2019 NMFWA Workshop
PLEASE NOTE: All Training Courses Require Pre-Registration, no exceptions. SPACE IS LIMITED! Course Capacity is listed for each class and will be available until filled, so we encourage those interested to register early!
Select only ONE full-day training OR one or two half-day training courses. If you register for training on Friday you will NOT be able to also register for the Field Trip. If a course is at capacity, your name will be added to a waiting list. If you are placed on the waiting list you will be notified via email if space opens prior to the Workshop.
Select only ONE full-day training OR one or two half-day training courses. If you register for training on Friday you will NOT be able to also register for the Field Trip. If a course is at capacity, your name will be added to a waiting list. If you are placed on the waiting list you will be notified via email if space opens prior to the Workshop.
Monday, 4 March 2019
Full-Day Courses - 0800-1700
Climate Smart for INRMPs: Adaptation Planning for DoD Natural Resource Managers.
(Course Capacity =36)
This full-day workshop will introduce participants a new guide, Adaptation Planning for DoD Natural Resource Managers, and will help participants understand how to incorporate climate considerations into INRMPs. The guide offers a six-step INRMP adaptation planning process that allows managers to understand climate-related vulnerabilities and risks to their installation’s natural resources, and to identify adaptation strategies capable of reducing those risks and sustain installation mission and military readiness. This training will introduce participants to the principles of effective adaptation and offer a summary of how climatic shifts may affect the various INRMP program elements. Through hands-on team exercises and worksheets, the training will provide step-by-step instructions to the INRMP adaptation planning process. The Guide and course were funded by the DoD Legacy Resource Management Program, and developed by National Wildlife Federation and Navy SPAWAR in collaboration with OSD and the Military Services.
Half Day Courses- 0800-1200
Advanced ESA Topics: How to Effectively Write a Biological Assessment – AM Session.
(Course Capacity-40 registrants)
This half-day workshop will teach participants about how to effectively write biological assessments. Instruction for this course will be offered by USFWS Instructors. This is an advanced course. Participants should already be familiar with the Endangered Species Act, Section 7 consultation, and experience or knowledge of the requirements for developing a Biological Assessment.
Integrated Monarch Monitoring Across Department of Defense Properties and Nationwide.
(Course Capacity – 75 registrants)
To better understand monarch habitat and what may be driving this population trend, a collaborative monitoring program was recently implemented nationwide. The Integrated Monarch Monitoring Program (IMMP) uses a spatially balanced sampling scheme and draws from existing citizen science programs to monitor habitat quality, threats, and monarch habitat use.Participants of this half-day course will learn about the design of IMMP and how to conduct several of its activities: broadly describing the sites, monitoring blooming plants and milkweed stems, searching for monarch eggs and larva on milkweed, and surveying for adult monarchs. Participants will also learn how to serve as a Local Monitoring Coordinator. Coordinator tasks, such as site selection and delineation, managing site metadata, and training new participants, will be reviewed. After attending this session, participants will be ready to monitor monarchs and their habitat on a high priority site. This course is offered by Monitoring Coordinators Jennifer Thieme and Laura Lukens with the Monarch Joint Venture.
Half-Day Course -1300-1700
Advanced ESA Topics: How to Effectively Write a Biological Assessment – PM Session.
(Course Capacity-40 registrants)
This half-day workshop will teach participants about how to effectively write biological assessments. Instruction for this course will be offered by USFWS Instructors. Please note this is an advanced course. Participants should already be familiar with the Endangered Species Act, Section 7 consultation, and experience or knowledge of the requirements for developing a Biological Assessment.
Clean Water Act and 404 Permits: What is Jurisdictional Today?
(Course Capacity – 75 registrants)
This half-day course will provide an overview of Section 404 of the Clean Water Act, work through the permitting process and discuss how it applies to military installations. The course will review the more recent changes in regulations for determining jurisdictional wetlands and waters of the United States, discuss DoD specific information on No Net Loss policy as it relates to wetlands and how it may differs and/or overlaps with 404 policy. This course is offered by the Denver US Army Corps of Engineers Regulatory Office.
Navigating NMFWA and The Wildlife Society Certified Biologist Application Process.
(Course Capacity - 30 registrants)
NOTE TIME: 1500-1700
This 2-hour help session that will review the both the National Military Fish and Wildlife Association and The Wildlife Society Certified Biologist Programs and assist participants with navigating the application process. NMFWA’s Certification Program Chair, Dan Savercool and The Wildlife Society’s Military Lands Working Group and NMFWA Past President Rhys Evans will present these Programs and be available for questions and to assist with your specific application needs. Please note this session runs from 1500 to 1700.
Friday, 8 March 2019
Full Day Courses- 0800-1700
Project-level Climate Change Adaptation Planning for Natural Resource Managers
(Course Capacity- 30 registrants)
This full-day workshop will focus on incorporating climate change considerations into common natural resources projects such as wildlife habitat improvement, vegetation restoration, stream management, and erosion control. This project-level planning identifies practical, on-the-ground management actions that can help natural systems and infrastructure cope with change, tiering to overarching goals at the installation-level. This process follows an abbreviated format of the Adaptation Workbookused by the Northern Institute of Applied Climate Science (NIACS) on hundreds of natural resources projects. Participants will work in groups to identify climate adaptation actions for real-world management projects. At the end of the course participants will be able to; 1) identify climate change-related challenges and opportunities for their sample resource management project and in their own management, 2) develop actionable steps to adapt ecosystems to changing conditions and 3) communicate how their actions address climate risks and help to meet management goals and support the military mission. This workshop is offered by Chris Stone, Kristen Schmitt, and Todd Ontl of NIACS. Pre-work reading is required prior to attending!
Strategic Planning Principles and Tools to Improve the Efficiency, Effectiveness, and Collaborative Impact of INRMPs.
(Course Capacity - 32 registrants)
Integrated Natural Resources Management Plans (INRMPs) are required on DoD installations containing significant natural resources, pursuant to the Sikes Act. Unfortunately, INRMPs often lack key design elements, and this reduces their effectiveness in achieving desired conservation outcomes. For this reason, many INRMPs lack transparency and accountability, and they fail to clearly and quantitatively define conservation success. This full-day workshop teaches the Open Standards for the Practice of Conservation (OS) Process and has been taught to the NAVY with good reviews. The OS Process is a collection of best practices, tools, and processes that addresses weaknesses inherent in typical INRMPs. This system incorporates theories and principles of adaptive management from a variety of disciplines to produce a planning and evaluation process broadly applicable across temporal, geographic, and programmatic scales. The OS is a structured framework that guides a planning team systematically through the adaptive management cycle, incorporating both biodiversity- and human-specific values (e.g., military training). The process enables teams to define measurable, time-bound goals, objectives, and progress metrics, and facilitates ongoing adaptive management by documenting intermediate and end results of interventions. Registrants will gain an understanding of the OS process, receive brief, hands-on practice applying the OS to a real project, and learn how to convert OS outputs into an INRMP. Instruction for this workshop will be provided by Dr. Andrew Bridges and Dr. Quinn Shurtliff, with Veolia Nuclear Solutions-Federal Services.