Wildlife

There are a number of ways that climate change is beginning to impact wildlife. Temperature increases and changes in precipitation can directly affect species depending on their physiology and tolerance of environmental changes. Climate change can also alter a species' food supply or its reproductive timing, indirectly affecting its fitness. Understanding these interactions is an important step in developing management strategies to help species survive the changing climate. (Source CCRC).

monarch butterfly and a bee visiting a swamp milkweed plant

Monarch conservation has inspired people across North America to protect and enhance pollinator habitat. Milkweed plants that serve as hosts for caterpillars and a nectar source for adult monarchs, are also important to other insects, birds, small mammals, amphibians and…

Monarch Butterfly and Milkweed Conservation Resources

A field of milkweed at Borderview Farm in Vermont

Milkweed is the only food source for the monarch butterfly caterpillar, an iconic but declining species of North America. To farmers, milkweed is commonly viewed as a weed. However, Borderview Farm and UVM Extension are looking to change that view. Together, they are…

Milkweed at Borderview Farm

Tree at Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore

The USDA Northern Forests Climate Hub and the Northern Institute of Applied Climate Science (NIACS) have partnered with the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) to develop a series of brochures that describe options landowners and land managers have to adapt…

NRCS practices can support climate change adaptation

Hill top view of McConnell Berry Farm

One third of all of our food comes from pollinated crops.  Because increasing temperatures impact both plants and the pollinators they rely on, climate change poses a dual threat to crop production. Shifts in dates when plants flower or pollinators are present could…

Blueberries, Pollinators, and Pests with WVU

bird

As climate change continues to influence ecosystems around the world, wildlife species will be under increasing pressure to adapt. Wildlife managers face the growing challenge of helping wildlife populations and ecosystems respond to climate change. Partners in the Great Lakes…

Wildlife climate change vulnerability and adaptation

Tribal Adaptation Menu

Dibaginjigaadeg Anishinaabe Ezhitwaad - A Tribal Climate Adaptation Menu and resources.   Climate change has impacted and will continue to impact indigenous peoples, their lifeways and culture, and the natural world upon which they rely, in unpredictable and potentially…

Tribal Climate Adaptation Menu

Sensitivities A. More wildfire and insect outbreaks will increase loss of late-successional forest habitat and connectivity. B. Loss of habitat structure and spatial heterogeneity will increase species vulnerability to changing climate. C. Higher temperature and increased…

Climate Risk Management Practices: Wildlife

3 cows on dry, brown range

The following content is from a publication from the Forest Service Office of Sustainability and Climate, the full content can be viewed/downloaded in PDF Drought Effects Droughts can result in reduced growth rates, defoliation, and increased stress on vegetation, with…

Drought and Rangelands: Effects and Management Responses

A graduate student from the University of Maine overlooks her research field in the setting sun

A project designed to build a virtual consortium of Masters and Doctoral students working on climate adaptation in agriculture and forestry. Nominated by a university partner within the USDA Northeast Climate Hub network, GradCAP scholars work with Climate Hub leadership,…

Graduate Student Climate Adaptation Partners (GradCAP)

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