Developing Tools for Evaluating Ecosystem Service Sustainability in the Appalachians
Scientists at the Eastern Threat Center have partnered with the Appalachian Landscape Conservation Cooperative (LCC)—a broad partnership of federal, state and private resource management agencies and conservation organizations—to compile current knowledge of the diverse benefits that people derive from Appalachian ecosystems and assess the vulnerabilities of ecosystem services to environmental risks throughout the region. As part of this project, Eastern Threat Center researchers are collaborating with the National Environmental Modeling and Analysis Center at the University of North Carolina Asheville to build online tools that inventory and synthesize existing resource assessments, making the state of knowledge concerning ecosystem services in the Appalachians accessible to LCC partners, resource managers, and the public. These tools are being delivered as an integrated component of the Appalachian LCC Web Planning Portal. This research has additionally provided the foundation for new Eastern Threat Center ecosystem service assessments, and ongoing research will identify vulnerabilities and resiliencies associated with key drivers of landscape change across the Appalachian LCC. These efforts will provide new understandings of the effectiveness of alternative management strategies given local contexts and expected environmental changes, and will help managers, scientists, industries, and the public link the environmental and economic values of the region’s natural assets together to encourage protection of and investments in these resources.
Right: A typical valley in the central Appalachian Mountains with extensive forest land provides valuable ecosystem services to support populations in this rural area and beyond. Photo by Appalachian LCC.
External Partners/Collaborators: U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service; Appalachian Landscape Conservation Cooperative; National Environmental Modeling and Analysis Center (University of North Carolina Asheville); Baldwin Conservation Science Lab (Clemson University)
Contact: Lars Pomara
