LCC’s covering Pennsylvania include the North Atlantic LCC which addresses part of SE Pennsylvania, the Appalachian LCC covering the vast majority of Pennsylvania, and the Upper Midwest and Great Lakes LCC which includes part of the Lake Erie watershed.
A recent national workshop on LCC’s brought together nearly 400 conservation professionals and highlighted the diverse work of this national network of 22 LCC’s such as analysis of species vulnerability, GIS tools for landscape modeling, conservation decision support tools, development of critical databases on conservation lands, and regional conservation approaches such as in the northeast that will provide critical support for Pennsylvania conservation planning.
The national network of LCC’s was initiated by the Department of the Interior and includes a broad partnership of state natural resource agencies, a diverse array of federal agencies, non-governmental conservation organizations, and tribes. All 50 state fish and wildlife agencies are involved in the LCC’s.
Each LCC is led by a steering committee that includes leaders from all major partner conservation organizations operating in the area of the LCC. The LCC network covers all U.S. lands and works in areas as diverse at the Arctic tundra, the Caribbean coral reefs, deserts of the southwest and the distant islands of the south Pacific.
Important partnership with Canadian and Mexican conservation agencies help to address trans-border natural resource challenges.
A comprehensive fact sheet on LCC’s is available online and the national LCC coordinator, Dr. Doug Austen, formerly Executive Director of the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission, can be contacted by sending email to: doug_austen@fws.gov.
