News
Welcome Home, Winged Mapleleaf Mussel
An endangered mussel came home to a Tennessee River last week, a monumental reintroduction effort seven years in the making. On Wednesday, federal and state biologists placed 103 winged mapleleaf mussels in the middle portion of the Duck River. The last time the species was seen in the river was more than two decades ago, when empty shells were collected in 1990 and 1991.
Virginia’s Climate Modeling and Species Vulnerability Assessment
The National Wildlife Federation (NWF) is excited to announce the publication of Virginia’s Climate Modeling and Species Vulnerability Assessment: How Climate Data Can Inform Management and Conservation. This report is the culmination of over 4 years of effort by NWF, Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries (DGIF), Conservation Management Institute, and Kutztown University to downscale climate data for Virginia and use that in a species modeling effort to project how a selections of species (wildlife, fish, and plants) may change their distribution across the landscape based on climate change.
LCC National Council Convening
The U.S. Institute for Environmental Conflict Resolution is currently convening the Landscape Conservation Cooperatives (LCC) National Council, and is currently accepting nominations for one LCC participant on the Council.
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Identifies Critical Habitat for Diamond Darter
The endangered diamond darter, a tiny fish that has faced serious threats to its home, depends on 123 miles of habitat for its survival, the Service today announced. Once found along the southern Appalachians from Ohio to Tennessee, this native darter has been restricted to one stream along the Elk River by years of changes from dams, water quality degradation and other threats.
The Planning for Growth and Open Space Conservation Webinar Series
Planning for Climate Change Adaptation: Considerations for Forests, Wildlife, and Land Use
Partners in Flight Consortium Seeks Solutions to Migratory Bird Declines
Scientists who have spent decades trying to reverse the broad decline of migratory birds in the Americas will converge by the hundreds later this month in Snowbird, Utah, to seek solutions to the threats migratory birds are facing at northern breeding grounds, southern wintering grounds, and numerous migration stopovers.
Position Available - Interdisciplinary (Air and Water Program Manager) Ecologist or Physical Scientist
This is a natural resource management position located in the Natural Resources Branch, Division of Natural and Cultural Resources at Shenandoah National Park. The Air and Water Quality Program Manager engages in the study, inventory, monitoring, restoration, and management of air resources /air quality, associated ecological components such as water quality, fisheries, vegetation and wildlife impacts in addition to associated visibility components, and tropospheric ozone.
Conservation Planning Process
Dr. Robert Baldwin of Clemson University explains in this video the steps involved in the conservation planning process.
USFS Landscape Science Webinar
Mapping tropical forest type, age, disturbance type and vertical structure, and estimating young forest productivity, with Landsat imagery; Eileen Helmer, Research Ecologist, U.S. Forest Service.
New LCC National Network Coordinator Selected
Dr. Elsa Haubold replaces Dr. Doug Austen, who served as national coordinator for 3 years.
Beyond Season's End
A website created for wildlife and fisheries professionals confronting the threat of global climate change.
Native Plants Boost Conservation Benefits, Strengthen Wildlife Populations
Native plants in many parts of the U.S. are struggling because of changes in land use and climate, posing problems for the wildlife species that depend on them for sustenance and sanctuary.
Endangered and Threatened Fishes Return to Home Waters in Tennessee
Five federally endangered and threatened fish species – smoky madtom, yellowfin madtom, duskytail darter, spotfin chub, and boulder darter – have been reintroduced to streams in central Tennessee where they were once found to help speed their recovery.
Appalachian Fire Conference 2013
This conference is designed for anyone with an interest in wildland fire in the Appalachian Region. It promises to be unique in its approach to sharing information. First, it is a conference about wildland fire in the Appalachians that is held in the Appalachians. Second, and equally unique, is that the conference is not a research symposium and it is not a managers meeting; it is both. The objective of the Consortium of Appalachian Fire Managers and Scientists and the Association for Fire Ecology is for fire managers and researchers to learn from each other so they can better understand problems specific to the highly diverse Appalachian Mountains and to work together to solve those problems.
The Planning for Growth and Open Space Conservation Webinar Series
Session #16: Strategic Conservation Planning and Partnerships: This program provides examples of strategic conservation planning by nonprofit groups using a variety of approaches, including partnerships. Resources and publications will be shared by the Land Trust Alliance, The Nature Conservancy, and a case study on Chicago Wilderness.
Service Report: Nation’s Rivers Flow toward Better Habitat, Economies and Public Safety
More than 200 blockages in the nation’s major natural resource “arteries” were removed last year thanks to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s National Fish Passage Program. Working with numerous partners, the program improves fish passage, local economies and public safety by ridding the nation’s rivers of derelict dams that no longer serve a purpose.
Forest Service Awards $44.2M to Conserve At-Risk Forests
Forest Service Chief Tom Tidwell announced the award of $44.2 million in grants to permanently protect 16 working forests in 15 states, including a project that will protect 8,000 acres of working forestland in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina and another project to protect 1,100-acres located in Franklin County, PA and containing a stretch of the Appalachian National Scenic Trail.
USDA, Interior and Defense departments partner to benefit agricultural lands, wildlife habitat and military readiness
Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, Interior Secretary Sally Jewell and Defense Acting Deputy Under Secretary for Installations and Environment John Conger announced today a federal, local and private collaboration that will preserve agricultural lands, assist with military readiness and restore and protect wildlife habitat.
TWRA Announces Awarding of Grants for 2013-14 Stream Clean-up Projects
The Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency (TWRA) has announced the awarding of grant dollars to assist cities, schools, community organizations, civic groups, watershed organizations, and conservation groups, etc., with stream clean-up projects for the fiscal year 2013-14.
ARRI Mined Land Restoration Conference
The Conference will highlight reforestation efforts in the Appalachian Region and give recent findings and practice on improving reforestation success.
