25 April 2012
The Refuge System is losing ground. Literally. There are over 160 coastal national wildlife refuges, and virtually all of them are experiencing the impacts of sea level rise and coastal storms exacerbated by climate change. Refuges need a system-wide response. Defenders recently published a new report, National Wildlife Refuges and Sea-Level Rise: Lessons from the [...]
Posted in Climate Change0 Comments
19 April 2012
Back in February the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, NOAA, and state fish and wildlife agencies put forth a new concept in conservation, the National Fish, Wildlife and Plants Climate Adaptation Strategy. This unprecedented effort brought together 23 federal, state and tribal entities to “to inspire and enable natural resource professionals and other decision makers [...]
Posted in Climate Change0 Comments
19 April 2012
The establishment of Landscape Conservation Cooperatives (LCCs) is an initiative of the Department of the Interior to better coordinate, collaborate, and build capacity for landscape-scale conservation. The initiative was launched in response to climate change and other large-scale environmental challenges that cross jurisdictional boundaries, requiring collaborative solutions. Part partnership development, part funding stream for science [...]
Posted in Climate Change0 Comments
19 April 2012
I recently posted a guest blog on the Georgetown Public Policy Review discussing adaptive management. Two key areas that can make or break the success of an adaptive management plan are the strength of the management triggers that frame future decisions, and the quality of information gathered through monitoring that forms the basis for management.
Posted in National Forests, Public Lands0 Comments
28 March 2012
Laws protecting America from invasive species go back a hundred years and provide a basis for preventing importation of potential, invasive wildlife, such as the notorious Burmese python, snakehead, and lionfish. Yet, virtually no regulation restricting entry of “injurious” wildlife actually has taken place—at least not until after the invasions occur. Economists find that invasive [...]
Posted in Paying for Conservation0 Comments
23 March 2012
Defenders submitted comments today to the Bureau of Land Management and the Forest Service highlighting important issues as the agencies undertake to revise their land use plans to conserve and recover the greater sage-grouse.
Posted in Imperiled Wildlife, Public Lands0 Comments
13 March 2012
European leaders offer a biofuel certification program which appears to deny markets to biofuels that are produced unsustainably, but this program will not work. Economic analysis finds that vegetable oil that fails certification for biodiesel use can simply be sold as food, without any reduction in price, to countries like China and India which are [...]
Posted in Energy, Paying for Conservation0 Comments
02 February 2012
How many cattle are there in the United States? How many die each year from respiratory illnesses or bad weather? And why should you care? The USDA's 2010 "Cattle and Calves Nonpredator Death Loss in the United States" contains statistics that despite being self-reported show how small a fraction of nationwide cattle losses are from predators.
Posted in Agriculture, Imperiled Wildlife1 Comment
27 January 2012
Most portrayals of the effects of climate change on wildlife and ecosystems is that species will simply shift towards the poles or upslope to follow the climate conditions they have evolved with as the earth warms. But species are much more complicated than that.
Posted in Climate Change0 Comments
19 January 2012
Defenders of Wildlife, along with a diverse set of partner groups, submitted comments this week on the Rosemont Mine proposal on the Coronado National Forest in Arizona. The proposed open pit mine, just southeast of Tucson, would have a direct impact on 4,500 acres of the Santa Rita Mountain range, as well as impacts that would radiate far beyond the project’s footprint.
Posted in Imperiled Wildlife, In the Field, National Forests, Public Lands, Southwest0 Comments
18 January 2012
How can we find ways to encourage people to voluntarily conserve candidate species before they are listed under the Endangered Species Act? Candidate conservation agreements are an existing tool, and we have been helping to develop another one. That tool differs from candidate conservation agreements in several ways. Most important is that it involves the [...]
Posted in Imperiled Wildlife, Paying for Conservation0 Comments
19 December 2011
Amy Seidl hit a home run with her recent book, Finding Higher Ground: Adaptation in the Age of Warming. She not only talks about climate change and adaptation, but also draws helpful parallels with the natural world and how it adapted to various changes current and past. Without ever losing sight of the science, Seidl manages to bring a down-to-earth message that resonates with the reader on a personal level.
Posted in Climate Change0 Comments
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