The Gunnison Climate Working Group is a chartered partnership of 14 public and private organizations in Colorados Upper Gunnison Basin. The Southern Rockies LCC (SRLCC) funded The Nature Conservancy to complete a comprehensive vulnerability assessment identifying species and ecosystems most at risk from climate change. The assessment included a set of habitat adaptation strategies for priority species, such as the Gunnison sage-grouse. As a final product, local demonstration projects were designed and installed.
The financial support and partnership provided by the SRLCC was critical to the Gunnison Climate Working Groups success and progress towards addressing climate change. As a direct result of the SRLCC involvement, partners designed and completed construction of over 100 rock structures on private lands to improve or restore wet meadowswhich function as brooding habitat for the Gunnison sage-grouse.
The tools, methods, and findings of the Gunnison Basin vulnerability assessment go beyond habitat adaptation strategies applied to support populations of Gunnison sage-grouse. The new tools build ecosystem resilience and support the Gunnison Basin agricultural and recreational economies. The vulnerability assessment funded by the LCC provides a scientific foundation for a robust decision making process which can be carried out over a larger landscape to inform and direct conservation delivery mechanisms for use by multiple partners.
