Fish and Wildlife Service draft plan to deal with climate change on wildlife

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Wednesday released the draft of a plan to deal with the impact of climate change on wildlife and natural ecosystems.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife service says it will work with states, tribes, and non-profit groups to build understanding and make better predictions of how climate change will affect our landscapes.

The agency said land and animals face rising seas, bigger storms and droughts, more wildfire, and other challenges from climate change.

Fish and Wildlife Service Director Sam Hamilton said Minnesota is a good example of some of the tough choices that will have to be made.

"Some very difficult decisions about when you try to assist something whether it's migrating [or] whether it's vegetative changes by introducing something," Hamilton said. "I know that across the United States folks are experimenting with that right now."

Dan Ashe, who helped write the strategy, said one example of expected changes is the shift of the prairie-pothole region, home to millions of migrating birds, from the Dakotas into western Minnesota.

"If that's going to happen, we may to shift our management strategies," he said. "But a lot of that area is in agriculture now, so we would have to work with the Agriculture Department and partnerships."

Ashe said the Minnesota DNR will be an integral part of planning for Minnesota.