The National Workshop on Large Landscape Conservation

October 22 - 24, 2014

Climate change adaptation occurs at many scales, from the global (e.g., UNFCCC) to the local (e.g., Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge “marsh migration” project) and along an iterative continuum of processes and activities involving science, planning, and implementation by robust partnerships. Landscape Conservation Cooperatives (LCCs) play a critical role along this adaptation continuum within expansive ecological geographies. This interactive session begins with a series of presentations by four LCCs demonstrating what’s working and why, and where the greatest barriers to adaptation remain. The four geographies these LCCs encompass are: Hawaiʻi and the U.S. Affiliated Pacific Islands; Western Alaska; Pacific coastal systems spanning Southern Alaska, British Columbia (Canada), Washington, Oregon, and Northern California; and coastal and inland systems in California and Baja California (Mexico). The session’s presentations will touch upon: shaping large-scale conservation in Hawaiʻi around climate change vulnerability assessments of plant and bird species; understanding and responding to shifting storm patterns in Western Alaska; developing prioritized climate change adaptation actions in the San Francisco Bay ecoregion; and approaches to develop an integrated research strategy in support of large-scale adaptation. An interactive, moderated discussion with panelists and audience members will follow these presentations in order to further explore how LCCs are overcoming barriers to adaptation at large land- and sea-scape scales.