Changing climate conditions such as increasing droughts, floods, and wildfires, hotter temperatures, declining snowpacks, and changes in the timing of seasonal events are already having an impact on wildlife and their habitats. In order to make forward-looking management decisions that consider ongoing and future projected changes in climate, managers require access to climate information that can be easily integrated into the planning process. Co-production, a process whereby scientists work closely with managers to identify and fill knowledge gaps, is an effective means of ensuring that science results will be directly useful to managers.
Through a multi-phase project, researchers are implementing co-production to identify how climate change might affect management decisions, what science is available to inform those decisions, and what gaps in climate information need to be filled, to support the management of species of conservation concern in the North Central region. In phase one of the project (still ongoing), researchers are working with state wildlife managers to identify species of conservation concern in the region - such as those that are of high regional priority for managers, candidates for listing under the Endangered Species Act, or for which management decisions could be improved by more information on climate-related stressors and adaptation options.
In this second phase, one species will be selected from the list to pilot the development of a co-produced work plan for science and planning that will help incorporate climate information into management decisions about the target species. This project will offer a model for making climate science more actionable, and management decisions more climate-informed.
