Abstract

The State Wildlife Action Plans (SWAPs) are proactive planning documents, known as “comprehensive wildlife conservation strategies,” that assess the health of each state’s wildlife and habitats, identify current management and conservation challenges, and outline needed actions to conserve natural resources over the long term. 

SWAPs are revised every 10 years, with the last revision in 2015 and the next revision anticipated in 2025. State managers have a long history of managing for threats such as land-use change, pollution, and harvest. However, they have expressed a lack of expertise and capacity to keep pace with the rapid advances in climate science and noted that much of the information available is not scaled to meet their needs; thus making the prospect of integrating climate information into SWAPs a daunting task.

This report, led by the Northeast Climate Adaptation Science Center (NE CASC), directly addresses SWAP climate science data needs through a Northeast regional synthesis across four key areas of climate science:

1. Observed and projected climate changes
2. Species responses to climate change
3. Climate vulnerabilities and risks
4. Scale-specific adaptation strategies and actions

In addition, case studies of climate adaptation efforts and climate threat-to-action narratives provide illustrative examples of how climate change frameworks and tools are being operationalized in decision-making processes related to Regional Species of Greatest Conservation Need (RSGCN) and their habitats across the region. Lists of recent climate resources were also synthesized into extensive data tables to provide SWAP writing teams with a comprehensive platform of information to support content development.

The current synthesis builds on a similar effort that was delivered in 2015 and nearly a decade of work since, as developed by numerous partners and collaborative networks across the region. This report is distinct compared to other climate assessments in that it provides information that has been scaled specifically to the 13 state footprint of the NEAFWA region, and focused on addressing the unique threats to 418 Northeast RSGCN. The content in this report is intended to assist states to explicitly and deliberately speak to the climate risks and adaptation options when developing SWAP actions.