Tackling
climate change in Tennessee’s State Wildlife Action Plan
Tackling climate change may seem like an impossible feat, like trying to find a tiny needle in an enormous hay stack. But, if you take a small handful of hay and begin sifting through it, suddenly the challenge seems less monstrous. This is exactly how our Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency planning team felt as we attempted to incorporate climate change in Tennessee’s State Wildlife Action Plan (SWAP). As part of the State Wildlife Grants Program (SWG), each state had to complete a plan that identified species and habitats of greatest conservation need and outlined the steps to conserve them.
Early in January of 2005, Our SWG planning team met to begin discussions on species and habitat threats for inclusion in Tennessee’s SWAP. Our team was quite diverse and possessed the knowledge and years of experience needed to accomplish the task at hand. However, when it came to the topic of climate change, we scratched our heads. Climate change was beginning to get headlines in the national media and, to be honest, that was about the extent of our knowledge. We agreed climate change was a potential threat to Tennessee’s wildlife, but we also realized the enormity of the issue and decided to tackle this topic some other day.
Three years later, we began talking again about addressing climate change. We started educating ourselves and to help us, the volume and scope of peer reviewed literature had greatly increased. We soon realized that we not only needed to address climate change in terms of our greatest conservation need species and SWAP, but with all wildlife, including game species. Our approach, we decided, would be to develop a preliminary document summarizing the peer-reviewed literature with added discussions on how the literature results might be applied to habitats and wildlife in Tennessee. We then incorporated additional team members from various divisions within our agency. As a result of that meeting, faunal and habitat teams were created.
In the end, the process was not that painful and we were able to produce a good description of potential climate change effects in the terms of habitats, wildlife and recreation. By collaborating with others and chipping away small pieces at a time, we were able to begin tackling that climate change monster.
John Watkins of the Service’s Division of Federal Assistance is the Grants Manager for the SWG Program. Tennessee received $1,071,980 in SWG funds for FY 2009. For more information on TN’s SWG program, visit, http://www.state.tn.us/twra/cwcs/cwcsindex.html
Submitted by Richard Kirk, non-game and endangered species program coordinator, Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency
Strategic
habitat conservation in the St. Marys River System
The St. Marys River flows from the Okefenokee Swamp as if influenced by the snakes there. Its serpentine path takes this remote blackwater stream 130 miles to reach the Cumberland Sound, with tides washing just 40 air-miles from the great swamp headwaters. This twisted stretch of water establishes the easternmost border between Georgia and Florida, and gifts the states with cypress and bottomland hardwood swamps, salt marshes, mud flats, and the diversity and abundance of plants and animals supported by these rich habitats. The St. Marys River is unique, and worth protecting. That is why the St Marys River Fisheries Restoration Committee (SMFRC) was formed.
Under the realization that many of the issues that need attention fall outside the jurisdiction of a single agency, the SMFRC partnership involves collaboration and cooperation with other agencies, organizations, private landowners, and political constituencies, to bring to bear the kind and amount of resources needed to protect the health of the St Marys River System.
“The
St Marys River Fisheries Restoration Committee is strategic habitat conservation
at work,” says Vincent Mudrak, SMFRC coordinator and director of
the Service’s Warm Springs Regional Fisheries Center. “We
are working collectively to implement adaptive management approaches on
a landscape level.”
“I’m confident that through our shared purpose we will see increased
resources, shared efficiency, innovative solutions, better communication, increased
public support, and positive organizational morale, which translate to tremendous
benefits for this river system,” continues Mudrak.
Restoration and preservation of aquatic habitats, both in quality and quantity,
are high priorities for this river system. Partnership work is being planned
to evaluate riverine habitat, and to restore natural conditions by mitigating
the human caused disturbances that might affect the survival of native
species.
Within the St Marys River System, some fisheries once plentiful have declined due to human activities over time. River species like striped bass, American shad, and Atlantic sturgeon are being considered for restoration. The Atlantic sturgeon has been accepted by the SMFRC as the target indicator species for restoration - analogous to the “canary in the coal mine.”
The Atlantic sturgeon require a strong founding population to fully recover, and the river must retain those aquatic habitat characteristics needed by the sturgeon to complete all phases of their life cycle (adult maturation, spawning habitat, egg incubation and hatch, larval development, nursery water conditions, and juvenile forage). SMFRC will work with conservation groups to secure aquatic habitat conditions suitable for Atlantic sturgeon, and will work to restore a genetically viable self-sustaining sturgeon population. In so doing, partners also will improve water quality and aquatic habitat conditions which will benefit many other aquatic species.
The partnership work by SMFRC will eventually build stronger coalitions with the angling community as various fish species respond to improvements in the aquatic habitat. The restoration of the sturgeon (a highly charismatic fish to some) brings a new aura of mystique to the river. The recent societal trend of non-consumptive public users, who embrace the ideals of eco-tourism and value rivers for their natural beauty, would be enhanced by the return of migratory sturgeon. Partners within SMFRC will collaborate to improve public access within the St Marys River System in ways that reflect a responsible approach to conservation.
“This organized conservation effort reflects a measurable outcome from the Regional Directorate's 2006 Cross-Agency meeting with Florida and Georgia. The Service’s Fisheries has taken the lead on initiating this effort, but the continuing accomplishment credit for SMFRC work goes to all partners,” says Mudrak.
The
Service, along with Georgia Department of Natural Resources, Florida Fish
and Wildlife Conservation Commission, National Marine Fisheries Service,
St. Johns River Water Management District, and St. Marys River Management
Committee, along with others, have partnered to establish the SMFRC, and
are seeking status as a subunit under the Southeast Aquatic Resources Partnership
(SARP), which is one of nine designated Fish Habitat Partnerships under
the National Fish Habitat Action Plan.
For more information about the SMFRC, contact Vincent Mudrak, Vincent_Mudrak@fws.gov, 706-655-3382.
Submitted by Judy Toppins, Fisheries, Atlanta, Georgia
