Presented by: Ana Davidson, Colorado Natural Heritage Program, Colorado State University Registration link: Please register in advance for this meeting: https://cuboulder.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJEodeyhrTMpGdVrVGZ622sNwK_vf8vOq9Kw After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about how to join the meeting. Abstract: Our team is developing a large-scale collaborative conservation planning initiative for the black-tailed prairie dog ecosystem that stretches across North America’s Great Plains. Because prairie dogs are keystone species of North America’s central grasslands, their conservation and management often lies at the core of many conservation efforts across the region. Through mapping and ecological modelling, we are working to identify potential landscapes for conservation that will consider ecological, political, and social factors, along with changing climate and land use to maximize long-term conservation potential and co-existence with human activities. Here, we will report on our habitat suitability model for the black-tailed prairie dog and landscapes we have identified to have high conservation potential for the black-tailed prairie dog ecosystem. About the speaker: Dr. Ana Davidson (http://anadavidson.weebly.com/) is a Research Scientist at the Colorado Natural Heritage Program at Colorado State University (CSU) and a Joint Faculty member in the Department of Fish, Wildlife, and Conservation Biology at CSU. Her research centers on biodiversity conservation, spanning multiple scales, from local field-based ecology to landscape ecology and global-scale macroecology. Much of her work focuses on species that play large and important ecological roles, such as burrowing mammals and large herbivores, that shape and transform ecosystems and are central to the conservation of associated species.

Presented by:  David Lawrence, National Park Service  Amber Runyon, National Park Service Other co-authors: John Gross, National Park Service Gregor Schuurman, National Park Service Brian Miller, U.S. Geological Survey, North Central CASC Joel Reynolds, National Park Service Please register in advance for this meeting: https://cuboulder.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJYrduGrpj4iE9INQlaV2SclWlQu123wURPH After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about how to join the meeting.   Abstract: When trying to adapt to a changing climate, with all the inherent uncertainties about how the future may play out, resource managers often turn to scenario planning as a tool.  Managers use scenario planning to explore plausible ways the climate may change, allowing them to work with climate change uncertainty rather than being paralyzed by it.  Once identified, scenarios of the future are used to develop proactive measures to prepare for and adapt to scenarios of change.   A key part of scenario planning is generating a list of potential future climates we may experience.  This webinar will describe and compare different approaches to generate the climate futures and identify an approach that captures a broad range of climate conditions (a key ingredient to developing scenarios) across both near and long-term planning horizons.  We then will describe tools for creating reproducible climate futures, including an R package and training materials that enables users to develop their own projections, and provide guidance on their use.  Over the past decade, we have operationalized the generation of climate futures and with the recent development of the Reproducible Climate Futures (RCF) R package, standardized and streamlined their production.  We have found climate futures and scenarios offer an adaptable approach to planning across a broad range of management contexts.    About the speakers: David Lawrence specializes in aquatic ecology and has worked as a climate change scientist within the National Park Service Climate Change Response Program since 2017.  In this role David conducts and translates climate change research to support forward-looking land and water management.  David has a PhD in ecology from the University of Washington.  Amber Runyon is an ecologist for the National Park Service Climate Change Response Program where she collaborates with park managers to provide management-relevant projections of future-climate that serve as the basis for climate-informed planning. Amber has a PhD in ecology from Colorado State University.