Nature astounds and inspires us with its diversity of oceans and wetlands, forests and grasslands.
These special places play a vital role in the production of the planet's oxygen, drinking
water, and rainfall.
They also produce a rich abundance of fish, wildlife, and plant species, and sustain our
lives and nurture our spirits.
Our nation's culture, health, and economic well-being are tied to this interconnected
web of life.
But accelerated global climate change is changing the natural world as we know it.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service conserves our nation's heritage of wild things and wild
places.
This task is made more difficult by challenges such as habitat destruction, fragmentation,
invasive species, and water scarcity.
Now, worldwide scientific consensus tells us that human activity is changing the climate
system itself.
As climate changes, the abundance and distribution of wildlife and fish will also change.
Some species will adapt successfully to an abruptly warming world, many will struggle,
and others will disappear.
Endangered and threatened species now living at the limits of survival are vulnerable.
As are those living within confined geographic ranges with limited abilities to move rapidly
in response to changing climate.
Barriers to migration, increased competition for habitat, and the lack of suitable or available
food could make things difficult for species moving to new locations.
"In the Florida Keys we have more than 20 federally listed threatened and endangered
species from the Shoust's Swallowtail Butterfly to a number of plant species, up to the more
well-known Key deer and all of these species are for the most part restricted to here being
here in the Florida Keys.
So as we lose habitat, we may literally lose species that are found nowhere else."
In addition to terrestrial species, aquatic resources are declining at alarming rates
due to habitat loss, contaminants, invasive species, overexploitation, and most recently,
diseases; stresses that are exacerbated by climate change.
Increasing human population will intensify the competing needs of cities, agricultural
areas, and wildlife.
In a changing climate, effective management of vital natural resources such as clean water
will be of even greater importance in the sustaining habitats that support plants, animals,
and people.
"Our freshwater species are disproportionately in peril as compared to other plants and animal
species in the U.S.. Of about 880 freshwater fish species, 37% are in need of conservation
action.
70% of our freshwater mussel species are seriously imperiled and many are already listed as threatened
or endangered.
Climate change is likely to impact fish habitats.
As fish habitats decline, so do the numerous values they provide for natural resources,
human health, and a sound economy.
Recreational fisheries help generate hundreds of millions of dollars in local economies
throughout this country.
If climate change diminishes the quality and quantity of our aquatic habitats that will
have a profound impact on these special places and the people and wildlife that depend on
them."
As the nation's principal federal conservation agency, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
is dedicated to helping species adapt to a rapidly warming climate.
Our 8,000 employees specialize in wildlife management and ecosystem dynamics and have
an extensive network of partners who work alongside us to protect our nation's fish
and wildlife.
Dealing with climate change is not a solitary endeavor.
Close collaboration with partners is critical to this process.
It requires a landscape conservation approach emphasizing large areas with interconnected
and ecologically functional habitats capable of sustaining many species.
"The service and the public are going to have to help plants and animals move across the
landscape to keep pace with climate change.
In many cases this means establishing or maintaining a corridor of habitat across the landscape
in the direction that the plants and animals are going to be moving in order for them to
have a place to go.
In many cases we've actually severed these connections with roads, development which
these plants and animals can't cross, so where these corridors still exist and are intact
we want to try to maintain them.
And where they've been severed, we want to try to reconnect them."
One expected effect of climate change is sea level rise.
At Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge in Maryland, resource managers are monitoring
climate change impacts using a special climate model that measures the effects of sea level
rise on marshes.
"The loss of 8,000 acres of brackish marsh habitat has a significant impact on what's
going on out here.
These marshes are important to more than just wildlife.
These marshes are critical to not only the local economy, because these marshes support
the local fin and shellfish industries, they're important to the health of the Bay, they also
provide wildlife viewing opportunities for ecotourism as well as help to buffer storm
effects to the local community.
We will continue to lose marsh habitat as a result of sea level rise as well.
The model will help us to identify those places where we will be able to maintain marshes
in the long run and help plan future management activities."
Climate modeling is also being used in the Florida Keys National Wildlife Refuge Complex
where wildlife viewing is a major tourism activity.
"Our highest priorities right now for assessing and adapting to the impacts of climate change
would be to take some of the large and complicated scientific models that tend to be global and
regional in scale, and bring them down to the local level so that we can better predict
what the impacts might be, the time frame in which we can expect those impacts, and
what types of strategies we should implement in order to prepare for the changes that we
might see."
The impacts of climate change reach far beyond coastal areas.
From melting sea ice in the arctic, to water scarcity in the southwest.
In the upper Midwest, thousands of shallow wetlands known as prairie potholes are remnants
of retreating glaciers from the last major ice age.
Thousands of waterfowl and other grassland birds rely upon these lands and waters to
continue self-sustaining populations.
The area is home to more than 50% of North American migratory waterfowl with many species
dependent on the potholes for breeding and feeding, and thousands of duck hunters and
communities rely upon the seasonal activity of waterfowl hunting.
As the climate warms, farmers in the region will be able to plants crops farther north,
converting native prairie and wetlands to agricultural fields.
The conversion of virgin prairie where cattle graze, to planting of row crops will mean
more carbon in the atmosphere and loss of wetlands for waterfowl breeding.
"If we see a continued conversion of the grassland, loss of the wetlands there's going to be a
reduction in the migratory bird production on our North American continent.
And that's going to have a huge impact on those that are interested in hunting or those
that are interested in bird watching.
There's a tremendous industry associated with tourism and visitation to refuges and other
wildlife areas and the interest obviously is going to go down if there isn't the production
there, if there isn't the number of birds there that people are going to be able to
enjoy."
Understanding the impacts of climate change on wildlife is critical to developing an effective
course of action.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the U.S. Geological Survey along with key conservation
partners have held regional forums to collect information for a variety of landscapes and
inform the service's strategic action plans for climate change.
The plan provides flexibility for managers to be responsive to evolving science and technology.
It also calls for training our workforce in the basics of climate change science and adaptive
landscape conservation approaches that will help us succeed in the face of a changing
and uncertain future.
"If we're going to be successful in conserving the nature of America, then we simply have
to understand the causes and the effects of a changing climate system and what that means
for fish and wildlife populations.
The service has a good beginning with our drafts for teaching and action plans.
But we need to recognize that we can't address something as large and encompassing as climate
change from within the footprint of our own organization.
So we are really dependent on building relationships with partners as we try to address this challenge.
Much like we do in conservation day-to-day but on an even larger scale.
We need to look for new partnerships with the scientific community and with the conservation
community, we need to look for new ways to speak to the public and inform the public
about what we're doing and why, and why responding to the changing climate is an important aspect
of wildlife conservation."
America has faced adversity in the past, from the severe droughts of the 1930's to the environmental
effects of chemical pesticides, to the ongoing challenges of recovering threatened and endangered
species.
The warming of the earth could potentially have more far-reaching impacts on wildlife
and wildlife habitat than any challenge that has come before.
This is why the women and men of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service have chosen a career
of public service.
To deal with issues of consequence and make a difference for our nation.
Together with our partners, we will face the challenges of our time and change the future
for the better.
"Our mission is not only protecting the wildlife and their habitats for present generations,
but for future generations and that's really what I feel that I have a responsibility and
a stewardship is for looking out for the future.
It would be easy for me to put on the blinders and think I'll be here for the next 5 or 10
years and that's what I'm going to focus on, but it's difficult for me to do that when
I read about climate change and I have concerns about these species and what kind of a legacy
can we leave for our children and our grandchildren.
So I think it's really important for us to be addressing these issues."