Key Issues
Energy, climate change, working lands for wildlife, ecosystem services, and how society values these services - such as clean drinking water, outdoor recreation, and biological conservation - are key issues influencing the landscape. These issues and drivers of change are essential to understand and plan for in the management and protection of both natural and cultural resources in order to create a more sustainable landscape for wildlife and human communities.
The Anchor Approach to Connectivity
ANCHOR is a new conservation approach that builds Areawide Networks to Connect Habitat and Optimize Resiliency. The approach guides investments in strategic “anchor” locations to connect wildlife populations, enhance landscape resiliency, and strengthen rural economies.
WLFW
Through Working Lands for Wildlife (WLFW), NRCS works with partners and private landowners to focus voluntary conservation on working landscapes. NRCS provides technical and financial assistance to agricultural producers, helping them plan and implement conservation practices that benefit target species and priority landscapes. Since 2012, NRCS has restored and protected 6.7 million acres of much-needed habitat for a variety of wildlife. These efforts have led to the rebound and recovery of many species, demonstrating the WLFW conservation model works.
Wildland Fire
The Wildland Fire site within the Landscape Partnership portal serves as a clearinghouse to support technical experts as a community of practice, currently focused on the southern states. This site links individuals and diverse groups with the information each maintains on wildland fire on their respective internet sites, and our hope is that we will send more traffic to our partners' sites. Our purpose is to increase connectivity and information sharing within the larger fire community but also between the fire community of practice and other landscape conservation practitioners using the Landscape Conservation Portal. The Wildland Fire site will also support public officials, landowners, and communities needing more information about wildland fire.
SE FireMap
Accurately tracking and understanding wildland fire patterns across the Southeastern U.S. is a critical need identified by a consortium of conservation partners. The SE FireMap is a new product developed in 2020-21 to meet these needs, and funded by the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service's Working Lands for Wildlife program under an agreement with the U.S. Endowment for Forestry and Communities.
Nature and Society
The field of research focused on "Nature and Society" seeks to understand society's attitudes and behaviors as it relates to how we maintain, protect, and enhance natural resources. It does so by applying data and information from social sciences to biological resource issues to explain why people value certain resources and the benefits they receive from those resources.
Energy
The Appalachians have and still are a hotspot for America's energy needs. Forests provided early settlers with a ready supply of wood fuel. As the nation industrialized, the region became the center for coal, oil, and recently natural gas extraction and wind. Though essential for society, the extraction of these resources has altered the Appalachian landscape, impacting biodiversity and natural places that make the Appalachians unique. As wind, natural gas, and oil development expand along with traditional coal, there is an increasing need for research to inform discussions on how to meet immediate and future energy needs while sustaining the health of natural systems.
Ecosystem Benefits & Risks
Understanding the complete and diverse benefits society receives from nature as well as risks to their sustainability will allow managers, industry, and the public to adopt policies that encourage protection and investments in these resources. To meet this need, the FWS collaborated with the Forest Service on cutting edge research that fully integrates society’s value of ecosystems with future threats to better inform natural resource planning and management across the Appalachian landscape. This unique work provides a comprehensive resource to partners at a regional level, serving as a model for the LCC Network to deliver ecosystem services conservation science.
