NWF releases 3 new reports on Safeguarding Wildlife in an Era of Climate Change

The National Wildlife Federation has released three new reports on safeguarding wildlife in an era of climate change. NWF worked in partnership with three state fish and wildlife agencies (New York Department of Environmental Conservation, Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries, and Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife) with the generous support of the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation.

While each report is somewhat different, all three summarize information on impacts to wildlife and their habitats in that state including the results of vulnerability and/or sensitivity assessments conducted as part of this project. These assessment are then used to identify management concerns and implications as well as, for New York, adaptation strategies for the state.

The intention was to inform the upcoming revision of these states’ Wildlife Action Plans from their list of species of greatest conservation need to identifying priority actions for conservation.  State Wildlife Action Plans are great opportunities for all the conservation players in the state to take action together to prevent wildlife from becoming endangered and thus serve as excellent frameworks for also preparing for and coping with climate change.  Additionally and importantly, State Wildlife Action Plans guide federally funded State Wildlife Grants projects as they are required to be tied to the Action Plans ensuring projects in the state will advance climate change adaptation work. The Washington report takes it a step further and shares lessons learned on integrating climate change into all the agency’s existing programs and plans.  Virginia also engaged many other sectors in the state including, for example, coastal program managers to use this information to inform their program objectives which of course help fish and wildlife as well. Ultimately,  integrating climate-smart consideration into all we do will help us safeguard wildlife in an era of climate change, the greatest challenge facing us in the conservation community. 

The three reports include: 

Safeguarding Washington’s Fish and Wildlife in an Era of Climate Change: A case study of partnerships in action by Patty Glick, Lynn Helbrecht, Josh Lawler and Michael Case.

Virginia’s Climate Modeling and Species Vulnerability Assessments: How climate data can inform management and conservation by Austin Kane, Chris Burkett, Scott Kloper and Josh Sewall .

Assessing the Vulnerability of Key Habitats in New York: A foundation for climate adaptation planning by Chris Hilke and Hector Galbraith.

These can be found at: http://www.nwf.org/What-We-Do/Energy-and-Climate/Climate-Smart-Conservation/Adaptation-Reports.aspx.

For more information on National Wildlife Federation’s work on climate change adaptation please go to: www.nwf.org/climate-smart.