Bringing Climate Resilience into Conservation Management

The Climate Resilience Attributes of Oregon Land and Waters Final Report, jointly issued by the Oregon Watershed Enhancement Board and the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, was released this summer, even as over two million acres of Oregon burned in wildfires. The wildfires are a real-time example of the urgency of climate change challenges, and the Governor’s Office has directed state agencies to use the report to incorporate climate resilience into their biennium workplans. 

The report highlights four attributes of climate-resilient landscapes: 

1. Connectivity within and across land and water to facilitate the movement of organisms and ecological processes; 
2. Diverse and complex habitats, landscapes, and aquatic systems that provide options for native species and human communities to respond to change and disturbance; 
3. Flood, fire, and other natural processes have the space and time to sustain key ecological functions; and
4. Natural and working lands and waters support, and are supported by, vibrant human communities, lifeways, and livelihoods.

Each attribute is meant to encompass a suite of indicators that inform land managers on the state of climate resilience in their system. Each indicator, ideally, has metrics that allow changes in indicators to be tracked, informing management decisions. Critically, the report determined that advancing effective indicator frameworks should be done alongside agency workplan development, giving agencies flexibility in deciding what indicators are useful. The downside, of course, is that it now falls to the agencies to do the technical work of figuring out how the four attributes fit into their workplans.

There are many resources available to help managers quickly review appropriate indicators and decide with confidence which ones are most useful for their system. Indicators from conservation initiatives like the Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF)  and the Science Based Targets Network (SBTN) are applicable to indicators discussed in the Design Workshop for Resilience Attributes for Oregon’s Lands and Waters and provide a way for managers to quickly assess metrics as well as incorporate new indicators not discussed in the workshop.

Indicators from the Design Workshop for Resilience Attributes for Oregon’s Lands and Waters

Here are some of the climate resilience indicators that state agencies will likely receive directly from workshop organizers. We’ve organized indicators by attribute and suggested actionable metrics for a variety of budgets based on current practices. We’ve also included tips for monitoring the indicators. Our goal is to help managers quickly assess which indicators are practical to include in workplans based on their relevance and the effort needed for data collection.

Attribute #1: Connectivity

Indicator	Metrics	Tips for Monitoring
Species movement	Species range in km2	Camera traps, telemetry
Sediment movement	Suspended sediment concentration (mg/L)	Water sampling, can also use sediment traps or horizon markers (different units)
Floodplain connectivity	Spatial extent, km2 or % of area	Elevation models in GIS for mapping, wetland delineation or tracking flood occurrence for field methods
Migration corridors	% unbroken length or barrier density per km	Use habitat surveying and confirm with camera traps, wildlife surveys, or telemetry
Spatial heterogeneity	Landscape Diversity Index	Landscape diversity metrics assign values based on habitat patch extent, importance, and  condition

Attribute #2: Diversity and Redundancy

Indicator	Metrics	Tips for Monitoring
Species diversity	Species richness, Shannon’s evenness	Wildlife surveys, camera traps, citizen science
Genetic diversity	Population Differentiation (FST) or proxies like proportion of distinct populations with Ne > 500	eDNA sampling will give the greatest accuracy, but genetic diversity can be estimated by monitoring the number and size of distinct populations
Functional diversity	Functional richness, Functional evenness	Attach trait characteristics (rooting depth, trophic level) to species databases to analyze functional diversity
Vegetation structure	number of layers for a simple measure, SSCI (Stand Structural Complexity Index) is more informative	Field observations or LiDAR for less observer bias
Habitat complexity	Habitat heterogeneity index, SSCI, stand age	To capture redundancy, managers can combine diversity measures with structural complexity

Attribute #3: Capacity to Sustain Ecological Functioning

Indicator	Metrics	Tips for Monitoring
Fire regimes	Fire Return Interval (years)	Fire regimes going back hundreds of years are available with tree coring
Productivity	NDVI, % cover, biomass (g/m2)	NDVI is readily available and measures greenness  but does not always reflect ecosystem health or productivity
Groundwater recharge	Water Table Fluctuation (acre/ft/yr)	If well data is unavailable, water balance can be estimated using precipitation, SWC, and evapotranspiration  rates
Disturbance recovery	time to recovery, % recovered	Pre-disturbance data can be used as a reference, but a similar, nearby unaffected ecosystem is better
Healthy soils	Bulk density (g/cm3), nutrient content (ppm), soil respiration (mg/kg/day), etc.	Physical, chemical, and biological properties should ideally all be used to characterize health, but spade tests can also work

Attribute #4: Human Connections

Indicator	Metrics	Tips for Monitoring
Cultural Practices	Cumulative Index of Cultural Significance (CICS)	The index assigns scores of significance to plants or ecosystems, but it relies on accurate knowledge of cultural practices
Community Stewardship	Local Environmental Stewardship Indicator (LESI), citizen science participation rates	It’s important to incorporate demographic monitoring for a full picture of community inclusion
Traditional Resource Access	Number of barrier legislation, access frequency	Informational interviews done with open curiosity are important for facilitating long-term engagement

Land managers will need to prioritize indicators for their systems based on budgeting and staffing constraints, community needs, and agency priorities. Some indicators, such as soil health and community stewardship, will yield greater returns on investment for managers than others. Healthy soils are the foundation for drought resilience in many systems, which decreases plant mortality and results in cooler ecosystems and reduced fire risk. More active community stewardship can reduce staffing constraints and increase natural disaster preparedness.

We hope this table has been useful. If you are seeking to incorporate climate resilience indicators into your land management, we help managers prioritize indicators based on cost, staff capacity, and return on investment. Contact us today to schedule a free initial call. Let’s create climate resilient landscapes and communities together.