Stresses & Sources The Search for Critical Threats Conservation Coaches Network Coach Training

Key Points to Introduce This Step Why it’s not just “threats” Stresses = the inverse of key ecological attributes. An observable change in the “health” of the target Sources are tangible, direct causes Keep your source names consistent Scoring algorithm - Stress rank is both ceiling and driver Iterative approach - continue to refine “Sins of the past” = lower viability “Sins of the future” = threats Sources Stresses Systems

Critical Questions Have they considered all key attributes? Probe for over-rankings –Especially stress ranks and any “Very High” stresses Look for “double-counting” of High-ranked stresses –e.g. altered fire regime + lack of fire Probe for specificity of High-ranked sources -- sooner or later the devil will be in the details

Common Issues & Recommendations What about the 10 year guideline for ranking threats? –Works for everything except some invasive species & long-term/persistent/insidious sources like climate change Lumping vs. splitting threats? –If in doubt, better to split initially –And then use “common threat taxonomy to give the perspective that lumping can provide What about catastrophic threats of unknown odds? –“User Override” works here -- team’s best guess

Common Issues & Recommendations (cont.) Are natural disturbances (e.g. hurricanes) stresses? –No, unless they’ve been exacerbated by a known source What about cumulative impacts? –The Workbook scoring algorithm addresses a source that causes multiple stresses, but not multiple sources to multiple stresses that may have a cumulative impact Generally don’t spend much time on Medium threats, unless you think one is under-ranked or it is something that will be very difficult to deal with if it left unattended (i.e. invasive exotic plant.)

Helpful Hints Teams often over-rank future threat by letting current condition creep into their consciousness; this is already accounted for in a “Poor” or “Fair” Viability rank Another test to consider for threat rankings... –A “Very High” stress should reduce a key attribute to “Poor” –A “High” stress should reduce a key attribute to “Fair”

Helpful Hints (continued…) Consider using maps (even hand drawn “cartoon” maps) to get a sense of the scope of the threat. As much as possible, pose threats related to global climate change in terms that explicitly describe how climate change might impact the targets. Roll up threats by targets, not by sites, to get useful information for multi-area strategies