Assessing Climate Change Threats and Actions in Northeast State Wildlife Action Plans

In 2016-2017, the Northeast Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies (NEAFWA) funded a synthesis of the 14 State Wildlife Action Plans (SWAPs) in the Northeast Region through its Regional Conservation Needs grant program. All threats were investigated, including climate change, but because of the scope of the project, the final summary report did not include important details of the draft threat topical reports. This project leverages the climate change threat working group and draft climate change threat report and aims to deliver this information in the most accessible format possible. This project builds on this important work and will synthesize, analyze, and prioritize climate change threats and associated adaptation strategies and actions for Regional Species of Greatest Conservation Need (RSGCN) as identified in the 2015 SWAPs to support coordinated regional conservation and adaptation by NEAFWA states. Terwilliger Consulting, Inc (TCI) will synthesize known threats to priority wildlife from the 2015 SWAPs, and cross-walk these with best-known approaches to mitigate climate impacts from the NE CASC and partners. The project will continue the working group’s approach of framing how climate change interacts with persistent, pervasive threats to wildlife like disease, invasive species, pollution, and barriers to flow in rivers and streams – threats that were identified as the highest priority in NEAFWA’s 2017 SWAP Synthesis project. 

The purpose of this project is to synthesize and prioritize climate change threats and associated adaptation strategies and actions for RSGCN as identified in the 2015 SWAPs to support coordinated conservation and adaptation by Northeast Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies (NEAFWA) states.