Modified items

All recently modified items, latest first.

Northeast Cold Water Fish Habitat Vulnerability Assessment: Species that depend on cold-water river habitat are vulnerable to warming from climate change, but just how vulnerable? Lingering uncertainties about the relationship between changing air and water temperatures, the capacities of different fish species to adapt to exposure, and the ways climate change will affect other environmental stressors like diseases, make it difficult to predict. In order to make informed decisions about protecting fish habitat, resource managers must understand the degree of the threat. This review offers a comprehensive overview of what is known, what remains uncertain, and what measures that can be taken now to reduce the future impacts of warming on cold water fish habitat.

Northeast Fish & Wildlife Habitat Vulnerability Assessment: This product assesses how vulnerable the Northeast's major terrestrial and wetland habitats are to climate change. Thirteen major ecosystem types occurring from Maine to Virginia and West Virginia were systematically evaluated through a collaborative process. The findings can be used in preparing for and adapting to a changing climate.

Nature's Network: Nature’s Network is a collaborative effort that brings together partners from 13 states, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, nongovernmental organizations, and universities to identify the best opportunities for conserving and connecting intact habitats and ecosystems and supporting imperiled species to help ensure the future of fish and wildlife across the Northeast region.

Local Adaptation for Marsh Migration: A Marsh Migration Team is helping coastal communities in Maine explore how local policies or plans might address the expected inland movement of coastal marshes as sea levels rise. This collaborative effort is working with six Maine communities—Scarborough, Bath, Topsham, Phippsburg, Georgetown, and Bowdoinham—to understand the economic and resource values of coastal marshes, assess likely marsh migration, and develop adaptation strategies (recognizing the potential costs of not planning for predicted sea-level rise).

Estuarine Fish Habitat Assessment and Winter Flounder Pilot Study: As part of a suite of aquatic habitat assessments and tools designed to support conservation efforts in the Northeast region, the environmental consulting firm Downstream Strategies developed predictive models for estuarine habitat in Narragansett Bay and Long Island Sound, using winter flounder as the focal species to pilot the approach. This study describes the development of a flexible modeling process that can help scientists better understand the distribution, status, threats, and relative abundance of resources in dynamic aquatic habitats.

Designing Sustainable Landscapes: Landscape Capability for Marsh Species: Hurricane Sandy Tidal Marsh Resiliency Workshop

Designing Sustainable Landscapes Index of Ecological Integrity: Presentation from the Hurricane Sandy Workshop December 7-8, 2014

Decision Support Framework for Sea-level Rise Impacts: Loss of land as a result of increasing sea level is among the gravest threats that climate change poses to coastal areas, and one of the most difficult to prepare for because different beaches, barriers, and marshes can respond to sea level rise in various dynamic ways. By distinguishing between areas in the Northeast that are likely to experience flooding as a result of sea-level rise and those that are likely to respond dynamically to sea-level rise by moving or changing, this report offers a resource to support coastal management decisions at both regional and local scales in the context of accelerated change.

Connect the Connecticut Landscape Conservation Design: What can we do today to ensure a sustainable future for the Connecticut River watershed? Connect the Connecticut is a collaborative effort to identify the best places to start: a network of priority lands and waters that can support wildlife and natural systems, with multiple pathways for migration, restoration, development, and conservation.

Coastal Resilience Resource List: An inventory of the work being undertaken by coastal Landscape Conservation Cooperatives and partner organizations to address coastal resilience issues in the Atlantic, Gulf Coast, and Caribbean regions, this new resource offers a one-stop shopping list to support growing collaboration in coastal resilience. The list includes completed, ongoing, and planned projects, reports, guidebooks, programs, online support tools, and papers, searchable by type, organization, or date.

Coastal and Adjacent Data Layers from Designing Sustainable Landscapes in the Northeast: Presentation Hurricane Sandy Tidal Marsh Resiliency Partner Meeting December, 2014

Chesapeake Bay Brook Trout Assessment: To effectively manage vital freshwater resources across large geographic areas, resource managers need the capacity to assess the status of aquatic species, their habitats, and the threats they face. This on-line decision support tool provides that capability for Eastern brook trout across the Chesapeake Bay watershed. The tool allows users to characterize current and and potential future aquatic conditions, target and prescribe restoration and conservation actions, set strategic priorities, evaluate management efforts, and support science-based sustainable management plans on behalf of brook trout and associated species. The tool is accompanied by a user-friendly summary report and a technical report providing details on how the tool was created.

Regional Fire Mapping: Regional fire maps generally offer improved resolution over national products and can provide a variety of information such as fire history, fire type, topography, fuels/habitat condition, and more. In the Southern region, the "SE FireMap" is an exciting new project under development - intended to serve as a cohesive system to track both prescribed fire and wildfire activity on public and private lands.

Land managers learn about duff moisture: Land managers learn about duff moisture during a wildland fire workshop in North Carolina. Credit: Jennifer Fawcett

Raccoon Creek Stream Restoration for Imperiled Aquatic Species in lower Etowah River Drainage: This project restored stream areas of Raccoon Creek for imperiled aquatic species in lower Etowah River drainage, Georgia. This project has resulted in several new partnerships, including a collaborative planning workshop for Paulding County held by SARP and the Southeast Watershed Forum. (Photo: Map of Raccoon Creek Watershed)

Beach and Tidal Habitat Inventories: This collection of reports, databases, and data layers offers a birds-eye view of sandy beach and tidal inlet habitats within the U.S. Atlantic Coast breeding range of the endangered piping plover based on imagery from Google Earth, Google Maps, state agencies, municipalities, and private organizations. By comparing the location, status, and condition of potential plover breeding grounds from Maine to North Carolina during three distinct time periods -- before Hurricane Sandy, immediately after the storm, and three years after post-storm recovery efforts -- these inventories provide a habitat baseline that can help resource managers plan for future change.