The Wildlife Management Institute (WMI), in partnership with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) is providing support to the Landscape Conservation Cooperative (LCC) network. This new section of the Outdoor News Bulletin will provide readers with regular updates on LCC efforts involving WMI. This month's article spotlights the Gulf Coast Prairie Landscape Conservation Cooperative's efforts to work with non-profit and government agencies in Mexico to ensure that conservation projects are effective on both sides of the border.

The Gulf Coast Prairie Landscape Conservation Cooperative (GCP LCC) went "international" when it welcomed Mexican partners to their Steering Committee meeting in early January. The Rio Grande Joint Venture (RGJV), Texas Parks and Wildlife Department (TPWD) and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) worked together to organize the meeting in McAllen, Texas to facilitate participation by representatives from several agencies and non-government organizations from south of the border. The venue also allowed committee members to tour the Santa Ana Wildlife Refuge, learn about impacts of border security issues on conservation, and visit study sites for one of the projects funded by the GCP LCC.

The GCP LCC landscape extends over 100 miles into Mexico. Key habitats in the area include the Laguna Madre and barrier islands along the Gulf coast and Tamaulipan Brushlands of the lower Rio Grande valley. Ecology of the coastal areas will be affected by sea level rise in coming decades. Tamaulipan Brushland, critical habitat for numerous bird species and several felines including the endangered Ocelot, has been reduced by over 95 percent on both sides of the border through agriculture and human infrastructure development. Construction of the border "fence" and other efforts to reduce illegal activity in the Rio Grande valley have further fragmented habitat and restricted animal movements.

The FWS, TPWD and other conservation partners have been working to restore Tamaulipan Brushlands north of the Rio Grande for several decades. One project, funded by the LCC and led by Dr. Tim Brush of the University of Texas ? Pan American in McAllen, is assessing the success of restoration efforts. The Wildlife Management Institute is managing the grant for this project, along with several others for the GCP LCC. Meeting participants went to some of the restoration sites and FWS biologist Mitch Sternberg explained how succession is progressing from open agricultural fields to mature Tamaulipan Brushland.

The RGJV has coordinated U.S. and Mexican bird conservation efforts in this area for years, but this was the first time Mexican parties were able to participate in discussions with the LCC to expand consideration to all species and habitats. Representatives from Consejo Nacional de Areas Protegidas, the Mexican federal agency charged with management of natural protected areas, and Pronatura Noreste, a non-governmental organization (NGO) that works with federal and state governments, communal and private landowners in Mexico shared information about the challenges and opportunities the LCC has as it expands its efforts to the south.

Maricio de la Maza, Director de Conservaci?n Pronatura Noreste, A.C., provided an overview of how Mexican history created a land tenure and management environment very different from that in the U.S. With much of the agricultural land held by "ejitos" ? communal entities in which each family holds an inalienable and indivisible right to use the land and where each family has an equal voice in all management decisions ? conservation in Mexico requires a consensus that can be difficult to achieve. In addition, localized, drug-related violence and instability has precluded fieldwork in some areas. Economic conditions in Mexico are another major challenge for agencies and NGO's in the country, as well as for the GCP LCC.

While cognizant of these, and other, challenges, the Steering Committee focused on opportunities to engage with their southern partners. GCP LCC Coordinator Bill Bartush said, "Re-establishing habitat quality and connectivity across the LCC is critical to both local species, such as Ocelot, and neo-tropical migrants that pass through the area on longer movements. We can't accomplish this important task working only on one side of the border." The Mexican participants were equally enthusiastic about expanding the historic work of the RGJV through the LCC. The LCC will continue to explore options to strengthen the engagement with these important international partners over the next several months and build upon this initial step and the excellent participation at the meeting.

In other business, the Steering Committee held a "forum" with representatives of Texas private landowners to initiate dialog on how to work more effectively on private lands in the U.S. The LCC also added the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to the Steering Committee, adopted a list of focal species and associated habitats that will be the basis for the LCC's science strategy, and moved forward with plans to increase integration of human dimensions with bio-physical science as part of strategic habitat conservation. (cs)