Strategic Conservation Assessment of Gulf Coast Landscapes The Development of a Gulf Land Conservation Tool Linda Walker, Senior Advisor for Gulf Restoration Gulf Restoration Program, U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service Peninsular Florida-South Atlantic Joint LCC Steering Committee Mtg. Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida -- June 7, 2016
Gulf Land Conservation: The Past
Gulf Land Conservation: The Present 42 projects to-date totaling over $112 million
BP Global Settlement: April 2016 CWA Civil Penalty $5.5 billion Natural Resource Damages $7.1 billion NRDA Early Restoration $1 billion NRDA Unknown Conditions $700 million NRDA Unpaid Assessment Costs $350 million False Claims Act & Royalties on Oil $82.6 million Response and Other Unpaid Costs $167.4 million State Economic Claims $4.9 billion Local Economic Claims $1.0 billion Previous Criminal Penalties: BP MBTA Settlement NAWCF $100 million BP & Transocean CWA Settlement NAS $500 million BP & Transocean CWA Settlement NFWF $2.54 billion Previous Civil Penalties: Transocean CWA Settlement RESTORE $1.0 billion Anadarko CWA Settlement RESTORE $160 million
RESTORE Act
RESTORE Council https://www.restorethegulf.gov/ The 11-member RESTORE Council is comprised of: Five affected Gulf States, each with one vote Alabama Florida Louisiana Mississippi Texas Six federal agencies, collectively with one vote Department of Agriculture (Chair) Department of the Army Department of Commerce Department of Homeland Security Department of the Interior Environmental Protection Agency
RESTORE Council https://www.restorethegulf.gov/ Restores the Gulf without regard to geographic location Operates under a Comprehensive Plan Funds and implements projects through Council Members Develops Funded Priorities List (FPL)
Strategic Conservation Assessment of Proposal Concept: Gulf Coast Landscapes To provide the framework and the information for the Council to prioritize voluntary land conservation activities across the Gulf. Conservation design for acquisition and easements Build upon existing foundation of conservation planning (SWAPs, MCERT, FL-CLIP, NEP CMPs, etc.) Stakeholder engagement for validation & support
SCA Timeline Initial solicitation of proposals for FPL in August 2014 Up to 5 per Council Member Strategic Land Conservation proposal Submitted to RESTORE Council by DOI in November 2014 FPL finalized in December 2015 60 projects totaling $183 Million dollars Included the Gulf Land Conservation Tool proposal Entering project information into RAAMS (Jan-present) Restoration Assistance and Awards Management System
Why LCCs? Existing Partnership Structure Existing Planning Expertise
SECAS A shared, long-term vision for the future A connected network of landscapes and seascapes Coordinating conservation actions and investments to focus on common goals The Blueprint: making SECAS a reality Stitches together the LCC efforts - shared priorities for conservation and restoration Used by: state and federal agencies, developers, planners, conservation professionals to answer crucial questions
Gulf Coast Region
Project Objectives Develop shared priorities and objectives Develop tools to prioritize existing land conservation projects Develop a spatial data layer to prioritize the entire Gulf Coast Region
Project Deliverables Suite of Decision Support Tools Year 1: Tabular output to rank existing projects (evaluate benefits of individual projects: ecological, economic, social) Year 2: Spatial output to identify projects (prioritize and guide landscape-level conservation investments) Year 3: Advanced modeling for optimization (achieve shared objectives under varying cost/design scenarios over time, and at regional and local scales)
Core Working Group Team that provides broad oversight and general direction for project implementation Technical specifications (scope, scale, resolution, etc.) Logistics (meeting locations, partner invites, etc.) Personnel Composition Council member representatives LCC representatives (science coordinators) Ultimate authority for the project lies with the RESTORE Council and LCC Steering Committees
Methodology Charrette - any collaborative session in which a group of designers drafts a solution to a design problem (Wikipedia) Input and feedback on development of products Collate existing priorities and obectives Compile local knowledge and existing design efforts Evaluate and finalize tools Additional tasks Coordination Facilitation Modeling Database development GIS analysis
Budget Funding request ~$1.87 M over 3 years Capacity: ~$1.22 M Assessment Coordinator Landscape Conservation Design Modeler Geospatial Analyst Outreach and Extension Specialist Administrative Support Travel and support: ~$550 K Includes money for partner travel Indirects (6%): ~$100 K Another benefit of DOI
Funding Vehicle Cooperative Ecosystems Studies Unit (CESU) Mississippi State University and USFWS
Conservation Prioritization Tool Year 1 - Deliverable Form that captures prioritization criteria Tabular Ranks existing projects
Strategic Conservation Assessment Year 2 Deliverable Spatial prioritization of the landscape Catchment or coarser subwatershed scale Decision trees based on prioritization criteria
Zonation/Marxan/Options Outputs Year 3 Deliverable Optimization routines. Further refine priority catchments based on spatial arrangement and sequencing in time
Timeline/Next Steps Assemble Core Working Group (Jun) Council members provide reps by June 24 th June 20 th webinar to provide background on project LCC staff have agreed to participate and help lead Science Coordinators (primary) and Coordinators (secondary) Convene Core Working Group (Jul/Aug) Ad Hoc meeting(s) Contracting and subcontracting (Aug/Sep) Initiate project (Oct 1)
Connections and Expectations Increased coordination with LCC staff to align capacities and conservation design efforts along the Gulf Ex: Charrettes and stakeholder meetings Increased coordination between LCC and RESTORE Council Some overlap in membership, but also some holes Requests for participation by LCC staff on Core Working Group and LCC partners in charrettes
Take Aways Gulf Strategic Land Conservation Assessment proposal is funded by RESTORE Council Identifies partnership with LCCs across the Gulf as key for conducting conservation design Benefit of LCCs to RESTORE Council Brings additional capacity and dollars to accomplish this work and makes LCC work relevant to Gulf conservation decisions Benefit of RESTORE Council to LCCs Partnership and partner involvement in this effort will be key to its success!