Southeast Conservation Blueprint Mechanics

The Southeast Conservation Adaptation Strategy (SECAS) was formed in fall 2011 by the Southeastern Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies (SEAFWA) in response to the “unprecedented challenges facing our natural and cultural resources, like urban growth and climate change,” through coordination of “conservation partners around a common vision for sustaining natural resources in the Southeast through 2060” (SECAS, 2020). The specific goal of SECAS is to improve the health, function, and connectivity of southeastern U.S. ecosystems by at least 10 percent by 2060 with a one percent improvement in the health, function, and connectivity of southeastern ecosystems, and a one percent increase in conservation actions, every four years. To assist in the project planning and implementation strategies needed to achieve this goal, SECAS developed a dynamic data synthesis process to produce a conservation prioritization map known as the Southeast Conservation Blueprint (the Southeast Blueprint).

This report focuses on the subregional blueprints that include the geography of the northern Gulf of Mexico coast with a focus on the primary ecosystem types represented. The blueprints for these subregions are the Crucial Habitat Assessment Tool (CHAT): Texas (TX CHAT); the Middle Southeast Blueprint; the South Atlantic Blueprint; the Florida Conservation Blueprint; and the Florida Marine Blueprint. For each of these subregions and the overall Southeast Blueprint, this report summarizes the history and governance; geography and ecosystem; and blueprint structure and methodology. In addition, the integration of each subregional blueprint into the Southeast Blueprint is discussed, along with the identification of future data needs to continue to develop and improve each subregional blueprint and the Southeast Blueprint as a whole.