Climate Change Strategic Plan

U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service An Overview September 2010 Climate Change Strategic Plan

Accelerating climate change will affect n We will be our nation’s fish, wildlife, and plant a leader in resources in profound ways. While national and many species will continue to thrive, international some populations may decline and in efforts to some instances, go extinct. Others address climate will survive in the wild only through change. direct and continuous intervention by wildlife and fisheries managers. This Our Strategy defining challenge for the conservation The result of more community requires the U.S. Fish and than 18 months Wildlife Service and its partners to apply of intensive work the skill, determination, creativity and and thorough commitment to conserving the nation’s discourse within natural resources that have defined the the agency American conservation movement since and input from its inception more than 160 years ago. the public, The Service’s Climate Change Strategic the Service’s Plan establishes a basic framework within Climate Change which the agency will work as part of Strategic Plan the larger conservation community to employs three help ensure the sustainability of fish, key strategies Seedskadee NWR by J and K Hollingsworth wildlife, plants and habitats in the face of to address accelerating climate change. The plan is climate change: also an integral part of the Department Adaptation, Mitigation, and by plants through photosynthesis and of the Interior’s strategy for addressing Engagement. stored as carbon in tree trunks, branches climate change, and will enable the and roots. Sequestering carbon in Service to play a key role in achieving Adaptation is defined by the vegetation such as bottomland hardwood Departmental objectives related to Intergovernmental Panel on Climate forests or native prairie grasses can often climate change. Change (IPCC) as an adjustment in restore or improve habitat and directly natural or human systems in response benefit fish and wildlife. Our Principles to actual or expected climatic stimuli The Service will follow six guiding or their effects, which moderates harm Engagement involves reaching out to principles in responding to climate or exploits beneficial opportunities. Service employees; local, national and change: For the Service, adaptation is planned, international partners in the public and science-based management actions that private sectors; key constituencies and n We will continually evaluate our we take to help reduce the impacts of stakeholders; and everyday citizens priorities and approaches, make climate change on fish, wildlife, and their to join forces and seek solutions to difficult choices, take calculated risks habitats. Adaptation forms the core of the challenges to fish and wildlife and adapt to climate change. the Service’s response to climate change conservation posed by climate change. and is the centerpiece of our Strategic n We will commit to a new spirit of Plan. This adaptive response to climate By building knowledge and sharing coordination, collaboration and change will involve strategic conservation information in a comprehensive and interdependence with others. of terrestrial, freshwater, and marine integrated way, the Service and its habitats within sustainable landscapes. partners and stakeholders will increase n We will reflect scientific excellence, our understanding of global climate professionalism, and integrity in all our Mitigation is defined by the IPCC change impacts on species and their work. as human intervention to reduce habitats and use our combined expertise the sources or enhance the sinks of and creativity to help wildlife resources n We will emphasize the conservation of greenhouse gases. Mitigation involves adapt in a climate-impacted world. habitats within sustainable landscapes, reducing our “carbon footprint” by using applying our Strategic Habitat less energy, consuming fewer materials, Conservation framework. and appropriately altering our land management practices. Mitigation is n We will assemble and use state-of- also achieved through biological carbon the-art technical capacity to meet the sequestration, the process in which CO2 climate change challenge. from the atmosphere is taken up U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service

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