This webinar originally aired on 14 November, 2019.
In this world of rapid global change, managers often have limited ability to control the ultimate drivers of this change or resist or reverse ecological responses to it. Managers in this ‘brave new world’ face difficult choices as well as important opportunities to influence ecological trajectories at local, regional, and continental scales, as they work along a management spectrum from resisting, to accepting, to actively directing ecological change. Managers need clear concepts and training in navigating ecological transformation (NET) and mechanisms to coordinate transformation management across agencies and management units. The FedNET working group (composed of representatives from federal land management agencies, USGS, and NOAA) is working to help US federal land managers understand, plan for, and respond to ecological transformation to maximize conservation of species, ecosystems, and ecosystem services. The group will develop concepts, frameworks, and training opportunities to help managers navigate the “who, why, where, when, how, and what” of NET and coordinate transformation stewardship across scales. The webinar will: 1) discuss how FedNET is using the decision framework Resist-Accept-Direct (RAD), 2) present related case studies to help federal land managers understand, plan for, and respond to ecological transformation, and 3) facilitate discussion with NOAA colleagues and an Ocean Tipping Points representative on how the RAD framework might be applied to marine fisheries.
Presented by: Gregor Schuurman of the US National Park Service, Wendy Morrison of NOAA, and Carrie Kappel of the University of California Santa Barbara
Co-sponsors: NOAA National MPA Center and OCTO (MPA News, OpenChannels, EBM Tools Network)