LCC-CSC Coordination in the Northwestern US: Delivering Focused Science to Practitioners

Secretarial Order 3289 (Sept. 2009) established the Climate Science Centers (CSC) and Landscape Conservation Cooperatives (LCC) directing them to synthesize and integrate climate change impact data; develop tools that managers and partners can use when managing America’s land, water, fish, wildlife, and cultural heritage resources, and; work interactively to help coordinate adaptation efforts. Though cogent in intent, the Order remained general enough to allow governance and implementation to be responsive to regional needs.  In the northwestern U.S., 3 CSCs (North Central, Northwest, Alaska) and multiple LCCs (Great Basin, Great Northern, Plains and Prairie Potholes, North Pacific) have gelled into flexible yet effective partnerships that efficiently identify and acquire priority science and decision support needs and deliver products to managers. Each organization cross-sits staff on oversight and technical teams and regularly interact, especially when making science funding decisions. In FY14, AK CSC, NW CSC and NPLCC released a joint request for proposals and are collaboratively funding Tribal projects addressing climate change impacts.  Another example involves multiple, linked science and science-to-management projects designed to improve coordinated conservation in the Columbia Basin: NW CSC, NPLCC, and GNLCC support ongoing species sensitivity analyses and vulnerability assessments, and the LCCs have invested in multiple habitat connectivity and climate gradient models that guide multi-target protection, restoration, and acquisition decisions by regional managers.  Similar, diverse examples will be presented along with a series of ‘lessons learned’ during the first three years of LCC-CSC coordination.