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Assessing Future Energy Development Across the Appalachians: Assessing Future Energy Development across the Appalachian LCC used models that combined data on energy development trends and identified where these may intersect with important natural resource and ecosystem services to give a more comprehensive picture of what potential energy development could look like in the Appalachians. Ultimately this information is intended to support dialogue and conservation on how to effectively avoid, minimize, and offset impacts from energy development to important natural areas and the valuable services they provide.

Resolution of Support for the Clinch River Valley Initiative 2012: Clinch Powell

Landscape-scale conservation design across biotic realms - sequential integration of aquatic and terrestrial landscapes: Systematic conservation planning has been used extensively throughout the world to identify important areas for maintaining biodiversity and functional ecosystems, and is well suited to address large-scale biodiversity conservation challenges of the twenty-first century. Systematic planning is necessary to bridge implementation, scale, and data gaps in a collaborative effort that recognizes competing land uses. Here, we developed a conservation planning process to identify and unify conservation priorities around the central and southern Appalachian Mountains as part of the Appalachian Landscape Conservation Cooperative (App LCC). Through a participatory framework and sequential, cross-realm integration in spatial optimization modeling we highlight lands and waters that together achieve joint conservation goals from LCC partners for the least cost. This process was driven by a synthesis of 26 multi-scaled conservation targets and optimized for simultaneous representation inside the program Marxan to account for roughly 25% of the LCC geography. We identify five conservation design elements covering critical ecological processes and patterns including interconnected regions as well as the broad landscapes between them. Elements were then subjected to a cumulative threats index for possible prioritization. The evaluation of these elements supports

Stream Classification System for the Appalachians: funded research: TNC-Boston/NE

Stream Impacts from Water Withdrawals in the Marcellus Shale Region: funded research: Cornell University

Classifi cation and Mapping of Cave and Karst Resources: funded research: AmU, USGS, FL State University

Assessing Future Energy Development Across the Appalachian Region: funded research: TNC-VA Chapter

Assessing Vulnerability of Species and Habitats to Large-scale Impacts: funded research: NatureServe

Conservation and Inspiration in the Tennessee River Basin: An article from the Tennessee River Basin Network's third annual meeting, highlighting the work being done in one of America's most biologically diverse watersheds.

New Handouts Summarize Tree Species Responses to Climate Change: NIACS created a series of 2-page handouts that summarize how individual tree species are expected to respond to climate change across the Northeast based on regional climate change vulnerability assessments. Each handout includes model projections based on future climate scenarios and models like the Climate Change Tree Atlas. We think they're a handy way to show a lot of information and get people thinking about managing climate change risk and opportunity. Handouts are available for subregions within each of the three project areas: New England and Northern New York Mid-Atlantic Central Appalachians

Adaptive Silviculture for Climate Change Project Now Underway: A new study is underway in New Hampshire's northwoods that will further our understanding of management options for climate change adaptation. The Adaptive Silviculture for Climate Change (ASCC) project is a collaborative effort among scientists and land managers to develop a network of experimental silvicultural trials in different forest ecosystem types throughout the United States, and the Second College Grant, located in the Northern Forest region of New Hampshire and owned and managed by Dartmouth College, is one of five ASCC study sites. The project was initiated last fall and launched into full-force this spring with pre-treatment data collection. Timber harvests began this summer to implement forest management treatments demonstrating the three adaptation options of resistance, resilience, and transition. Scientists and managers will be planting tree species that have been identified as future-adapted for the transition treatment next spring, which includes northern red oak, bitternut hickory, eastern white pine, eastern hemlock, basswood, black birch, bigtooth aspen, and chestnut. To learn more about the Second College Grant ASCC project, contact the Site Leads Tony D'Amato or Chris Woodall.

Northeast Climate Science Center Webinar Series: The Northeast Climate Science Center has a great lineup of interesting webinars scheduled for this fall. Topics will include invasive species, maple syrup production, and forest adaptation.

Evaluating Intraspecific Variation and Environmental Heterogeneity to Identify Seed Sources and Conservation Corridors Online Lecture: The eighth in the Eastern Seed Zone Forum's online lecture and discussion series aimed at providing both information about the creation of seed zones in general and a forum in which professionals, experts, and interested parties discuss the possibility of drafting seed zone guidelines for the eastern United States. Anantha Prasad, USDA Forest Service, will evaluate current and future habitat-fitness and colonization potential of intraspecific genetic zones from inferred evolutionary lineages. He will also illustrate how the colonization of suitable habitats can be modeled opportunistically in the landscape to identify potential future conservation corridors.