program.

Stream Restoration Challenge Kicks Off with Spring Plantings: This spring, more than 2,000 students from across Maryland got an early start on their Earth Day contributions, planting trees to improve water quality through Governor Martin O’Malley’s Stream Restoration Challenge. The program ─ which is still accepting proposals ─ provides grants for students and groups to carry out projects to improve Chesapeake Bay water quality through service learning and environmental education activities.

Discovering Species - Just a Click Away: Biodiversity Information Serving Our Nation or BISON is the only system of its kind; a unique, web-based Federal resource for finding species in the U. S. and territories. Its size is unprecedented, offering more than 100 million mapped records of nearly every living species nationwide and growing. And the vast majority of the records are specific locations, not just county or state records.

MUST READ: USFWS FAQ on Surrogate Species: From USFWS Website. Frequently Asked Questions.

MUST READ: 2012-11-01_SALCC Draft NR Indicator Process: From the draft document: "Why are indicators needed? Designing and evaluating the success of a shared blueprint for landscape conservation actions in the South Atlantic will require some specific measures of what success would look like for natural resources. The ecosystems of the South Atlantic are complex and indicators help simplify the modeling and monitoring of those systems. We cannot measure everything all of the time. Indicators are designed to integrate many ecological functions and represent other components of the system that are either too expensive or time consuming to model and measure." [And] "How will indicators be used? Indicators will be used to help design a shared blueprint for landscape conservation actions that sustain natural and cultural resources in the South Atlantic region. This blueprint will include an interactive map depicting the key places and actions needed to sustain those resources in the face of future change (e.g., urban growth, climate change, sea level rise). Indicators and measurable targets for those indicators will be used to help design this interactive map and evaluate the effectiveness of actions based on it."

MUST READ: Overview of Representative Species Approach: A 2011 overview presentation video by Andrew Milliken (prepared as background materials for the AppLCC Science Needs Workshop -- background/orientation meeting held Nov 2011.)

FWS Region-5 NALCC Representative Species Approach: This folder contains background materials introducing the "representative species" approach Region-5 began prior to the formal adoption by the Service to promote a surrogate species approach (to inform landscape-level conservation.)

FWS Region-4 SALCC Natural Resource Indicators: The SALCC included the identification of "surrogate species" as part of its biological or natural resource indicators to support the planning and conservation at the landscape-level

MUST READ: Working Documents - Merging RI/SS Approaches: Initial working documents developed to begin comparing the two approaches used to date for identification of Resource Indicators and Surrogate Species, and support decision-making on a way forward for the AppLCC.

MUST READ: Objective 2.7 Work Plan: A Ppt slide image depicting the objective and identified tasks (steps/timeline) to advance the work in identifying surrogate species use as planning and monitoring approach to landscape-level conservation. (It is part of Section B of the 5-Year Work Plan - http://applcc.org/our-work/5-year-work-plan/work-plan-section-b