Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Units Program: Georgia
Education, Research and Technical Assistance for Managing Our Natural Resources

Georgia Project


Accelerating Conservation of At-Risk Species in the Longleaf System

August 2016 - June 2022


Personnel

Participating Agencies

  • DOI Southeast Climate Science Center
  • USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service
  • Mississippi State University
  • US Fish and Wildlife Service
  • NRCS
  • U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service

The Southeast Region of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is working actively with state wildlife agencies and other partners, through the Southeastern Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies to assess the status of >300 species awaiting reviews for listing decision and to implement conservation for these species on public and private lands. The longleaf pine ecological system supports a number of priority at-risk species, including the gopher tortoise, striped newt, gopher frog, southern hognose snake, and Florida pine snake. Major science needs are to analyze and integrate new information from status surveys for this group of species and to identify those conservation actions to improve the status of these species. By involving partner groups in this work, this project will synthesize data for these priority species and will develop models that predict population viability as a consequence of predicted exogenous threats (e.g., climate change and land use conversion) and conservation actions in space and time to mitigate those threats. These products will be delivered in form that facilitates a future formal decision analysis in which tradeoffs in alternative conservation actions may be explored.

Research Publications Publication Date
Moore, C. T., and J. C. Maerz. 2020. Accelerating conservation of at-risk species in the longleaf system. Final project memorandum to Southeast Climate Adaptation Science Center. | Download August 2020
Crawford, B. A., M. Olds, J. C. Maerz, and C. T. Moore. 2020. Estimating population persistence for at-risk species using citizen science data. Biological Conservation 243:108489. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biocon.2020.108489 | Download March 2020
Crawford, B. A., J. C. Maerz, and C. T. Moore. 2020. Expert-informed habitat suitability analysis for at-risk species assessment and conservation planning. Journal of Fish and Wildlife Management 11:130-150. https://doi.org/10.3996/092019-JFWM-075 | Abstract | Download | Publisher Website June 2020
Presentations Presentation Date
Crawford, B. A., C. T. Moore, J. C. Maerz, D. T. Jones-Farrand, and M. Harris. 2020. Using experts and models to accelerate conservation of at-risk species in the longleaf pine system. Southeast Regional Partnership for Planning and Sustainability Steering Committee Meeting, 4 March 2020, Atlanta, GA. March 2020
Crawford, B. A., C. T. Moore, J. C. Maerz, D. T. Jones-Farrand, and M. Harris. 2019. Using experts and models to accelerate conservation of at-risk species in the longleaf pine system. Southeast Climate Adaptation Science Center Regional Science Symposium, 13-15 November 2019, New Orleans, LA. November 2019