Indiana’s State Wildlife Action Plan was completed in 2005. The plan identified Indiana’s priority needs for all fish and wildlife species and priority efforts to address those needs. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) developed a network of Landscape Conservation Cooperatives (LCCs). The purpose of the LCCs is to provide applied science to increase the efficiency of conservation delivery for conservation priorities shared by FWS, the States and other conservation partners in the face of climate change and other landscape-scale conservation challenges. Identification of evolving fish and wildlife needs and priorities, among the State and Federal fish and wildlife management agencies and their partners, is vital to the success in managing these resources. This effort will assist in the identification of shared research and science needs and priority actions relative to the effects of climate change on fish and wildlife and their habitats.
The Indiana Division of Fish and Wildlife (DFW) believes the LCC initiatives will, very broadly stated, produce for Indiana and ideally for the LCC network:• Science based and validated, standardized species inventory and monitoring techniques• Science based data management structures and responsibilities• Science based classification systems and standards for habitat types• Science based and structurally sound mechanisms for partnerships such that meetings and decisions are fact based and open to all partners for participation regardless of travel or other restrictions (new modeling technology)
