Work Plan for the Wildlife Component

Conservation Effects Assessment Project (CEAP) National Assessment

Compile NRCS Institutes findings

Prior to its reorganization in 2004, Natural Resource Conservation Service (NRCS) operated a number of discipline-specific science and technology institutes designed primarily to develop technical materials needed by NRCS field conservation planners.  Several of these institutes (Wildlife Habitat Management Institute, Wetland Science Institute, Watershed Science Institute) were involved in studies that assessed fish and wildlife response to conservation practices in order to develop more effective approaches to addressing fish and wildlife needs in conservation planning and practice implementation.  The newly-established NRCS Agriculture Wildlife Conservation Center (AWCC) is continuing this work through competitive grants to organizations and institutions involved in wildlife technology development. 

Although these projects are primarily directed at technology development, many have generated and will continue to produce useful information documenting fish and wildlife response to the practices studied.  Examples of the information gathered through these efforts include the response of grassland birds, northern bobwhites and butterflies to field borders and other buffer practices, changes in stream fish assemblages following riparian buffer establishment, response of amphibians and other wildlife to wetland restoration and associated microtopography development, and response of upland nesting birds to various vegetation management regimes on lands enrolled in USDA’s Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) .  An example of current AWCC coordination with CEAP is the effort with the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) to develop use of National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) NEXRAD Doppler weather data to assess bird use of restored wetlands. 

Information gathered from technology development projects that relates to assessing how fish and wildlife responds to conservation practices will be compiled and included in CEAP Wildlife Component reporting.

< Back to Wildlife Work Plan