This Statewide Habitat Plan (SHP) defines how the Wyoming Game and Fish Department (WGFD) will meet its mission of Conserving Wildlife - Serving People by working with external partners to conserve and improve habitat. Within the WGFD, the SHP provides a single, unified roadmap defining how several Director’s Office, Fish, Services, and Wildlife programs, with complementary and sometimes overlapping responsibilities, will work together to accomplish habitat protection and enhancement goals. 

This is a PDF of a PowerPoint slide deck that summarizes project findings.

Abundant scientific research has characterized the relationships between climate and fire in ecosystems of the United States, and there is substantial evidence that the role of fire in ecosystems is likely to change with a changing climate. However, there is considerable local-to-regional heterogeneity in the observed and projected changes, driven by the historical and current patterns in fuel availability and flammability, the nature and interaction of climate changes and their effects on ecosystems, and the role of humans and natural-resource management practices in affecting those trajectories. In particular, changing fire regimes in pose numerous natural resource management challenges. Decision makers in natural-resource management increasingly require information about potential future changes in fire regimes to effectively prepare for and adapt to climate change impacts. An effective forward-looking fire science synthesis is urgently required to reflect the changing dimensions of human fire management, recognizing that fire causes, effects, impacts, and management are all interrelated components of a social-ecological-hydrological system with the potential for profound ecological transformation. To meet this need, we propose to conduct a synthetic research assessment of changing fire dynamics and to relate these changes to natural resource management. Through this project, we will engage a post-doctoral fellow to lead this research, and will conduct an assessment of: 1) the state of the science on how climate change is currently affecting and projected to transform fire processes; 2) how projected changes fit within the context of national patterns and trends; 3) the implications of these changes for natural resource management and climate change adaptation efforts. Products will include one or more peer reviewed manuscript(s) on the regional findings; one or more peer reviewed manuscripts placing these regional findings in a broader national context; and public facing documents and/or communication activities (e.g., webinars) to engage managers with the results of this work.

These data represent key phenology trends across the western United States from 1982-2016. Using two remote sensing datasets, CMGLSP and VIPPHEN-EVI2, trends were calculated for four phenology variables: Start of Season (SOS), Peak Instantaneous Rate of Green-Up Date (PIRGd), Peak of Season (POS), and End of Season (EOS). The Theil-Sen slope and standard deviation were applied to the phenology metrics to evaluate how phenology dates and variation in those dates have changed through time. The Mann-Kendall test was also applied to give an indication of trend significance. Lastly, we include the mean and standard deviation of each metric across the time period.

The NC CASC has conducted numerous training and skills development activities to support partners and researchers as they seek to use scientific information and techniques to understand and respond to climate change impacts. Training topics range from basics of climate data integration (climate 101) to more specific topics like climate training activities for Tribes and Indigenous Communities and training videos on climate projection tools like the Climate Futures Toolbox. To learn more about upcoming training events, check NCCASC website for events regularlly and sign up for the NCCASC newsletter for announcements.

The Climate Science Support Platform is a network of NC CASC scientists and partners that provides climate science support to the NC CASC community of scientists and stakeholders through collaborative research and integration of diverse science expertise. In an effort to increase understanding of climate science and to identify stakeholders’ climate science needs, the Climate Science Support Platform facilitates iterative engagement with the NC CASC community of scientists and stakeholders through direct interactions, science calls to engage with the entire network, and science webinars that bring together researchers and managers. In addition to engaging with stakeholders, the Climate Science Support Platform also works to produce information and tools to address stakeholder needs. Specific initiatives include 1) developing and providing downscaled climate data, 2) synthesizing project specific climate information (e.g. US FWS species assessments), 3) developing workflows to access climate data (e.g., the Climate Futures Toolbox), and 4) developing resource briefs and regional summaries. The Climate Science Support Platform is also doing foundational and applied research in understanding ecological drought processes and risk under a changing climate. For more information on activities conducted through the CSSP, please check the CSSP webpage.

The NC CASC works to communicate the science conducted at the center out to the North Central region through a variety of communication resources such as state specific fact sheets, newsletters, social media and webinars. These communication products aim to connect researchers, managers, and practitioners to usable science, success stories, and solutions for natural and cultural resource management and adaptation under a changing climate. More specifically, the webinar series focuses on ongoing research and practices from the NC CASC network, and feature topics of critical importance to natural resource managers and other stakeholders within the region. To learn more about NC CASC communications, please visit the Communications Tools webpage.  

Tribal nations are priority science partners of the North Central Climate Adaptation Science Center (NC CASC) and the center is committed to working with Tribal partners to create usable, and relevant science to build resilience to anthropogenic climate change. The NC CASC recognizes the importance and value of Indigenous Knowledges in addressing environmental challenges and any tribal projects funded through NC CASC follow the Guidelines for Considering Indigenous Knowledges in Climate Change Initiatives to ensure data sovereignty and best practices for working with sovereign Tribal Nations. To better understand, support, and facilitate climate resilience in Tribal communities, the NC CASC co-hosts a regional Tribal Resilience Liaison. This position supports capacity building for addressing climate change impacts on specific to Tribal groups and assists Tribal resource managers in developing a variety of resources including climate vulnerability assessments, adaptation plans, proposals and grant applications. Additionally, the NC CASC has initiated a Tribal Climate Leaders Program (TCLP) to support Native American graduate students in becoming the next generation of tribal environmental leaders. The TCLP currently provides fully-funded fellowships to pursue a graduate degree at the University of Colorado Boulder in fields related to climate adaptation science. This a pilot program that began in 2020; new applications are not being accepted at this time. To learn more about the work the NC CASC conducts with tribal partners visit the Tribal Climate Leaders Program and the Tribal Partners webpages.  

The NC CASC hosts a variety of virtual and in-person workshops to build partnerships, collaborate and share information among the natural resources community including participants representing federal and state agency employees, university researchers, graduate students and others. Many of these workshops have been aimed at providing guidance on specific climate change tools and products that can be used to better integrate climate science into management and research. Some example topics include using climate data to understand global environmental change, climate change scenario planning, and snow-related data and information needs and next steps for modeling future snow projections. To learn more about NC CASC workshops, please visit the Events webpage.  

The NC CASC hosted a remote Python workshop for resource managers and climate scientists in October 2020. The workshop covered the basics of using scientific programming with Python to analyze and visualize netcdf MACA v2 climate data. All of the workshop lessons, along with hundreds of others, can be found on Earth Labs free open education learning portal and the interactive activities from the event can be found on GitHub. Given the clear need for this type of training, the NC CASC plans to host more data-intensive workshops like this one in the future.