Approach

Purpose

The Green River Landscape Conservation Design (GRB LCD) is an effort to identify spatially-explicit conservation opportunities for the Green River Basin ecosystems via a collaborative process.

Our Vision

The process and outcomes of the LCD contribute to healthier landscapes in the Green River Basin by:

    • Developing landscape-scale maps of areas that are in most need of conservation and developing data-based products that identify opportunities to conduct on-the-ground conservation work;

    • Creating an effective forum to address landscape issues and share existing information;

    • Contributing new information and understanding of this landscape through credible, relevant data that compliments existing work;

    • Developing documents and data for use in future conservation planning and decision making;

    • Building relationships through an engaged process that proceeds in an inclusive, fair manner; and

    • Establishing new connections between partners, new funding opportunities, leveraging of existing resources and ultimately, more conservation action in the basin.

How We Work

The Southern Rockies and Great Northern LCCs, and Conservation Science Partners are advised through monthly meetings of the Oversight Team (OT). The OT includes representatives of many jurisdictions throughout the Green River Basin. Current OT members are:

    • Caleb Hiner (BLM)

    • Stephanie Anderson (BLM)

    • Bruce Rittenhouse (BLM)

    • Tom Adamson (BLM)

    • Heather Patno (USBOR)

    • Mark Holden (USBOR)

    • Craig McLaughlin (Colorado)

    • Natalie Little (USFS)

    • Greg Watson (USFWS)

    • Mike Blenden (USFWS)

    • Rox Rogers (USFWS)

    • Tom Chart (USFWS)

    • Melissa Trammell (NPS)

    • Pam Benjamin (NPS)

    • Zach Bowen (USGS)

    • Carmen Bailey (Utah)

    • Frank Howe (Utah)

    • Henry Maddux (Utah)

In 2015, the LCCs and the OT selected Conservation Science Partners (CSP) to conduct collaborative planning and spatial analysis in support of the GRB LCD. The Green River Basin is home to many stakeholders, organizations, and interested parties. Through workshops and technical meetings, we hope to engage all who are interested in participating and contributing to this project.

A needs assessment was conducted in the fall of 2015. The purpose was to build relationships with key stakeholders, inform stakeholders of the existence and purpose of the LCD, explore the relevance of the LCD to stakeholder’s management work, and identify the management questions and data needs stakeholders feel should drive the GRB LCD. Following the assessment, CSP provided recommendations to the OT and began conducting the LCD through the process described below.

The LCD Process

Managers must address diverse challenges across in the basin, and work at many different scales. But there are common issues of concern, and a common interest in building a landscape context for the work that is being done. Based on interviews with the OT and key stakeholders, CSP recommended moving forward with the LCD by assessing vulnerability of ecosystems and landscapes, and identifying conservation opportunities. Managers are particularly interested in the vulnerability of sage steppe systems and riparian/riverine systems to the stressors of energy development, invasive plant species, and climate change.

Because many jurisdictions across the basin have gone through their own organizational prioritization processes, the LCD must go beyond generating just “another set of priorities.” Instead, CSP recommended focusing on identifying areas of opportunity on the landscape. These are vulnerable areas where targeted conservation is likely to have high returns, and where there is high potential for work to go forward given existing organizational priorities, the range of management actions possible, and other relevant factors. This approach will allow organizations to see what is being done across diverse organizations and priorities, what can be done in the future, and to look for opportunities at the landscape scale that complement existing projects or represent new chances for partnerships and funding to be harnessed towards coordinated action.

Figure 2: Collaborative process for the GRB LCD

Vulnerability of ecosystems and species to existing and emerging stressors is a concern for many land management organizations in the basin. The GRB LCD uses a vulnerability and adaptation framework to analyze the current and future impact of stressors on conservation targets. Collaborative planning will happen at key junctures during the vulnerability and adaptation planning, as demonstrated in the figure below.

Figure 1: Conceptual approach to spatially identifying opportunity areas

In order for products to of the LCD to be useful and used, individuals from a diverse group of organizations, and at all levels of organizations, must be aware and engaged. Stakeholders have data and knowledge to share, and opinions on what information is relevant to their management issues. While many collaborative are active in the basin, many acknowledge an opportunity to share more across partnerships and groups. The approach for the GRB LCD process was designed with this in mind; the process is meant to maximize the utility of project outcomes by engaging relevant participants along the way.

Figure 3: Vulnerability and adaptation framework with stakeholder participation at key junctures. Framework adapted from Stein et al. (2014).