Landscape Conservation Cooperatives
Global climate change is an international priority directly relevant to the mission of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service). The Service recently released a draft Climate Change Strategic Plan for public comment that complements the Department of the Interior’s Secretarial Order and calls for the creation of regional climate science partnerships and Landscape Conservation Cooperatives (LCCs) with universities, tribes, states, federal agencies and other partners and stakeholders. These LCCs are integral to the Service’s climate adaptation efforts, providing scientific and technical support to managers and partnerships responsible for developing and implementing conservation strategies at landscape scales in a changing climate.
National Geographic Framework
To emphasize strategic conservation on a landscape level, the Service has developed a national geographic framework composed of 22 Geographic Areas for the Service and partners to plan and design conservation strategies at landscape scales. Read more about the framework for landscape conservation cooperatives.
The Pacific Region has four of these Geographic Areas:
- Pacific Islands;
- Great Northern (most of the Columbia Basin plus the Northern Rockies extending into Montana and Canada);
- North Pacific (all habitats west of the Cascade crest in Oregon and Washington, and extending into Northern California and coastal habitats of Southeast Alaska); and the
- Great Basin.
Landscape Conservation Cooperatives
LCCs will be formal science-management partnerships between the Service, Federal agencies, states, tribes, NGOs, universities, and other entities to address climate change and other biological stressors in an integrated fashion. LCCs will provide science support to managers and partnerships responsible for developing and implementing conservation strategies at landscape scales with an emphasis on biological planning, conservation design, research, and designing inventory and monitoring programs. Products developed by LCCs will help inform field-based planning, decision-making for on-the-ground conservation efforts.
LCC'S in the Pacific Region
Pacific Islands Climate Change Cooperative:
This LCC includes Hawai’i, the northwest Hawaiian Islands, and other Pacific Islands within the United States' jurisdiction. (view map) The Pacific Islands Climate Change Cooperative (PICCC) is sponsored and partly supported by the USFWS and hosted by the Hawai`i Conservation Alliance (HCA). The PICCC steering committee is comprised of HCA members and other partners, forming a cooperative partnership of Federal, State, private, Hawaiian, and non-governmental conservation organizations and academic institutions. The goal of the partnership is to develop and maintain a strategic conservation response to the ecological changes induced by climate change. This can best be accomplished by collaboratively sharing expertise, knowledge, and resources.
Cooperative members include: the Office of Hawaiian Affairs, the Hawaii Department of Natural Resources, the University of Hawaii, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, National Park Service, Natural Resources Conservation Service, U.S. Forest Service, The Nature Conservancy, the U.S. Geological Survey, U.S. Army and Kamehameha Schools.
Read more about the Cooperative (view fact sheet, PDF 172 KB), or contact Jeff Burgett, FWS’ interim PICC coordinator, at jeff_burgett@fws.gov or (808) 792-9472. .
Great Northern LCC:
This LCC includes the northern Rocky Mountains and most of the Columbia Basin (view map, PDF 3.75 MB). The Mountain-Prairie Region of the Service (headquarters in Denver, Colorado) is the lead Region for this LCC. For more information on the Columbia Basin portion of this LCC, please contact Stephen Zylstra at (503)231-5937. Read about the Great Northern LCC (view fact sheet, PDF 289 KB) you can also view a PowerPoint slide show (PDF 1.30 MB) which was presented at our web conferences during the week of November 9, 2009.
North Pacific LCC:
This LCC extends from northern California to southeast Alaska. (view map) In Oregon and Washington, the geographic framework is defined as all the habitats west of the crest of the Cascades. The Pacific Region is the lead Region for this LCC. Learn more about the North Pacific LCC (view fact sheet, PDF 376 KB), or contact Vicki Finn, FWS Pacific Region interim Climate Change Coordinator, at Vicki_Finn@fws.gov or (503) 736-4781.
Great Basin LCC:
This LCC includes the interior basins of southern Idaho, southeast Oregon, Nevada, western Utah, and small portions of northeastern California. The Pacific Southwest Region (headquarters in Sacramento, California) is the lead Region for this LCC. For more information on southern Idaho, southeast Oregon portions of this LCC, please contact Vicki Finn, FWS Pacific Region interim Climate Change Coordinator, at Vicki_Finn@fws.gov or (503) 736-4781.
For more background information on LCCs, and additional information on what the Service is doing nationally on landscape conservation, visit our national website at: http://www.fws.gov/science/SHC/index.html.
