USFWS (United States Fish and Wildlife Service) is accepting public comments through November 23, 2009, on its proposed Strategic Plan for Climate Change and accompanying 5-Year Action Plan. Both Plans are part of the Department of the Interior’s commitment to organizing a Department-wide effort to protect the country’s water, land, fish and wildlife against the effects of global warming. The Service developed the Plans to provide the basic framework for and specific details of its overall strategy for working with others to “ensure the sustainability of fish, wildlife and habitats in the face of climate change.” The Strategic Plan lays out the Service’s general climate change goals whereas the Action Plan identifies specific actions the Service will take to accomplish those goals.
Goals include building strategic partnerships in public and private sector, and include engaging private citizens to monitor and seek solutions for the impact of climate change impacting fish and wildlife. Click the link here for complete information to read “Rising to the Challenge” and the related 5-year Action Plan, then submit your comments. Or copy and paste the full URL into your browser window: http://www.fws.gov/home/climatechange/strategic_plan.html . Click here for the online response form, URL: http://www.fws.gov/home/climatechange/onlineresponseCC.cfm
THe USFWS also restores coastal habitat using Recovery Act Funds. Coastal areas are vitally important to fish and wildlife. Coastal areas support 40 percent of national wildlife refuges, 40 percent of federally listed species (including 75 percent of the listed mammals and birds), 50 percent of the Service’s fisheries activities, 25 percent of the nation’s wetlands and at least 30 percent of North American wintering waterfowl. It is one of the Service’s most popular and effective programs for voluntary, community-based fish and wildlife conservation. The Coastal Program focuses on watershed-scale, long-term collaborative resource planning and on-the-ground projects in high-priority coastal areas.To read more about the Service and grant opportunities, click here, or copy and paste this URL into your browser address bar: http://www.fws.gov/coastal/
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