Salt Creek, Death Valley, California

Registry staff will soon roll out some changes to make it easier to use the Conservation Registry to track climate change adaptation activities. The idea behind climate change adaptation is to start planning now for the unavoidable effects of climate change — the ones that we’re already committed to, despite our best efforts to reduce emissions. In fact we’re already starting to see many of these changes on the ground today, so we know it’s important to make sure the conservation work we do now will still make sense in a rapidly changing climate.

In talking about how to best track adaptation activities, we’ve had to face up to some interesting questions about climate change and conservation: What is climate change adaptation, exactly? How do we know it when we see it? How can we figure out what’s adaptive and what’s not in a world where future conditions are so uncertain? Are all conservation actions climate-adaptive? Are there actions we should take specifically to prepare for and adapt to the consequences of climate change?

We don’t have any pat answers to these questions yet… if you do, please share them in the comments! Perhaps Dr. Lara Hansen has it figured out:

“Today, everything we do, every decision we make, every plan we put into place is either planning for climate change (adaptation) or it’s done without regard for the reality of climate change (maladaptation)… Adaptation is the new lens through which we must view the world and make decisions in it, if we want them to be good, robust decisions.”

What do you think? Can climate change adaptation be found in making sure every decision we make is climate-smart? Or is there something more to it? Comment below.
–Sara O’Brien, Defenders of Wildlife

Bruce Taylor, director of Oregon Habitat Joint Venture, received the 2009 Excellence in Conservation Award from the Natural Resource Conservation Service for his fine work with Defenders of Wildlife, the Oregon Habitat Joint Venture, and many partners. He was honored in a ceremony in the rotunda of the Oregon State Capitol on Monday, November 2, 2009. The NRCS Excellence in Conservation Award is the highest award the agency gives to honor those outside the federal government for their work in conservation. The Conservation Registry is very proud to have Bruce as a partner.

Learn more about the Oregon Habitat Joint Venture. Visit our partner site, Pacific Coast Joint Venture.

We all agree the Registry works great and looks good—but what does it do for conservation? In Notes from the Field, users report connections and opportunities that have occurred because of their Registry participation.

For our first Notes from the Field, here’s Jeffrey Kee, Oregon Water Trust:

“I received a call from the Monument Soil and Water Conservation District manager who told me somebody from NRG, an environmental engineering company located in Minneapolis, Minnesota, had asked about the Bologna Place project. So I called them and they mentioned having a client who had since found what they were looking for, but they wanted to keep my project in their file if they had additional needs in the future. The client may have been looking for some place to mitigate for adverse impacts they were having on a project someplace else…..I was quite pleased that the Conservation Registry had gotten some of the needs I have for conservation at the Bologna Place out there and onto somebody’s radar….I sure would love it if somebody could help me turn our part time steelhead creek into full time rearing habitat with help from the best water engineers with the lowest workers comp insurance rates….beavers.

You can print that.”
– Jeffrey Kee, Project Manager, Oregon Water Trust -a program of The Freshwater Trust

If you have a story about how the Conservation Registry has helped your project, please tell your story by comment on this blog. You can also e-mail me.

Defenders of Wildlife and CleanWater Services teamed up with the northwest and national associations of zoos and aquariums and Three Rivers Land Conservancy to launch the first project of the Marketplace for Nature. The project is Bronson Creek, a charming little forested site with a creek, nestled in between densely developed subdivisions and a large regional park outside of Portland, Oregon. The site is privately owned, but some riparian restoration has been done by Clean Water Services to help reduce water temperature. A conservation easement on the property is held by Three Rivers Land Conservancy. Attendees at the national conference of zoos and aquariums were offered the option of helping to ‘offset” the ecological footprint of the conference by contributing to the restoration of Bronson Creek. The site provides several ecosystem services including carbon sequestration, water quality, and wildlife habitat. Over 20 percent of the registrants contributed, raised about $2300, and offset about 15 percent of the carbon emissions associated with travel to the conference. The Registry will soon have a special Marketplace for Nature portal for projects that have ecosystem service credits for sale. In the meantime, check out the Bronson Creek project. Next year, the zoo and aquarium conference will be in Houston, Texas where sponsors will try to increase the level of participation in the program to outclass Oregon.

Cheers, Sara

The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife–a Registry partner from the beginning–mentions the Registry in their current e-newsletter. Read it here. The mighty Oregon Explorer, home of all things mappable in Oregon, has also picked up this story. Thanks, guys!

While you’re on the ODFW website, check out Bats For Everyone, a bat workshop at the Oregon Zoo on November 3rd. Everyone loves bats–especially this time of year.

How many bat conservation projects are in the Registry? Do a text search and find out. Have a bat project you’d like to report? Enter it in the Conservation Registry.

Gina has a new poll. Vote once, vote often!