The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, along with the global conservation community, has recognized that the conservation challenges of the 21st century far exceed the responsibilities and footprint of any individual agency or program. The ecological effects of climate change and other anthropogenic stressors do not recognize geopolitical boundaries and, as such, demand a national geographic framework to provide structure for cross-jurisdictional and landscape-scale conservation strategies. In 2009, a new map of ecologically based conservation regions in which to organize capacity and implement strategic habitat conservation was developed using rapid prototyping and expert elicitation by an interagency team of U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and U.S. Geological Survey scientists and conservation professionals. Incorporating Bird Conservation Regions, Freshwater Ecoregions, and U.S. Geological Survey hydrologic unit codes, the new geographic framework provides a spatial template for building conservation capacity and focusing biological planning and conservation design efforts. The Department of Interior's Landscape Conservation Cooperatives are being organized in these new conservation regions as multi-stakeholder collaborations for improved conservation science and management.
National_Fish_Habitat_Action_Plan
National Fish Habitat Action Plan. 2006. http://fishhabitat.org/documents/plan/National_Fish_Habitat_Action_Plan.pdf
NEAT_FinalRpt
National Ecological Assessment Team. 2006. Strategic Habitat Conservation. Final Report of the National Ecological Assessment Team. United States Geological Survey and the United States Fish and Wildlife Service report. http://training.fws.gov/CSP/Resources/SHC/shc_finalrpt.pdf
NAWMP ImplementationFramework 2004
North American Waterfowl Management Plan, Plan Committee. 2004. North American Waterfowl Management Plan 2004. Implementation Framework: Strengthening the Biological Foundation. Canadian Wildlife Service, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Secretaria de Medio Ambiente y Recursos Naturales, 106 pp. http://www.fws.gov/birdhabitat/NAWMP/files/ImplementationFramework.pdf
FWS memo on LCC boundary change guidance (Final)
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. 2006. Landscape Conservation Cooperatives. Operational Memo for Addressing Requests for Consideration of LCC Geographic Boundary Changes. Office of the Science Advisor, Dec. 2011.
Conservation_in_transition
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. 2009. Conservation in transition: leading change in the 21st century. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. 13 pp. Available from: http://library.fws.gov/SHC/Conservation_in_transition.pdf
NABCI BCR map
map of NABCI Bird Conservation Regions
Adaptive Mgt TechGuide
Williams, B. K., R. C. Szaro, and C. D. Shapiro. 2007. Adaptive Management: The U. S. Department of the Interior Technical guide. Adaptive management Working Group, U.S. Department of the Interior, Washington, DC.
NABCI BCR descriptions
U.S. North American Bird Conservation Initiative Committee. 2000. North American Bird Conservation Initiative (NABCI) Bird Conservation Region Descriptions: A Supplement to the North American Bird Conservation Initiative Bird Conservation Regions Map. U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, Migratory Birds, Arlington VA USA. http://www.nabci-us.org/aboutnabci/bcrdescrip.pdf .
Directorate geo framework report 6-12 Woods and Morey
Woods, T, and S. Morey. 2009. Methods and Results of Structured Decision Making Process for Selecting a Geographic Framework for Implementing Strategic Habitat Conservation. Final Report. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Office of the Science Advisor, Arlington VA. 15 pp.
FWS_LCC
Zip file of the GIS layers for the current National Geographic Framework