Welcome to the interactive web schedule for the 2017 SEAFWA Conference! For tips on how to navigate this site, visit the "Helpful Info" section. To return to the SEAFWA website, go to: www.seafwa.org/conference/overview
Note: Session titles beginning with an asterisk (*) have student presenters.
AUTHORS: Gwen White, Tallgrass Prairie Landscape Conservation Cooperative; James Farmer, Indiana University
ABSTRACT: U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service policy directs National Wildlife Refuges (NWR) to plan for the future within a stakeholder-driven landscape-scale context. As a result, stakeholders from 19 organizations and agencies convened to draft a consensus-based strategic framework for the Lower Wabash Floodplains and Patoka River NWR as a downscaled application of the multi-LCC Mississippi Basin / Gulf Hypoxia Initiative - Precision Conservation Blueprint v1.5 to achieve local and mid-continent goals for wildlife, water quality, energy and agriculture. In May 2017, Indiana University announced $55 million to develop actionable solutions that prepare Indiana communities for environmental change. The Lower Wabash is one of three distinct communities selected as “living laboratories” to test policies and tools that promote conservation of resources while reducing agricultural risk. Over the next five years, 16 new faculty and their students will develop, test and deploy key needs, including: 1) an inventory of baseline social and environmental factors; 2) feasible approaches to reducing non-point source pollution while improving wildlife habitats that could be implemented in short- to medium-term time frames; and 3) adaptive management for long-term, effective nutrient reduction, habitat improvements, and public engagement. Human dimensions research will be a cornerstone for understanding barriers to resilience and implementing effective tools as communities adapt to changing climates, economies and cultures. With community-based readiness and understanding as core goals, the initiative will explore new strategies for communicating findings and recommendations in ways that are clear, precise and understandable as a model for stakeholder-driven agricultural conservation across the Midwest.
Monday October 30, 2017 3:20pm - 3:40pm EDT
Breathitt