1. Rapid Ecoregional Assessment

2. Unprecedented and widespread environmental and
human influences are shaping ecological conditions
across public lands.
Rapid Ecoregional Assessment
The Issue……..

3. Wildfire
Weeds and insect infestations
Energy development
Urban growth
Climate change
Rapid Ecoregional Assessment
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4. Rapid Ecoregional Assessment

5. Rapid Ecoregional Assessment

6. Rapid Ecoregional Assessment
In 2010 BLM initiated a number of REAs
to improve the understanding of the
existing condition of these
landscapes, and how conditions may be
altered by ongoing environmental
changes and land use demands.

7. • determine ecological values, conditions, and trends
within large, regionally connected areas that have
similar environmental characteristics
• “all” lands but “regional” resources
• “rapid” because:
• they synthesize existing information, rather than conduct research or
collect new data
• completed within 18-24 months
Rapid Ecoregional Assessment
What is an Rapid Ecoregional
Assessment?

8. Rapid Ecoregional
Assessments
Monitoring for
Adaptive
Management
Science
Integration
Field Implementation
Ecoregional
Direction
Rapid Ecoregional Assessment
Landscape Approach for managing public lands

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Help managers address problems.
Provide information that will be integrated into future
management action.
Improve understanding for the conditions of the resources within
the ecoregion.
Provides solutions to management questions.
Aid in identifying regional priority areas for conservation of native
plant, wildlife, and fish communities and other ecosystem
resources.
Establish baseline information for long-term monitoring of regional
ecological components.
Aid in identifying areas within the ecoregions where development
activities may be directed to minimize effects upon important
native plant and animal communities and other ecosystem
resources or services,
Rapid Ecoregional Assessment
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10. Management Questions (MQs)
Conservation Elements (CEs)
Change Agents (CAs)
Rapid Ecoregional Assessment
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11. • Identify “regional” issues faced by land and other
resource managers.
• Provide a clear direction; they help focus the work
effort to the problems at hand.
• Help identify data needs and provide context to
issues; there is no reason to collect non-relevant
data.
Rapid Ecoregional Assessment
1) Management Questions:
Ecoregional assessments are driven and guided
by management questions (MQs), which:

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1. Which species makes up the largest share of
subsistence harvests?
2. What is the socio economic profile for each
community within the ecoregion?
3. Where are current and planed oil/gas
activities and where do they overlap with CEs?
4. What habitats support terrestrial species of
concern?
5. What suitable habitat for caribou would be
available with climate change?
6. Where do CAs and CEs overlap?
Rapid Ecoregional Assessment
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13. • Existing vegetation communities.
• Current occupied habitats for identified species.
• Areas that are comparatively ecologically intact and
areas that are comparatively disturbed.
• Regionally significant terrestrial vegetation and
aquatic ecosystems
• Regionally significant species and species
assemblages.
Rapid Ecoregional Assessment
REAs geospatially describe the location of
“Conservation Elements”:

14. Rapid Ecoregional Assessment

15. Rapid Ecoregional Assessment

16. Rapid Ecoregional Assessment

17. Map their current distribution

18. CYR
SNK
YKL
Rapid Ecoregional Assessment
NOS

19. Agreements Partner: Alaska Natural
Heritage Program
Directing Body: Assessment
Management Team (AMT)
Expert Review: Technical Team
Rapid Ecoregional Assessment
BLM Project Lead

20. • What do we want to develop, restore and conserve;
where; at what scale; and with what trade-offs?
• How should we organize ourselves, at every level
of the organization, to accomplish this?
• How should we engage our state, federal and NGO
partners, at every level, to accomplish this?
Rapid Ecoregional Assessment
At the conclusion of these landscape assessments
Three basic and interrelated questions we should be
asking…..

21. Rapid Ecoregional Assessment
Questions?