Restore the Gulf press release - 05/23/2013 

NBCI press release - A conservation practice introduced in agricultural row crop settings in 2004 by USDA at the behest of the National Bobwhite Conservation Initiative (NBCI) has resulted in bobwhite populations up to three times greater than those found in traditionally managed crop fields, according to a just-released study of the program’s impacts.

Led by Mississippi State University, Forest and Wildlife Research Center, the study concluded that Habitat Buffers…

Colleagues –

On May 8, 2013, Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell announced the new Advisory Committee on Climate Change and Natural Resource Science (ACCCNRS).  ACCCNRS will advise on national direction for the USGS National Climate Change and Wildlife Science Center (…

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) is conducting several climate change and adaptation-related studies at the moment. They recently released their study: "CLIMATE CHANGE: Future Federal Adaptation Efforts Could Better Support Local Infrastructure Decision Makers," that examines: 

1.     The impacts of climate change on roads and bridges, wastewater systems, and NASA centers; 

2.     The extent…

The Alabama Gulf Coast Recovery Council named the Dauphin Island Sea Lab, the home of Alabama’s Marine Environmental Sciences Consortium (MESC), as the RESTORE (Resources and Ecosystems Sustainability, Tourism Opportunities and Revived Economy) Research Center of Excellence for the state of Alabama. The designation was awarded by unanimous vote on Friday, May 10, 2013, during the Council’s meeting at Five Rivers Delta Resource…

WASHINGTON, May 10, 2013—U.S. Forest Service researchers recently found that about 90 percent of fuel reduction treatments on national forests were effective in reducing the intensity of wildfire while also allowing for better wildfire control.

The report, “Wildfire, Wildlands, and People: Understanding…

The 18 counties that make up the Mississippi Delta were recognized by the U.S. Congress when the Omnibus Federal Land Management Act of 2009 created the Mississippi Delta National Heritage Area.  This law linked the Delta to the National Park Service, one of our country’s most trusted federal agencies.  It also appointed a locally-based governing board for the new National Heritage Area and required development of a detailed management plan which must be approved by the Secretary of the…

Today is the day for the big release of the CPA.  If you have any difficulties getting it to work for you, please contact me, Alexis Londo (alondo@gri.msstate.edu   662-325-2294) or Blair Tirpak (btirpak@usgs.gov).  

You can sign up or sign in to the CPA using the following link http://gcpolcc.databasin.org.

The Adaptation Science Management Team has convened twice by conference call over the last few weeks to take the next steps towards making Strategic Habitat Conservation a reality in the GCPOLCC.  The first call was on March 7^th (View a 30-minute recording of the presentation) during which the Team…

The Gulf Coast Vulnerability Assessment (GCVA) Steering Committee held a series of webinars for project team members from Jan. 17th to Feb. 27th. The purpose of these webinars was to share information about several ongoing projects that support the goal of the GCVA to provide a better understanding of the effects of climate change, sea level rise, and land use change on Gulf Coast ecosystems and their species. Below is information about the presentations given during each webinar and…

Conservation Partners:

The Walton Family Foundation (WFF), working in cooperation with the Lower Mississippi Valley Joint Venture (LMVJV), is pleased to release the attached Request for Proposals in support of habitat restoration on frequently flooded agricultural lands within the delta of Arkansas,…

You asked for changes and we listened!  In an effort to be responsive to the needs of our GCPO LCC web community, we relaunched gcpolcc.org on April 6, 2013.  The site was redesigned to make navigation more intuitive and to minimize the number of clicks required to take you to the most popular content. It now includes two major additions:  a Projects database and a link to the…

An effort that has been more than two years in the making has finally come to fruition with the opening of the Conservation Planning Atlas or CPA.  Designed to allow everyone from GIS gurus to those with no GIS experience at all to make maps and perform…

Shared Knowledge: the Real Power Behind Conservation in the 21st Century

A number of years ago I attended a Management Board meeting of the Lower Mississippi Valley Joint Venture in Vicksburg, MS, in which much of the Management Board’s time was spent peering at computer screens and learning how to operate a Geographic Information System. The Management Board was treated to the latest in geospatial information available through the LMVJV, and we got a crash course in…

I'm trying to find out who I should inform about endangered beach mice and dune habitat (home to other protected coastal species) found in a small area within the GCPOLCC limits.  This LCC includes the entire range of the three endangered beach mouse subspecies within the NW Florida panhandle.  While current and future discussions are taking place regarding surrogate species, landscape management, etc. I'm concerned this relatively small area could be overlooked.  There aren't many partners…

Welcome steering committee. If you have any questions concerning the CPA after the brief overview presentation, please contact me. alondo@gri.msstate.edu or 662-325-2294 662-312-7624 !! Thanks

This National Rivers and Streams Assessment 2008–2009: A Collaborative Survey (NRSA) presents the results of an unprecedented sampling effort undertaken by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and its state and tribal partners. It provides information on the ecological condition of the nation’s rivers and streams and the key stressors that affect them, both on a national and an ecoregional scale. It also discusses change in water quality conditions in streams sampled for an earlier…

A national plan for adapting conservation to climate change

Nayantara Narayanan, E&E reporter

Published: Wednesday, March 27, 2013

The need to protect fish, wildlife and plants in the United States from the impacts of climate change has received a response at the national level. An umbrella strategy drawn up by federal, state and tribal agencies was released yesterday.

The seven goals of the…

Today is the day the Advanced Applications Team from the CPA Pilot project is being introduced to the GCPO LCC Gateway.  The Advanced Applications Team is being asked to explore and review the gateway and provide feedback.

Blair and I would like to take this opportunity to again thank the Advanced Applications Team for their hard work and willingness to provide feedback.

What do black bears, timber rattlesnakes, and Rafinesque’s big-eared bats have in common? They all use bottomland hardwood forests as habitat and they will all be initial focal species for a research project on regional habitat connectivity in the Southeast.

On December 3 and 4, 2012, science coordinators and other staff from the Southeastern LCCs, along with researchers from NC State University, the Wildlands Network, the University of Florida, and the USGS, met to decide on…