A Bird's-Eye View
ADDRESSING CLIMATE CHANGE AT A LARGE SCALE
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Photo by Bryan Watts, Center for Conservation Biology |
Maintaining healthy bird populations in the United States in the face
of accelerated climate change is an unprecedented challenge. It will
require managing natural resources in a way that responds rapidly and
effectively to observed and anticipated changes in the condition and
distribution of habitat, food supplies, competitors, and predators.
Monitoring changes in bird populations and the resources upon which
they depend is essential to provide the lead time necessary to put
conservation actions in place. But, simply helping species adapt to a
changing environment is unlikely to produce the intended results
without concurrent adoption of mitigation strategies that slow climate
change through reduction of greenhouse gases and sequestering of
atmospheric carbon.
Innovative Strategies
The scientific sophistication and effectiveness of bird conservation in
the past two decades has greatly increased. The innovation that has
helped carry bird populations into the 21st century must now be once
again upgraded to ensure that these species survive the 21st century.
Innovative solutions are needed on three fronts: large-scale planning
and implementation; new technological and scientific advancements for
protection, enhancement, and restoration of habitats; and identifying
and abating the negative consequences associated with development of
alternative sources of energy.
Conservation Without Borders
The ranges of many bird species may shift and change in adaptation to
climate
change. Those changes will come about regardless of political
boundaries. So, too, must our conservation strategies be designed with
seamless boundaries. The new Department of Interior Landscape
Conservation Cooperatives and the Regional Climate Change Impact
Response Centers, for example, will serve as a base for innovative
thinking and determining broad geographic priorities for wildlife in
response to climate change. These climate change “think tanks” will
advance biological planning and design of large-scale conservation
efforts and link with the proven delivery models laid down by the
Migratory Bird Joint Ventures and the actions outlined in the State
Wildlife Action Plans, which provide a comprehensive
assessment of wildlife conservation needs in each state.
New and improving data management and habitat mapping capabilities,
along with the ability to compile and disseminate large quantities of
information, information management capacities, and expanding
conservation networking and partnerships is needed to ensure that
conservation is emphasized in those places and at those spatial scales
most relevant to the health of shifting bird populations. These tools
are necessary to help make better decisions that lessen the impacts of
climate change within biomes, and thus, the birds that depend on them.
Strategies must change from a tradition that considers historic
landscape conditions as the framework for protecting intact landscapes
and restoring damaged ones, to one which must address dynamic future
environmental conditions. These strategies must also work within social
and economic constraints and consider on-the-ground actions that can be
used to increase the chances that bird populations persist in
landscapes shaped by climate change.
New Technologies and Innovative Science
Migrating forests. Rising seas. Dry, sun-baked playa lakes.
Outbreaks of avian
disease. All of these may seem like scenes from a science fiction
movie, but all are potential consequences of changes in climate.
Helping birds and other wildlife adapt to these rapid environmental
changes will demand the attention of the world’s best scientific minds.
Initiatives have begun that are planting the seeds for innovative
thinking and partnerships, setting priorities for wildlife response to
climate change, and developing new technologies for assessing and
compiling existing and newly acquired information. Landscape
Conservation Cooperatives and the Regional Climate Change Impact
Response Centers, in partnership with universities, technology-based
institutions and businesses, and individual entrepreneurs, need to be
charged with finding solutions to the perplexing challenge of keeping
species from going extinct.
• Identify new, practical ways to manage dynamic ecosystems. For
example,
to manage habitats that are resilient to the effects of climate change,
we must manage for intact natural ecological processes including
disturbance associated with fire and flooding.
• Transfer knowledge to those charged with the day-to-day preservation
of species. For example, new and improved data management and habitat
mapping capabilities along with the ability to compile and disseminate
large quantities of information, will provide land stewards with the
tools to make decisions to lessen the impacts of climate change.
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Photo courtesy USFWS |
Minimizing the Impact of Renewable Energy Sources
Generating energy from renewable sources holds promise in reducing
greenhouse gas emissions, while still meeting the world’s energy
demands. However, development of alternative sources of energy can
represent new challenges to bird conservation:
• Habitat loss, degradation, and fragmentation from the development of
new wind farms and associated transportation corridors and power lines
can cause direct mortality and indirect impacts to birds. Development
of new technologies for renewable energy must account for potential new
stressors that will negatively impact bird populations.
• Production of biofuels, the use of plants or other biomass to make
fuels, can reduce greenhouse gasses by reducing use of oil and its
byproducts. Yet, widespread conversion of native grasslands and other
habitats to row crops or monocultures of fast-growing grasses to make
ethanol poses a risk to birds because of habitat loss, degradation, and
loss of plant diversity that enefits wildlife.
Reducing and Sequestering Greenhouse Gases
As a parallel strategy to adaptive ecosystem management, society is
working on measures to slow climate change by reducing production of
greenhouse gases and sequestering atmospheric carbon.
• Many mitigation strategies address improved energy efficiency or the
reduction of emissions; these strategies are most effective in concert
the removal of existing carbon from the atmosphere or conserving
already stored carbon.
• Forests, grasslands, wetlands, and other ecosystems can be managed
for birds and other wildlife, as well as for storing carbon and
removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Conservation strategies to
reduce atmospheric carbon include avoiding deforestation (especially in
tropical zones and temperate mature and old-growth forests), promoting
afforestation and reforestation, and managing vegetation for
accumulation of biomass on site.
• Active restoration of native vegetation and wildlife habitats can
serve to sequester carbon. Cooperative partnerships between industries
and land management agencies can restore important habitats. In the
Lower Mississippi Valley, for example, more than two dozen industries,
conservation organizations, and National Wildlife Refuges have restored
over 120,000 acres of habitat. These efforts have resulted in the
planting of more than 22 million trees that will capture over 33
trillion tons of carbon during the next 90 years. Ducks Unlimited and
its partners developed a carbon credit program for private landowners,
who in turn manage grasslands for waterfowl and many other
species.
• There are great opportunities for ecosystem restoration and carbon
sequestration through new farming practices that promote habitat
diversity and integrate ecosystem processes, including living soils.
Incentives within the Farm Bill could be used to promote broad scale
mitigation that will result in healthier ecosystems, healthier farms
and farm products, and healthier bird populations.
Conservation efforts will need to be integrated with social and
economic initiatives to maximize the reduction of greenhouse gasses and
to help ensure healthy habitats for birds and for people. Each of the
above strategies and conservation considerations are incorporated in
the sections on key steps for each habitat in this report
.
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Flying pelicans courtesy USFWS |
A Joint Venture is a self-directed partnership of agencies,
organizations, corporations, tribes, or individuals that has formally
accepted the responsibility of implementing national or international
bird conservation plans within a specific geographic area or for a
specific taxonomic group, and has received general acceptance in the
bird conservation community for such responsibility. Working both
collectively and independently, Joint Venture partners conduct
activities in support of bird conservation goals cooperatively
developed by the partnership such as biological planning, conservation
design and prioritization, project development and implementation, and
monitoring, evaluation, and applied research activities.
Nationwide, there are 18 habitat-based Joint Ventures, each addressing
the bird habitat conservation issues found within their geographic
area. Additionally, three species-based Joint Ventures, all with an
international scope, work to further the scientific understanding
needed to effectively manage specific bird species or groups of
species.
State Wildlife Action Plans
Developed by every state and territory, State Wildlife Action Plans are
congressionally required plans that outline the conservation actions
needed to conserve declining wildlife and their habitats before they
become rarer and more costly to protect. State Wildlife Action Plans
are historic in that they represent the first nationally comprehensive
conservation strategy for wildlife and identify what is needed to
prevent more wildlife from becoming endangered. Completed in 2005, the
plans were collaboratively developed by state fish and wildlife
agencies and their partners and identified more than 10,000 species in
greatest conservation need, their priority habitats, threats and
stresses, needed conservation actions and monitoring and research
priorities. The plans are updated every 10 years, although many states
are opting to update sooner to better address climate change and new
emerging threats. The State and Tribal Wildlife Grants program is the
principal source of funding to implement the plans. More information is
available at http://www.wildlifeactionplans.org
.