AppLCC Conservation Framework

The key elements of a conservation framework are similar: research, planning, design, delivery, monitoring, and evaluation.

Biological Planning, which prioritizes resources, determines population objectives, identifies threats, and uses models to describe the relationship between populations and habitats.

The Appalachian LCC is currently funding a Data Needs Assessment to identify, analyze, and integrate available datasets and approaches into landscape conservation planning. While a Climate Change Vulnerability Assessment is compiling assessments and other relevant information to identify habitats and species most vulnerable to climate change. An expert panel will then recommend the most effective and appropriate methods for adoption throughout the Appalachians to help land managers decide on where to target scarce resources to allow vulnerable species and habitats to adapt to climate change. View a searchable database of the Appalachian LCC Funded Research and research conducted by partners that is enhancing biological planning in the region.

Conservation Design focuses on the creation of products and tools necessary for on-the-ground actions that sustain and enhance natural resources.

The Appalachian LCC and partners use the results of biological planning to develop maps and decision support tools that inform practitioners about the quality, quantity, and configuration of habitat needed to protect biological diversity and other valued resources. Examples of our work include a Riparian Restoration Decision Support Tool, which allows managers and decision-makers to rapidly identify and prioritize areas along the banks of rivers, streams, and lakes for restoration, making these ecosystems more resilient to disturbance and future changes in climate. Also, a GIS & Conservation Planning Tool is disseminating conservation literature, products, and other resources to help guide land managers with on-the-ground conservation action throughout the region.

Conservation Delivery implements targeted actions through programs and partnerships, guided by tools developed through conservation design to achieve specific biological results.

The scientific and conservation community uses research supported by the Appalachian LCC for delivering on-the-ground conservation activities such as restoring streams for Brook Trout and managing forests to create greater habitat for threatened bird species. View a searchable database of our Partner’s Conservation Delivery Projects that are creating a sustainable landscape for wildlife and people.

Outcome-based Monitoring collects the data and information necessary to evaluate the effectiveness of conservation delivery actions towards reaching biological outcomes. Monitoring also provides essential feedback to enhance and strengthen future planning and delivery.

The Appalachian LCC is facilitating efforts to address long-term, regional monitoring approaches and identify the needs that will lead to more effective and standardized monitoring protocols across a regional scale.

Finally, Assumption-driven Research tests ideas and strategies developed during biological planning and conservation design that had the greatest impact on management decisions in order to incorporate into future planning.

Through funded research, the Appalachian LCC will continue to fill in knowledge gaps, monitor emerging trends, and adapt to existing efforts. Each year a “Science Needs Portfolio” is updated to reflect the top science needs and recommendations of the conservation community that will guide landscape planning priorities and decisions.

The following resources provide related information on the Strategic Habitat Conservation (SHC) Framework:

Achieving Our Conservation Vision Using Strategic Habitat Conservation

The challenges facing conservation requires us to think about and do conservation differently. Unless we adopt a strategic approach to conservation, species and the habitats on which they depend will continue to be lost, regardless of the hard work and good intentions of dedicated professionals. Recognizing this fact, the Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) leadership adopted Strategic Habitat Conservation – a landscape-scale, collaboratively oriented framework –a decade ago.

Conservation in Transition: Leading Change in the 21st Century

In the following pages, we present a future vision that is mindful of the past. We examine the forces and trends that even now are shaping 21st century conservation in ways very different from that of the previous century. We continue with a broad analysis of the implications to the future Service and the growing realization that the change before us is, in many respects, change without precedent. We conclude with an assessment of the transformational change that will be needed by the Service — change already underway — to go beyond the successes of our past to new vistas of opportunity that lie ahead.

Crosswalk of AppLCC Work Plan with Conservation Planning Frameworks

Crosswalk Presentation of the Appalachian LCC 5-Year Work Plan aligned with other Nationally Recognized Conservation Planning Frameworks. The tasks outlined in the 5-Year Work Plan align with both the FWS Strategic Habitat Conservation framework and the Northeast Regional Conservation framework.

Fish and Wildlife News SHC Issue

In this special edition of Fish & Wildlife News, read how the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is putting Strategic Habitat Conservation (SHC) into practice. To ensure a bright future for fish and wildlife in the face of such widespread threats as drought, climate change and large-scale habitat fragmentation, the Service first endorsed SHC as the Service’s conservation approach in 2006. SHC relies on an adaptive management framework to inform decisions about where and how to deliver conservation efficiently with partners to achieve predicted biological outcomes.

Peer Review of Technical Guidance on Selecting Species for Landscape Scale Conservation

In 2012, the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service (Service) committed to using Strategic Habitat Conservation (SHC) as an approach to address the challenges of the 21st century. As part of implementing that commitment, the Service distributed a version of the draft Technical Guidance on Selecting Species for Design of Landscape Scale Conservation (Technical Guidance) as a practical step in the biological planning component of the SHC approach. Five external peer reviewers have completed a formal, independent, external scientific peer review of the latest draft Technical Guidance. The panel was tasked specifically to review the scientific information in the Technical Guidance and its practical application to conservation management.

SHC Framework & Basic Elements

This slide details biological planning, conservation design, conservation delivery, and monitoring elements of SHC.

Strategic Habitat Conservation - Final Report of the National Ecological Assessment Team

\We envision the FWS working collaboratively with partners to develop and implement a landscape approach to habitat conservation, leading to what we term strategic habitat conservation. Success will depend on how quickly and effectively our organizational approach evolves, including steps to better communicate with and work alongside our partners.

Strategic Habitat Conservation Handbook

A Guide to Implementing the Technical Elements of Strategic Habitat Conservation. Although the urgency is real, building capacity for SHC will be an organizational evolution, not an overnight change. Institutionalizing the SHC framework is a marathon and this document is intended to chart the course and set a purposeful and competitive pace.