Conservation by Design: Promoting Resilient, Sustainable Lands and Waters in the Upper Midwest and Great Lakes

Davis, Mark

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https://hdl.handle.net/2142/106912 Copy

Description

Title

Conservation by Design: Promoting Resilient, Sustainable Lands and Waters in the Upper Midwest and Great Lakes

Author(s)

Davis, Mark

Issue Date

2016-03-17

Keyword(s)

• environmental sustainability
• climate change

Abstract

Mark Davis - Illinois Natural History Survey. The Anthropocene has ushered in an era of unprecedented pressures on natural systems. Balancing the maintenance of critical ecosystem functions and values in working landscapes presents a particular challenge in the upper Midwest and Great Lakes geography. Comprehensive, partnership driven approaches in which collective action can bring about landscape-scale habitat conservation is thus an important goal in heavily impacted landscapes. As a component of Strategic Habitat Planning, Landscape Conservation Design is such an approach and has become the preeminent paradigm for addressing landscape scale conservation issues. The Prairie Research Institute is actively engaged in several landscape designs, each addressing unique challenges and geographies by convening a diverse and collaborative assemblage of state, federal, tribal, and non-governmental organizations. The convened working group then engages in a science-based approach to evaluate every acre of the landscape and identify key locations and creative practices to protect, enhance, and restore resilient, well-connected, and geographically broad ecosystems. The ultimate goal is to promote functions and values essential for water quality, fish and wildlife, and people throughout a given geography. In this seminar, Dr. Davis detailed the process being employed to achieve this objective in several contexts, discussed a preliminary suite of ecological, socioeconomic, and cultural conservation targets, and identified expected products that comprise these Landscape Conservation Designs. Finally, Dr. Davis discussed the overarching objective of these initiatives, which is the effective and efficient leveraging of conservation knowledge, capacities, and resources to achieve and sustain ecosystem functions and values of lands and waters for current and future generations.

Series/Report Name or Number

Sustainable Seminar Series

Type of Resource

• text
• still image

Language

en

Permalink

• https://youtu.be/MLn1glUNixY
• http://hdl.handle.net/2142/106912

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