California

							U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service


California Landscape                                                                                         December 2009



Conservation Cooperative
Introduction
Landscape Conservation Cooperatives
(LCCs) are self-directed conservation
partnerships among the U.S. Fish and
Wildlife Service (USFWS), the United
States Geological Survey (USGS),
other federal agencies, States, Tribes,
nongovernmental organizations, and
others to address the challenges of cli-
mate change in an integrated fashion
across broad areas. LCCs provide sci-
entific and technical support for land-
scape-scale conservation in an adaptive
management framework that empha-
sizes science-based biological planning,
conservation design, research, inven-
tory and monitoring. The products
that LCCs develop help to inform and
improve conservation delivery efforts
on the ground.

Climate change is the greatest environ-    California wetlands provide essential habitat for populations of Northern Pintail
                                           and other migratory birds. USFWS.
mental and conservation challenge of
the 21st century. The impacts of climate
change exacerbate existing stressors       water, estuarine and marine habitats        Partnerships
on our fish and wildlife resources. Cli-   are vital for salmon, trout, and other      The USFWS will continue
mate change brings physical changes        fish. The forested habitats of the Sierra   working in cooperation with other
that include increasing temperatures,      Nevada and Coastal ranges support a         federal agencies, States, Tribes,
rising sea levels, shifts in ocean cur-    wide variety of resident and migratory      nongovernmental organizations, Joint
rents, altered precipitation patterns,     birds. All of these habitats will be af-    Ventures, and other entities using a
and increased flood frequency. These       fected in some way by climate change.       coordinated approach. The California
physical effects will lead to biological                                               region already has a number of major
impacts such as changes in the distribu-   In addition to our trust resources, US-     partnerships underway that capitalize
tion of plants and animals, new species    FWS facilities will also feel the impacts   on landscape-scale biological planning
invasions, disease outbreaks, disrupted    of climate change. Our coastal National     and conservation design. These include
food webs, and ultimately, increased       Wildlife Refuges face potential inunda-     the Bay-Delta Conservation Plan,
species extinctions. Dealing with these    tion from sea level rise. Other refuges     California-Federal (CALFED) Bay-
challenges will require an unprecedent-    will experience water shortages, reduc-     Delta program, Central Valley Joint
ed level of collaboration between public   ing our ability to manage refuge lands      Venture, and the San Francisco Bay
and private conservation interests.        for waterfowl and other wetland-depen-      Joint Venture, among others. The
                                           dent species. Our National Fish Hatch-      West Coast Governors Association,
Conservation Need in the California LCC    eries will have less access to fresh cold   Nature Conservancy, California Fish
California habitats support a wide di-     water, affecting their ability to raise     Passage Forum, Pacific Coast Joint
versity of trust resources. Our marine     fish in support of restoration and other    Venture, California State agencies,
and coastal island habitats support        programs.                                   California Rangeland Conservation
large populations of seabirds, shore-                                                  Coalition, the Bay Area Ecosystem
birds and marine mammals as well as        Managing in the face of climate change      Climate Change Consortium and
numerous federally listed species. The     impacts will be very challenging. The       others are also actively involved in
wetlands and agricultural fields of the    California LCC provides a critical          planning efforts. Regionally-based
Central Valley provide essential migra-    bridge that links science and manage-       climate change research programs are
tion stopover and wintering habitat to     ment to effectively address these chal-     underway, including those sponsored
large numbers of waterfowl. Our fresh-     lenges.                                     by the California State Climate Change
Program, University of California,
California State University System,
Stanford University, Lawrence
Livermore Laboratories, National
Oceanographic and Atmospheric
Administration, PRBO Conservation
Science, and the USGS.

California LCC Framework
In establishing the California LCC, the
USFWS will work with partners to cre-
ate a framework for integrating climate
science and conservation management.
This effort will be coordinated with
other climate change efforts in the
region and be set up in a manner that
will facilitate the identification of needs,
capacities and gaps.

We will link our efforts to deliver con-
servation on the ground with those
partners who bring additional science
capacity to biological planning, conser-
vation design and the design of moni-
toring, research and evaluations.

A steering committee with representa-
tion from our partners will guide the
activities of the LCC and define LCC
priorities.

LCC Products and Outcomes
The California LCC will provide prod-
ucts and services that:
 •	 Support natural resource manage-
    ment decision making;
 •	 Assist partners and USFWS in
    identifying immediate time-critical
    needs for managing fish and wild-
    life resources;
 •	 Develop explicit and measurable
    biological objectives to guide con-
    servation design and delivery;
 •	 Apply downscaled climate models                 strategies, including public out-        •	 Design protocols and methodolo-
    and landscape scales to predict ef-             reach, for disease and die-offs;            gies best suited to evaluating the
    fects on fish, wildlife, plants and        •	   Design and evaluate short- and              success of conservation strategies,
    their habitats;                                 long-term wildlife adaptation ap-           objectives and actions; and
 •	 Assess watershed resiliency with                proaches;                                •	 Identify areas of converging cli-
    changing hydroperiods to inform            •	   Identify high priority research and         mate and non-climate stressors.
    restoration investments;                        technology needs;
 •	 Develop landscape level analyses to        •	   Conduct risk and vulnerability as-      Contacts:
    support corridor conservation and               sessments to identify the most sen-     Rick Kearney, USFWS Pacific
    protection;                                     sitive species, habitats and ecologi-   Southwest Region Climate Change
 •	 Identify and prioritize cold water              cal functions to focus conservation     Coordinator, Sacramento, CA at
    systems and refugia for anadro-                 efforts;                                Richard_Kearney@fws.gov, or call
    mous fish;                                 •	   Develop information to define fac-      916-978-6160;
 •	 Monitor habitat instabilities from              tors affecting species recovery un-
    invasive species threats and from               der future climate scenarios;           Debra Schlafmann, USFWS Pacific
    native species range expansions;           •	   Assess risks for USFWS facilities       Southwest Region, Sacramento, CA at
 •	 Provide analyses to inform coor-                located in areas of potential inun-     Debra_Schlafmann@fws.gov, or call
    dinated fish and wildlife response              dation from sea level rise;             916-414-6455.