Going with climate's flow: Environmentalists shift approach, planning to adapt to nature's changes

Going with climate's flow

Environmentalists shift approach, planning to adapt to nature's changes

By Carolyn Y. Johnson, Globe Staff | December 26, 2008

Environmental advocates, wildlife officials, and land trusts charged with protecting the natural world are beginning to take a new approach to climate change: rather than focus only on stopping it, they are also thinking about how to adapt to what's coming.

That may mean accepting that certain northern species - such as moose or loon - may not be part of Massachusetts' future ecology. More immediately, it means restoring bogs that could help prevent flooding, or serve as a fallback position for wildlife if sea levels rise - and tearing down dams to give fish access to cooler waters. Both such efforts are underway.

"The old model is - let's protect a certain species or natural community; let's protect this habitat for box turtle or for maple forest," said Andy Finton, director of conservation science at The Nature Conservancy. "We've got to be more flexible in our thinking, because we can't necessarily nail down all the species . . . In a way, we're protecting the stage, while the actors may change over time."

This shift in approach comes as President-elect Obama recently announced his environmental team, calling global warming an urgent issue.

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