U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Great Plains Landscape Conservation Cooperative December 4, 2009 Dr. Benjamin Tuggle and Steve Guertin Regional Directors, Southwest and Mountain-Prairie Regions

Overview of GP LCC o Origin of LCCs o Purpose o Funding information o Relationship to Joint Ventures and other Existing partnerships o Development of Operational/Action Plan

Origin of LCCs Developed in concept and referred to in: o FWS Climate Change Strategic Plan o DOI Secretarial Order #3289 o Based on principles of Strategic Habitat Conservation

(plus Hawaii and Northern Alaska)

Purpose of LCCs o Self-directed partnerships between federal and state agencies, tribes, NGOs, universities and others o Guided by a steering committee with representatives of partner organizations o Intended to provide science support for biological planning, conservation design, monitoring, and evaluation that informs management decisions o Shared capacity for coordination, technology and science including population and habitat modeling, GIS, decision analysis, monitoring and evaluation, data management, etc.

Funding (FY 10) for Landscape Conservation Cooperatives o USFWS – stand up eight LCC’s (of 22) o R2 and R6 have decided to establish Great Plains LCC o Each Region gets: o $1.2M – planning and staffing o $875k – science o $2M for cross LCC science project needs

Relationship of LCCs to Existing JVs and other Partnerships o LCCs will build on existing partnerships and enhance or expand existing capacities o LCCs partly modeled after JVs o Each JV needs to evaluate appropriate level of involvement o LCCs need to support all taxonomic groups and all relevant programs and partnerships

Operational Plan Development o Starting point for LCC development o Identifies initial science capacity o Each LCC must submit an operational plan to FWS by December 11, 2009 o Plan must address specific elements o Elements in this plan are flexible and will change with greater partner input and discussion

Operational Plan Development o Advisory team convened November , 2009 to work on the plan o Team members from FWS R2 and R6, representing Migratory Birds, Partners for Wildlife, Fisheries, Technology Centers, Refuge Managers, and Ecological Services o Playa Lake and Rainwater Basin Joint Venture Coordinators part of team

Operational Plan Development o Highest Priority Species/Habitats in LCC o Science Capacity o Process for identifying science capacity o Existing capacity and how to enhance/utilize o Science needs/gaps o Product and tools based on existing capacity o Priorities for addressing capacity gaps

Operational Plan Elements o LCC Description o Partner involvement o Highest priority species and habitats o Conservation delivery mechanisms and results related to priority species and habitats o Science capacities that the LCC intends to develop o Top science needs that exceeds initial allocation o Successes the LCC anticipates in FY 2010 o Unique characteristics of the LCC o Support/involvement by FWS in other LCCs

Plan Element: Highest Priority Species/Habitats in LCC o Preliminary identification:

Plan Element: Conservation Delivery Mechanisms o Decision support tools to support conservation of priority species/habitats o Examples of products: o Building on existing work, develop range- wide lesser prairie chicken habitat delineation o Modeling the effect of sediments in wetlands, correlated with anticipated changes in precipitation o Species and habitat vulnerability assessments

Plan Element: Science Capacity Projects o Climate change scenario planning: forum to discuss anticipated changes to habitats/priority species and start developing management strategies to address changes o Expand monitoring efforts

Top Science Needs within LCC o Asked for preliminary identification of high priority science needs: o Preliminary suggestions: o National Wetland Inventory for LCC o Increase monitoring capacity for priority species o Native fish/habitat assessment, o Bison herd management/genetics framework

Plan Element: Science Capacity o Staffing: Each LCC will have a LCC Coordinator, and Science/Technology Coordinator o Preliminary assessment of science needs within the LCC: o Biometrician/Population modeling o Inventory and monitoring specialists o Additional GIS capabilities

Next Steps o Meet with “core” steering committee members to start working on structure of LCC, in addition to providing guidance on the science to be funded this year and key science capabilities that will be needed for the LCC o Engagement with more partners, including non- governmental groups, to refine elements in the operational plan: o We need your help in targeting our efforts to the highest priority species and habitats o We need your help in identifying the highest priority needs to ensure strong science foundations for our management decisions

Questions?? Discussion?? Thank You