Please join us for the NC CASC webinar on Thursday, December 9, 2021, 11a -12p MDT:  "Setting habitat protection and restoration priorities in a warming world: Lessons from Wyoming". 

Presented by: 

Molly Cross, Wildlife Conservation Society

Paul Dey, Wyoming Game & Fish Department

 

Please join us for the NC CASC webinar on Thursday, December 9, 2021, 11a -12p MDT:  "Setting habitat protection and restoration priorities in a warming world: Lessons from Wyoming".  Presented by:  Molly Cross, Wildlife Conservation Society Paul Dey, Wyoming Game & Fish Department Please register in advance for this meeting: https://cuboulder.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJckdemvqzwsE9PhJZ5YF2s1WCriYijoEiFz  After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about how to join the meeting.   Abstract: In 2020, the Wyoming Game and Fish Department (WGFD) partnered with the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) on a project designed to help the agency incorporate climate change into their Statewide Habitat Plan (SHP) that was slated for an update that year. WGFD and WCS worked together to develop and apply a process for incorporating climate change into the SHP, which included a participatory workshop, a post-workshop Information Needs Survey, and regular meetings throughout the year to translate findings from the workshop and survey into the updated SHP. As a result of this project, climate change was more extensively incorporated into the 2020 SHP relative to the previous version of the plan (completed in 2015). This included discussing climate change as a threat to achieving habitat protection and restoration for river, riparian and wetland habitats, as well as incorporating climate-informed management strategies and actions. The updated SHP also included climate change within the agency’s scoring system for allocating funding to habitat management projects. In addition to informing the SHP, the project also helped WGFD identify management-relevant climate-related information needs that are considered highly useful to WGFD staff and their management efforts. We believe that the project offers a useful model to other agencies that are interested in incorporating climate change into management plans, and to scientists and agencies looking to identify priority research needs related to climate change.  About the speakers: Molly Cross is a lead Climate Change Adaptation Scientist for the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS). Her work brings together researchers and conservation practitioners to incorporate climate change science into on-the-ground conservation goals actions. She is also Director of Science for the WCS Climate Adaptation Fund, which supports applied projects demonstrating on-the-ground interventions for wildlife adaptation to climate change in the United States. Paul Dey is the aquatic habitat program manager for the Wyoming Game and Fish Department. In this role, he facilitates a team of twelve agency logists in implementing stream restoration, fish passage, and water management projects to improve stream functions and aquatic resources.