Climate Change Talking Points: Prairie Potholes and Grasslands
Understanding the Science of Climate Change Talking Points: Impacts to Prairie Potholes and Grasslands is a USDOI Natural Resource Report that is intended to provide park and refuge area managers and staff with accessible, up-to date information about climate change and climate change impacts to the resources they protect.
Designated Areas
Types of designated areas vary vastly, however, the recognition of these lands is created through common processes for similar purposes. Federally, the Bureau of Land Management’s National Conservation Lands, also known as the National Landscape Conservation System, includes over 870 recognized areas spanning approximately 30 million acres of public lands.
Designated Lands – Management Summary, Laws, and Regulations
Designated Lands – Management Summary, Laws, and Regulations highlights key federal land designations, managing agencies, and relevant legislation, regulations, and policies.
Go Zero – The Conservation Fund’s Reforestation Program
The Conservation Fund’s forest carbon offset projects are developed with careful consideration of climate and community benefits. The Fund’s carbon program supports both conservation-based forest management and forest restoration projects in some of America’s favorite places.
Management of Designated Areas
Although designations vary, federally designated areas unique for their special characteristics and the opportunities they offer. “National Conservation Lands” include Wilderness and Wild and Scenic Rivers, as well National Historic Landmarks, National Volcanic Monuments, National Historic Scenic Areas, National Recreation Areas, Scenic Recreation Areas, National Scenic Areas, National Preserves, and National Monuments.
Planning for Marsh Migration at the Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge
Blackwater 2100 is a collaborative strategic conservation plan that aims to address salt marsh loss and migration in Maryland’s Chesapeake Bay.
The Elkhorn Slough Foundation – Clearing the Floodplain, Adapting to Change
The ESF has been responding to potential climate change impacts by working cooperatively to study and address salt marsh loss. In addition to working with agencies and regional research facilities, ESF conservation projects such as constructing water control structures to adapt to rising sea levels and acquisition and management efforts to “clear the floodplain” address climate change challenges by allowing for migration of tidal marshes and building ecological resilience.
Watch Hill Conservancy – Building Knowledge to Respond to Change
In Rhode Island, the Watch Hill Conservancy (the Conservancy or WHC) works to preserve, conserve, maintain, and enhance the scenic, open space and historical values and the character of the area. In addition to promoting preservation, the Conservancy runs educational programs and works to acquire and preserve interests in real property in order to support the continued vitality and sustainability of the community. WHC partners with the Watch Hill Fire District to protect and manage the Napatree Point Conservation Area, a dynamic peninsula system that includes diverse ecosystem types and offers a variety of educational and recreational opportunities to people in this region.
What’s a National Park to do About Climate Change?
The United States has more than 400 parks, preserves, monuments, historic sites and other designated units in its national park system. The vast majority of these parks have experienced temperatures in the last 30 years at the extreme warm end of their natural variation. Rising temperatures and changing patterns of precipitation and storm activity are driving iconic plants and animals out of areas where they have lived for centuries or longer. Increasingly battered by heat, drought and flood, U.S. national parks are responding with a combination of stubborn resistance, creative accommodation and resigned acceptance.
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