Multi-Sector Landscape Conservation: Meeting Large-Scale Challenges for Water Quality, Agriculture and Wildlife from Midwest Grasslands to Gulf Coast Shrimp.

According to water quality models and related assessments, Midwestern states and the Mississippi Alluvial Valley within the upper Mississippi River watershed currently contribute the greatest nutrient load to the Gulf of Mexico hypoxic zone. The community could use optimization tools that prioritize the design and configuration of conservation actions that would appeal to upstream agricultural communities under a range of climate extremes. The Mississippi River Basin/Gulf Hypoxia Initiative, spearheaded by seven Landscape Conservation Cooperatives, is undertaking a strategic and transparent process to create an integrated framework that supports planning, design, configuration and delivery of water quality enhancement and wildlife conservation practices within targeted locations across the watershed. Work Teams of researchers and managers across the LCCs have identified and described the design and policy considerations for a select set of highly effective conservation practices that protect and enhance wildlife habitat while complementing ongoing efforts that reduce nutrient loads to the Gulf of Mexico hypoxic zone and benefit agricultural production through ecosystem services. The Conservation Fund is working with the LCCs to develop datasets and decision support tools formulated as a Precision Conservation Blueprint 1.0 to map, evaluate, and select the most strategic and cost effective places to invest conservation dollars. Scenario planning will explore land use shifts, climate forecasts and consequences for adaptation strategies in response to ecological or economic drivers over a range of time scales. The Initiative plans to use this framework to enhance organizational capacity, avoid duplication of effort, streamline prioritization and evaluation of conservation actions, and align the work of agencies and organizations across multiple scales.  This effort is complementary to related on-going efforts, like the Gulf of Mexico Hypoxia Task Force, Mississippi River Basin Initiative, and state nutrient reduction initiatives, but with an added emphasis on the ecological and social values of wildlife habitat.