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USACE Participates in the ACES (A Community of Ecosystem Services) 2014 Conference

Published Feb. 3, 2015
Mr. Steve Stockton, Mr. J.B. Ruhl, and Dr. Stephen Polasky discuss the current 
status of ecosystem services during the plenary session of the 2014 ACES Conference.

Mr. Steve Stockton, Mr. J.B. Ruhl, and Dr. Stephen Polasky discuss the current status of ecosystem services during the plenary session of the 2014 ACES Conference.

Ms. Janet Cushing (fifth from the left) and the ACES Conference Planning Committee present graduate students with awards for the conference. Each of these students was selected to present their research on ecosystem services at this year’s conference.

Ms. Janet Cushing (fifth from the left) and the ACES Conference Planning Committee present graduate students with awards for the conference. Each of these students was selected to present their research on ecosystem services at this year’s conference.

The Integrating Ecosystem Services into Federal Resource Management and Planning panel, featuring – from left to right – Ms. Sally Collins (Rights and Resources Initiative), Ms. Janet Cushing (CEIWR), Mr. Ted Maillett (USFWS), Ms. Tracy Rouleau (NOAA), Ms. Nikola Smith (USFS), and Mr. Rob Winthrop (BLM).

The Integrating Ecosystem Services into Federal Resource Management and Planning panel, featuring – from left to right – Ms. Sally Collins (Rights and Resources Initiative), Ms. Janet Cushing (CEIWR), Mr. Ted Maillett (USFWS), Ms. Tracy Rouleau (NOAA), Ms. Nikola Smith (USFS), and Mr. Rob Winthrop (BLM).

From 2-12 December, 2014, USACE participated in the biannual ACES (A Community on Ecosystem Services) Conference, which was held in Arlington, VA.

ACES 2014 brought together leaders in government, NGOs, academia, Native American communities, and the private sector to advance the use of ecosystem services science and practice in conservation, restoration, resource management, and development decisions. The focus of the conference was to link science, practice, and sustainable decision-making by bringing together the ecosystem services community from around the United States and the globe. This year’s conference set a record on attendance, drawing over 650 participants, with representatives from 35 nations.

Mr. Steve Stockton (Director of Civil Works, USACE) participated on the opening plenary panel, along with Dr. Ann Bartuska (Deputy Under Secretary for Research, Education, and Economics, U.S. Department of Agriculture), Mr. William Ginn (Executive Vice President, Global Conservation Initiative, The Nature Conservancy), Dr. Stephen Polasky (Regents Professor and Fesler-Lampert Professor of Ecological & Environmental Economics, University of Minnesota), and Mr. J.B. Ruhl, (David Daniels Allen Distinguished Chair of Law, Vanderbilt University). The theme of the plenary session was Ecosystem Services: Key Advances and Challenges in Linking Science, Practice, and Decision Making. This opening plenary session provided a forum for leaders in the ACES community to assess changes since ACES 2012 in the status of ecosystem services as a framework for making societal decisions involving natural resources.

Another draw for this year’s conference was the significant focus on policy. Ms. Robyn Colosimo (OASA(CW)) participated on one of the policy panels, Integrating Ecosystem Services into the Implementation of Water Resource Projects. This session focused on opportunities for ecosystem services approaches in water projects, highlighting methods that cut across agencies, scales, and jurisdiction.

Ms. Janet Cushing (IWR) was on the conference Planning Committee, and participated on the panel entitled Integrating Ecosystem Services into Federal Resource Management and Planning, which was organized by the National Ecosystem Services Partnership. Other panelists included representatives from U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration, Bureau of Land Management, and USDA Forest Service. Ms. Cushing, along with the other panelists, had been involved in the development of the Federal Resources Management and Ecosystem Services Guidebook, which was formally unveiled at the conference. The Guidebook provides a framework that federal agencies can use to incorporate ecosystem services into the decision-making context at multiple scales. The Guidebook is structured in an online format, and is available at the link below.

 

Each of the panelists provided a statement in response to the following three questions:

 1) How are ecosystem services currently incorporated?

 2) What are next steps for incorporating ecosystem services?

 3) What are the challenges to incorporating ecosystem services?

 

Most of the session was then devoted to answering questions from the audience. The panelists expressed some similar ideas regarding endeavors to develop approaches to incorporating ecosystem services into various programs, as well as the technical and institutional challenges in doing so. One of the main benefits of the effort to develop a federal ecosystem services guidebook was the building of collaborative partnerships within the federal family, and the sharing of information on our respective activities.

Other USACE participants, Kelly Burks-Copes, Al Cofrancesco, and Elizabeth Murray, also moderated and/or presented at other sessions, including:

 ·        Decision Making in Ecosystem Services

 ·        Greening Cities for Ecosystem Services

 ·        Water Resources and Ecosystem Services

More about ACES

ACES: A Community on Ecosystem Services represents a dynamic and growing assembly of professionals, researchers, and policy makers involved with ecosystem services. The ACES 2014 Conference brought together this community in partnership with Ecosystem Markets and the Ecosystem Services Partnership (ESP), providing an open forum to share experiences, methods, and tools for assessing and incorporating ecosystem services into public and private decisions. 

Additional information on ACES 2014, including presentations and plenary session videos, can be found at:

Learn More

·        ACES Conference: http://www.conference.ifas.ufl.edu/aces/index.html

·        NESP Guidebook: https://nespguidebook.com/

·        IWR: http://www.iwr.usace.army.mil