[PCA] Peer Review of FWS Technical Guidance on Selecting Species for Landscape Scale Conservation

[De Angelis, Patricia]

Sharing information on the results of an independent peer review of the
Draft Technical Guidance on Selecting Species for Landscape Scale
Conservation have been released. Details below. Please excuse
cross-postings.
-Patricia De Angelis/USFWS

ABOUT THE GUIDANCE:  The Guidance was developed under the direction of
the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's Strategic Habitat Conservation
Executive Oversight Team with participation by State fish and wildlife
agency partners to provide technical guidance for selecting and using
surrogate species as measurable biological objectives in landscape
conservation planning and management.



ABOUT THE PEER REVIEW:  The following five peer reviewers were paneled to
represent a range of scientific expertise including large-scale
conservation planning and landscape ecology, as well as expertise in
zoology, botany, aquatic systems, community ecology, paleoecology and/or
evolutionary biology (listed below).  Reviewers responded to eight
questions concerning the role of and process for selecting species as
conservation targets for designing landscapes capable of supporting sustainable
populations of fish and wildlife.



-Stephanie Januchowski-Hartley, PhD from University of Wisconsin at
Madison;

-Joshua Lawler, PhD from University of Washington (Seattle);

-Dennis Murphy, PhD from University of Nevada at Reno;

-Maile Neel, PhD from University of Maryland; and

-James Thorne, PhD from University of California at Davis



EXECUTIVE SUMMARY:  In 2012, the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service (Service)
committed to using Strategic Habitat Conservation (SHC) as an approach to
address the challenges of the 21st century. As part of implementing that
commitment, the Service distributed a version of the draft
Technical Guidance on Selecting Species for Design of Landscape Scale
Conservation (Technical Guidance) as a practical step in the biological
planning component of the SHC approach. Five external peer reviewers have
completed a formal, independent, external scientific peer review of the
latest draft Technical Guidance. The panel was tasked specifically to
review the scientific information in the Technical Guidance and its
practical application to conservation management.

     The external peer reviewers generally agreed that the Technical
Guidance is missing key elements and does a poor job of providing
scientific support for many of the statements made within it, although one
reviewer was not as critical as the others. Generally, all
reviewers recommended additional, more detailed discussion of the different
types of surrogates (species and otherwise) and their uses, along with
associated discussion of their advantages and disadvantages, evidence for
success, and associated monitoring requirements. There was disagreement
among the reviewers about whether or not climate change was
well-integrated within the document. Every reviewer included specific
recommendations and they were all generally along the same lines, although
some reviewers recommended more significant revisions than other reviewers.
The overall message from the external peer reviewers was that the document
needs significant revision, including better organization, more focus, and
better discussion and inclusion of the scientific literature.



NEXT STEPS: The Service is developing a new Scope of Work (SOW) outlining
what is needed to address peer review comments and to finalize the
technical document. Once finalized, the SOW will be posted.



DOCUMENTS & INFORMATION: The report, guidance and additional information
are available on the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service website as follows:



Draft Technical Guidance:

http://www.fws.gov/science/pdf/Draft-Technical-Guidance-on-Selecting-Species-for-Landscape-Scale-Conservation.pdf



Peer Review report:

http://www.fws.gov/science/pdf/Final-Summary-Report-Complete-Technical-Guidance-on-Selecting-Species-for-Landscape-Scale-Conservation.pdf



Strategic Habitat Conservation:

http://www.fws.gov/landscape-conservation/
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