The Role Of Federal Lands In Combating Climate Change

House Natural Resources Committee
   National Parks, Forests and Public Lands Subcommittee
1324 Longworth

03/03/2009 at 02:00PM

Witnesses

Panel 1

  • Gail Kimbell, Chief, Forest Service, Department of Agriculture
  • Thomas R. Armstrong, Senior Advisor for Global Change Program, U.S. Geological Survey, Department of the Interior
  • Anthony Brunello, Deputy Secretary for Climate Change and Energy, California Natural Resources Agency
  • Billy Frank, Chairman, Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission

Panel 2

  • Mark E. Harmon, Ph.D., Richardson Chair and Professor in Forest Service, Oregon State University
  • Dominick A. DellaSala, Ph.D., Chief Scientist and Executive Director of Programs, National Center for Conservation Science & Policy
  • Jack Williams, Ph. D., Senior Scientist, Trout Unlimited
  • Eugene Spiering, Vice President for Exploration, Quaterra Corporation

Panel 3

  • Rick Ridgeway, Freedom to Roam
  • Lynn Jungwirth, Executive Director, Watershed Research and Training Center
  • Forrest McCarthy, Public Lands Director, Winter Wildlands Alliance

E&E News:

President Obama’s 2010 budget blueprint says climate change poses a threat to the United States’ fish and wildlife as natural habitats are modified more rapidly than plants and animals can adjust. Scientific analyses are needed to understand the breadth of these changes, it adds.

“Federal land management agencies, states and tribes all need to update land management and species recovery plans to reflect the impacts of climate change on wildlife,” the plan says. “They also need to monitor how wildlife is adapting and accelerate projects, such as protecting migration corridors, to help wildlife adjust.”

The hearing likely also will focus on forests, which store large amounts of carbon, and fighting wildfires. Obama’s proposed budget would pump $50 million extra in the Forest Service budget as part of Obama’s “commitment to protecting and restoring our national forests as a cornerstone of a healthy, sustainable environment.”

The budget also proposes funding for climate change efforts on public lands. It includes increases of more than $130 million to assess and respond to climate change’s effects on wildlife, of which $40 million is shared with states for wildlife adaptation.

It also boosts by $10 million North American Wetlands Conservation Act activities to acquire, restore or protect wetlands used by migratory waterfowl and other birds. The administration plans to fully fund the act at $75 million by 2012.