USFWS Pacific Lamprey Conservation Initiative –Consideration of Climate Change Impacts for Restoration Planning

The Pacific Lamprey Conservation Initiative is an effort led by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) to facilitate communication and coordination relative to the conservation of Pacific Lampreys throughout their range. Information on Pacific Lamprey distribution and abundance is limited; however, it is thought that both distribution and numbers have declined over their historic range. The need to conserve this species is a high priority for the USFWS considering its benefit to the overall ecosystem and its importance as a tribal cultural resource. 

The goal of the Initiative is to develop a Pacific Lamprey Conservation Plan that will lead to restored Pacific Lamprey populations and improvement of their habitat across their entire distribution. We identified threats, restoration actions, research, monitoring, and evaluation needs for geographic population groups.  We assessed the risk for these population groupings using the NatureServe conservation status assessment tool. This assessment and existing restoration plans are being integrated for the purpose of guiding the development of the Pacific Lamprey Conservation Plan. 

One of the key uncertainties identified through this risk assessment was the impacts of climate change on lamprey populations. We applied the NatureServe climate change vulnerability index and threat analysis to assess the exposure of Pacific Lampreys to climate change across the range and sensitivity of the geographic groupings to the impacts. These were used to inform the focus of conservation measures across geographic population groupings.