Building on recent efforts to increase coordination between NOAA and the Department of Interior led Landscape Conservation Cooperatives (LCCs), NCCOS's Alan Lewitus has been selected to serve on the steering committee of the Eastern Tallgrass Prairie and Big Rivers (ETPBR) LCC, while colleague David Kidwell will be serving on the Gulf Coastal Plain and Ozarks (GCPO) LCC.

Located within the 'corn belt,' the ETPBR recently initiated the development of a Gulf of Mexico Hypoxia Incentives Program that seeks to achieve improvements in both hypoxia mitigation and fish and wildlife habitat by nutrient reduction in targeted Mississippi River watershed regions. Along the Gulf coast the GCPO LCC initiated a number of efforts related to assessing the impacts of sea level rise and recently joined the NOAA Sentinel Site Program Northern Gulf of Mexico Sentinel Site Cooperative management team.

LCCs promote collaboration among federal agencies, states, tribes, non-governmental organizations, and other groups, and they apply these partnerships to provide science and technical expertise needed to support landscape scale resource management and planning. Participation on the steering will increase partnerships and leveraging opportunities for promoting and applying NCCOS science.

For more information contact David.Kidwell@noaa.gov or Alan.Lewitus@noaa.gov.