A message from John Cooper, past president of the Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies, and Steve Williams, executive director of the Wildlife Management Institute and past director of the Fish and Wildlife Service.

Welcome to Beyond Seasons’ End, a site designed exclusively for wildlife and fisheries professionals confronting the threat of global climate change. The site is a response to comments from many of you calling for an electronic work space that (more…)

Outdoorsman, writer and Climate Hawks founder Todd Tanner

In an article published in Outside Online, writer, hunting and fishing guide and founder of the nonprofit organization Conservation Hawks  Todd Tanner urges sportsmen to speak out on the issue of climate change. Noting that hunters and anglers witness the results of a warming climate in the field moreso than other demographics, Tanner emphasizes the importance of their sharing their observations and promoting policies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Peer-to-peer communication is thought to be the most persuasive; conservatives have credibililty among other conservatives, fishermen are more likely to believe other fishermen. If you are a sportsman concerned about climate change, simply inserting observations, without argument, into conversations can help break the silence enveloping the issue, says climate communicator George Marshall.  “I think any time you have a conversation with anyone about the weather you should bring climate change into the conversation, not in a hectoring, judgmental, on-your-soapbox way but just drop it in there every single time,” Marshall is quoted as saying in the Yale Forum on Climate Change & the Media. “‘Weird weather we’re having …. yeah well, personally, I believe it’s climate change and that something weird has been going on. And it’s been getting weirder.’ Just put it out there.”

If you are interested in increasing your effectiveness or making more formal presentations, an online guide gives helpful tips for framing discussion points, choosing language and using images to convey your message.

Sage-grouse lek. Photo: NPS

The goal proposed by the recovery alternative is to maintain and increase current sage-grouse abundance and distribution by conserving, enhancing and restoring the sagebrush ecosystem. The alternative outlines ways in which the effects of climate change, as well as other threats to habitat such as roads and energy development, should be considered in management plans.

 

Cover crops, crop rotation and no-till practices can improve soil health, improve nutrient and water-use efficiency and boost yields while simultaneously reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Photo: NRCS

The Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) is a Department of Agriculture agency that helps farmers, ranchers and other landowners both mitigate and adapt to the consequences of climate change.

For example, the NRCS promotes conservation practices that store, or sequester, carbon in the soil, reducing the amount of atmospheric greenhouse gasses while simultaneously adding organic matter to the soil. Farmers benefit not only from increased soil fertility but from the expanded capacity of such soil to capture and retain water, which builds resiliency to several recognized hallmarks of climate change: extreme precipitation events, high temperatures and drought.

Another NRCS program attacked the root cause of climate change, the burning of fossil fuels, by providing financial assistance to replace old combustion engines with newer, less polluting ones.

Studies conducted by the NRCS help farmers and ranchers understand and prepare for what they are likely to face under climate change. Identifying conservation standards that positively reduce greenhouse gas emissions and increase carbon sequestration, the NRCS enables conservation planners to choose practices that are most effective in addressing the consequences of a rapidly changing climate. The NRCS has developed the world’s largest soil carbon data set, establishing a benchmark against which future soil carbon levels can be measured. (more…)

Among presentations at the National Climate Change Adaptation Forum April 2-4, 2013 were case studies of projects in different ecosystems that are addressing the effects of climate change. Short videos tell stories unfolding in three locations.

Scenic Hudson:

Sunrise at Black Creek Preserve.
Photo: R Rodriguez, Jr., www.scenichudson.org

Protecting and restoring freshwater tidal migration zones along the Hudson River

Although during Hurricane Sandy they proved the value of natural habitats in mitigating flood damage, the tidal wetlands of the Hudson River could nonetheless drown as sea levels rise. The nonprofit organization Scenic Hudson is undertaking a number of measures to protect the river and its valley from this consequence of climate change, such as building resilient structures; encouraging community conversations about climate-change readiness, land conservation and stewardship; and conducting acquisition and restoration projects.

Grand Canyon Trust:

Beaver near its lodge. Photo: NPS

Restoring a natural ecosystem engineer to provide riparian areas in Southern Utah 

Can a nocturnal, semi-aquatic rodent  become a superhero in the fight against climate change? The Grand Canyon Trust thinks its possible. By forming ponds, wetlands and meadows, beaver restore and expand riparian habitat that numerous species depend on. As climate change lengthens droughts and produces more extreme precipitation events, beaver dams could increase the volume of water retained in the mountains, raise the water table and expand riparian areas. To encourage the work of these natural engineers, the Trust is reintroducing beaver in scores of stream segments in southern Utah.

Cutthroat trout
Photo: USGS

Trust for Public Land:

Using climate science to strategically guide habitat conservation

Saving the entire earth is a daunting prospect, but identifying and protecting areas that offer the most important conservation opportunities is a size of task that collaborative efforts can tackle. In Montana, the Trust for Public Land worked with Trout Unlimited, The Nature Conservancy and Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks to conserve and restore 52,000 acres identified as potentially resilient and pertinent to two at-risk coldwater fisheries, bull trout and Westslope cutthroat trout. The project has multiple benefits both for the species dependent on this habitat and for modeling an approach to public investment in landscape-level conservation.

In a story special to Beyond Seasons’ End, the author of  The Spine of the Continent, Mary Ellen Hannibal, uses the example of the wolf to explore how predators at the top of the food chain are essential to a diverse and healthy ecosystem. “Wolves are a keystone species,” Hannibal explains, “playing an outsize role in connecting ecological processes.” The presence of wolves changes the behavior of grazing animals and consequently improves native flora, enhances soil carbon sequestration and increases biodiversity throughout the food web. “A more resilient landscape is better able to withstand the extremes of climate change, reducing the costs of severe weather events,” Hannibal notes.

Because of the far-reaching impact of top predators such as wolves on the landscape, Hannibal argues that everyone has a stake in their preservation. She points out that the removal of keystone species worldwide leads to increasingly simplified and less stable ecological networks. “This is a conversation everybody needs to get in on,” she says. “One thing is certain about global change: we’re all in it together.”

It’s a study of the intricate balance of nature.

A man, 6″2″ tall, stands among willows near a river’s edge in Yellowstone Park. Photo: NPS

The twentieth century disappearance of wolves in Yellowstone Park loosened control of elk populations, which led to over-foraging of willow in riparian habitats. With the reintroduction of wolves to the area, elk numbers have declined but willows have not made a come-back. Missing, a study published February in the Proceedings of the Royal Society (fee required) and summarized in an article in Science Now postulates, are beaver.

Although they eat willows and use them as building material, beaver enhance the growth of willows by creating mud flats and raising the level of the water table. Without these hydrologic influences, willow growth is less robust and unable to sustain a thriving beaver population.

Some scientists believe that time will resolve this circular problem. With fewer elk eating willows before the plants can reproduce, willows may eventually grow large and numerous enough to be able to support greater numbers of beaver.

With Arctic ice melting, fishing fleets around the globe are setting their sites on waters that have been ice-locked for 100,000 years. But before the newly accessible waters are opened to commercial fishing, the five nations with Arctic coastlines – the U.S., Canada, Russia, Norway and Denmark – have agreed to devise regulations to manage its fisheries.

According to a story published in the New York Times, the goal of an accord would be to manage the harvesting of fish long protected by impenetrable ice and of fish populations that migrate north as ocean waters warm.

As climate change allows human activity in the Arctic to increase, the five countries are attempting to set up frameworks for resolving problems before they arise. Regulating commercial fishing in the Arctic would be the third accord designed to manage development and industrialization in the Arctic region. Agreements are already in place among these far north countries for search and rescue operations and oil spill responses.