U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service An Overview September 2009 Climate Change Strategic Plan

Our Challenge n We will Accelerating climate change will affect assemble and our nation’s fish, wildlife, and plant use state- resources in profound ways. While of-the-art many species will continue to thrive, technical some populations may decline and in capacity to some instances, go extinct. Others meet the will survive in the wild only through climate change direct and continuous intervention by challenge. managers. This defining challenge for the conservation community requires n We will reflect the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and scientific its employees and partners to apply excellence, the skill, determination, creativity and professionalism, commitment to conserving the nation’s and integrity in natural resources that have defined the all our work. American conservation movement since its inception more than 130 years ago. Our Strategy The result of The Service will channel its resources, more than a year innovation and leadership into an of intensive work unprecedented effort to promote the and thorough Seedskadee NWR by J and K Hollingsworth persistence of a wide range of species in discourse within the face of accelerating climate change. the agency, The Service’s draft Climate Change the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s Mitigation is defined by the IPCC Strategic Plan is also an integral part of draft Climate Change Strategic Plan as human intervention to reduce the Department of the Interior’s strategy establishes a basic framework within the sources or enhance the sinks of for addressing climate change, and will which the Service and its employees will greenhouse gases. Mitigation involves enable the Service to play a key role work as part of the larger conservation reducing our “carbon footprint” by using in achieving Departmental objectives community to help ensure the less energy, consuming fewer materials, related to climate change. sustainability of fish, wildlife, and habitats and appropriately altering our land in the face of accelerating climate change. management practices. Mitigation is Our Principles also achieved through biological carbon The Service will follow six guiding The plan employs three key strategies sequestration, which is a process in which principles in responding to climate to address climate change: Adaptation, CO2 from the atmosphere is taken up change: Mitigation, and Engagement. by plants through photosynthesis and stored as carbon in biomass (e.g., tree n We will be a leader in national and Adaptation is defined by the IPCC as an trunks and roots). Sequestering carbon in international efforts to address climate adjustment in natural or human systems vegetation such as bottomland hardwood change. in response to actual or expected climatic forests or native prairie grasses can often stimuli or their effects, which moderates restore or improve habitat and directly n We will commit to a new spirit of harm or exploits beneficial opportunities. benefit fish and wildlife. coordination, collaboration and In the Strategic Plan, adaptation refers to interdependence with others. planned management actions the Service Engagement involves reaching out to will take to help reduce the impacts of Service employees; local, national and n We will leverage our resources by climate change on fish, wildlife, and their international partners in the public and building coalitions that emphasize the habitats. Adaptation forms the core of private sectors; key constituencies and shared conservation of habitats and the Service’s response to climate change stakeholders; and the broader citizenry species within sustainable landscapes. and is the centerpiece of our Strategic of this country to join forces and seek Plan. This adaptive response to climate solutions to the challenges to fish and n We will continually evaluate our change will involve strategic conservation wildlife conservation posed by climate priorities and approaches, make of terrestrial, freshwater, and marine change. difficult choices, take calculated risks habitats within sustainable landscapes. and adapt to climate change. U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service

By building knowledge and sharing n Inform information in a comprehensive and stakeholders integrated way, the Service and its on wildlife partners and stakeholders will increase conservation our understanding of global climate issues related change impacts on species and their to energy habitats and use our combined expertise development and creativity to help wildlife resources and energy adapt in a climate-impacted world. policy and help facilitate Adaptation development The Service will: of renewable energy sources n Facilitate development of a National in a manner Fish and Wildlife Adaptation that helps Strategy, as outlined in pending conserve climate change legislation in the U.S. species and Congress, to be the conservation avoids or community’s shared blueprint to guide minimizes wildlife adaptation partnerships over significant the next 50-100 years. impacts to sensitive fish, UL Bend National Wildlife Refuge by J and K Hollingsworth n Help create a National Biological wildlife, and Inventory and Monitoring plant species. Partnership that strategically n Inspire key stakeholders and the broad deploys the conservation community’s Mitigation public to join in a national effort to monitoring resources. Working The Service will: address accelerating climate change with the Regional Climate Change and ensure a natural resource legacy Response Centers, the Partnership n Reduce the carbon footprint of its for future generations. will generate empirical data needed facilities, vehicles and workforce and to track climate change effects on the become carbon neutral by 2020. The Service’s draft Strategic Plan for distribution and abundance of fish, Climate Change is a blueprint for action wildlife and their habitats; model n Develop expertise in biological in a time of uncertainty. It calls for the predicted population and habitat carbon sequestration — sequestering Service to rise to the challenges at hand, change; and help determine if goals are greenhouse gases in plant biomass, lay the foundation for wise decisions being met. while also creating or restoring priority in the future and take steps right now native fish and wildlife habitats — and to ensure our nation’s fish and wildlife n Build regional and field technical foster efforts to sequester carbon on resources will thrive in the years to come. capacity by working with partners lands it manages. to provide cutting edge science and For more information on how the U.S. information through partnerships n Facilitate habitat conservation Fish and Wildlife Service is working with called Landscape Conservation through carbon sequestration at others to conserve the nature of America Cooperatives. These Cooperatives will the international level. By working in a changing climate, visit http://www. be guided by the DOI’s newly created with international partners and fws.gov/home/climatechange Climate Change Response Council. stakeholders to help reduce They will be the primary vehicle deforestation rates in key areas, such through which the Service, other as tropical forests, the Service will help federal bureaus and agencies, and our preserve areas critical to biodiversity partners acquire and apply the best conservation and support greenhouse climate change science to biological gas mitigation. planning and conservation design for fish and wildlife management. Engagement The Service will: n Deliver conservation to the most vulnerable species through various n In conjunction with conservation activities, including but not limited partners, develop useful and to identifying priority water needs, accessible information resources to addressing habitat fragmentation, help Americans fully appreciate the managing genetic resources, reducing significant implications of climate non-climate stressors, and other change on species and their habitats, resource management actions. and to engage these constituencies in seeking solutions.