Application of National Park Service policies to managing for wildlife range and distribution shifts in response to a changing climate: A thought exercise focused on a low-mobility listed species, the desert tortoise (Gopherus agassizii)

Résumé fourni par la source

As the effects of climate change accelerate, natural resource managers are reconsidering traditional conservation practices that aimed to maintain ecosystems within historical ranges of variability. To identify where further guidance or policy elaboration may be warranted, this thought exercise examines existing National Park Service (NPS) policies with respect to managing climate change impacts on wildlife. Species range and distribution shifts are of great interest to parks. To focus the exercise, we selected the Mojave population of desert tortoise (Gopherus agassizii) at Lake Mead National Recreation Area (NRA) as an example because it requires analysis of numerous legal and policy elements. We considered an overall goal to retain long-term, self-sustaining desert tortoise populations within the greater Lake Mead NRA ecoregion, specifically focusing on the NPS contribution to the survival of desert tortoises both on and off NPS lands. We conducted three analyses. We first identified biological, legal, and policy issues that could affect tortoise recovery under climate change, as well as associated tactics and actions. Next, we examined those tactics against potential climate change adaptation strategies, modifying the resist–accept–direct (RAD) framework to include two strategies that accept the effects of climate change: Non-Intervention and Accommodate Change. Finally, we assessed the adaptation strategies and associated tactics against NPS policies, identifying needs for further policy elaboration and clarification. Non-intervention is supported only in limited cases, whereas Accommodate Change is consistent with NPS policies but may not succeed in a time of rapid climate change. A Resist Change strategy would be favored where the desert tortoise’s current niche is likely to persist. Implementing the Direct Change strategy would most likely be considered in areas where range and distribution shifts have occurred or are likely to occur. However, this strategy also raises the most policy questions—including how key concepts that form the foundation of NPS policies (e.g., “native” and “natural”) should be understood in the context of climate change. Answering many of these questions involves value judgments, especially those related to how the NPS should think about managing for novel future conditions and whether laws and policies need to be clarified, modified, replaced, or created anew. Successful adaptation to climate change and other large-scale landscape transformations will require the NPS to engage with key partners, scientists and other scholars, and policymakers both within and outside of the NPS in coordinated, collaborative decision making.

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