The Northeast CASC, USDA Northern Forests Climate Hub, and partners are organizing a "Climate Change Adaptation for Wildlife Managers" workshop in January. The workshop is part of an effort being led by Northeast CASC Acting Director Olivia LeDee to develop a wildlife adaptation menu for resource managers.

Purpose

Wildlife managers face the growing challenge of helping wildlife populations and ecosystems respond to climate change. This active, hands-on workshop will help participants consider climate change and develop custom-built adaptation actions into their own real-world projects. This is a one-day, pre-conference workshop associated with the 2019 Midwest Fish & Wildlife Conference!

Outcomes

The Northern Institute of Applied Climate Science (NIACS) is expanding on the published adaptation toolkit for forest managers, Forest Adaptation and Resources and the Adaptation Workbook, to develop a new resource focused on terrestrial wildlife management. This new effort will produce a “menu” of climate adaptation strategies and approaches for use in a structured decision-making framework. Managers will be able to use the new wildlife adaptation menu to develop customized actions for implementation, to communicate the rationale for their actions, and to define their view of success in the context of climate change adaptation. Throughout this workshop, participants will actively use the new menu of strategies and approaches. Your feedback will shape the continued development and improvement of the tool. We need your help! Through this workshop, participants will be able to:

        - Describe regional and local effects of climate change on wildlife in the Midwest.

        - Understand climate adaptation concepts in the context of terrestrial wildlife management. 

        - Develop custom-built actions to enhance the ability of wildlife species to adapt to changing conditions.

Who Should Attend

This workshop is for professional wildlife managers, including staff from consulting firms; conservation NGOs; and employees of federal, state, tribal, and county agencies. We ask participants to bring their own real-world projects to this workshop. Example projects include:

        - A habitat management plan for a state Wildlife Management Area

        - A population plan for a sensitive or harvested species

        - A landscape-scale wildlife management plan among several agencies

We encourage small teams of 2-5 people to work together, but individuals working on their own are also welcome.

Registration Info

The workshop is scheduled for Sunday, January 27, 2019 at the Hilton Cleveland Downtown Hotel in Cleveland, Ohio. Anyone with questions should contact Stephen Handler (sdhandler@fs.fed.us) and Olivia LeDee (oledee@usgs.gov). The workshop’s $60 fee includes coffee and refreshments. Members of The Wildlife Society North-Central Section can use the registration code TWS NCS Member Rate W2 for a $50 discount. Please register here by January 17^th (Registration will be capped at 30 participants).

Check out the information flyer to see the draft agenda!

This workshop was organized by USGS Northeast Climate Adaptation Science Center, NIACS, Michigan Dept. of Natural Resources, University of Wisconsin-Madison, and the Wisconsin Initiative on Climate Change Impacts. Sponsored by The Wildlife Society North-Central Section.