New Sea Level Rise Fact Sheets for Federal Lands in Northern Gulf of Mexico

Investigators supported by Southeast CASC research project, Communicating Future Sea-Level Rise Scenarios for Gulf Coast National Wildlife Refuge and National Park Lands, recently completed their work producing customized fact sheets that describe local sea level rise scenarios and potential impacts on mission for each of the federally managed lands in the northern Gulf of Mexico. The “two-pagers” were developed in response to needs of partners at the Northern Gulf of Mexico Sentinel Site Cooperative and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s Gulf Restoration Program. Areas covered are federally-managed lands across the northern Gulf of Mexico that are sensitive to sea level rise, encompassing federal coastal refuges, parks, and reserves in Texas, Louisiana, Alabama, Mississippi, and Florida. The project team included Bogdan Chivoiu (Cherokee Nation Technologies at USGS), Michael Osland (USGS), Renee Collini (Northern Gulf of Mexico Sentinel Site Cooperative), Sara Martin (Northern Gulf of Mexico Sentinel Site Cooperative), Benjamin Wilson (NAS Science Policy Fellow at USFWS) and John Tirpak (USFWS).
The customized fact sheets include sections that cover:

• How will sea level rise (SLR) affect my specific refuge, park or reserve?
• Where can I find SLR scenarios for my site?
• How do I incorporate these scenarios into my SLR planning?

as well as graphical displays of SLR scenarios and information on using probabilities when planning for sea level rise and links to additional SLR resources.
The two-page information sheets are currently available on the Northern Gulf of Mexico Sentinel Site Cooperative website at: http://masgc.org/northern-gulf-of-mexico-sentinel-site-co/two-pager.