Evaluating the Potential of the Conservation Reserve Program to Offset Projected Impacts of Climate-Change on the Lesser Prairie-Chicken (Tympanuchus pallidicinctus). A Conservation Effects Assessment Project

摘要

In 2003, a multi-agency effort initiated the Conservation Effects Assessment Project (CEAP) to quantify environmental benefits of U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) conservation programs such as the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP), Wetlands Reserve Program (WRP), and Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP). This project is part of the Wildlife Component of CEAP which was created to quantify effects of conservation programs and practices on fish and wildlife in agricultural landscapes. The Playa Lakes Joint Venture (PLJV), in collaboration with The Nature Conservancy (TNC), designed this CEAP project to assess the ability of the CRP to offset potential negative impacts of climate change on the Lesser Prairie-Chicken (LEPC; Tympanuchus pallidicinctus), a bird species of high conservation concern. This project uses state-ofthe- art climate change and dynamic vegetation models to project climate-induced changes in vegetation communities in the PLJV region over the next 60 years, estimate potential impacts on the LEPC, and examine the ability of future CRP enrollment scenarios to offset such impacts. This assessment follows two previous CEAP assessments by the PLJV which examined the effects of CRP on priority birds in the short- and central mixed-grass prairie (BCRs 18 & 19, respectively).