Updates to SWAPs in the Midwest: A Collaborative Approach

July 21, 2025

A line of fire on the edge of tall grass, with several DNR employees monitoring. — Prescribed burn conducted by IDNR staff at Iroquois County Land and Water Reserve on March 12, 2021. (Photo credit: Illinois Department of Natural Resources)

State Wildlife Action Plans (SWAPs) are essential blueprints for conservation, enabling states to protect wildlife species before they become too rare or costly to restore. A core requirement of these plans is identifying threats to species and habitats.

The USGS Climate Adaptation Science Centers (CASCs) support species conservation efforts by producing and sharing science to help states, Tribes, and federal agencies understand climate impacts and foster effective adaptation. This includes crucial support for SWAP planning – convening key partners and providing vital climate data, tools, and training. The persistence and recovery of iconic Midwestern species, including moose, red-shouldered hawk, piping plover, eastern massasauga, blandings turtle, and others, will depend on using the most up-to-date science available for conservation and restoration decisions by wildlife agencies and conservationists.

Sharing the Best Available Science

In anticipation of SWAP revisions, the USGS Midwest CASC engaged state partners to ensure Midwest states would be in the best position to evaluate and use the latest science available on climate stressors and impacts to habitats and key species. USGS Midwest CASC staff took a lead role in producing individual reports that help to provide a detailed overview of climate change impacts to Midwestern habitats in order to enable wildlife management and protection strategies that are more comprehensive and forward-looking. This process has been iterative and flexible, ensuring products directly addressed state-specific priorities and needs.

An american woodcock on the forest floor. — A woodcock at Magee Marsh Wildlife Area in Ohio. (Photo credit: Rodney Campbell)

A set of four comprehensive reports that summarize projected climate impacts on key Midwestern habitats and species of greatest conservation need is now available. The reports identify and delineate priority habitats, summarize exposure to key climate change stressors, and synthesize scientific literature into qualitative summaries of climate change impacts to habitats. Each report also summarizes peer-reviewed literature detailing climate impacts to key wildlife species within these habitat types and explores possible restoration and conservation strategies.

Some key findings from the reports on climate impacts to habitats and species include:

Across the Midwest, climate change is expected to intensify two primary stressors, flooding and drought, resulting in increased hydrologic variability that may threaten the persistence of freshwater marsh-wet meadow-shrubland wetland.
Climate change may disrupt conditions important to persistence of high-quality bogs and fens through projected declines in summer precipitation, increases in summer vapor pressure deficit and temperature, and longer periods of warmth throughout the year.
Intensifying droughts, milder winters, reduced snowpack, and altered growing seasons in the midwestern United States are expected to cause stress to northern mesic forest ecosystems and associated species.
Flooded and swamp forests are experiencing profound ecological shifts due to climate-driven hydrological changes, particularly increased flooding and intensified summer drying. These stressors are reshaping habitat structure and altering community composition and species interactions.

Three more reports are in production and are expected to be delivered to states soon. In addition to the final reports, future needs and directions for states to pursue were identified through this collaborative approach so that wildlife programs will be better prepared for future management challenges as well as shifting needs and new requests of their programs. Outreach to regional partners, education of the public, new science initiatives, and informed policy development were all highlighted through this process that brought federal and state staff together for over one year.

Benefits for Midwest States

These reports offer substantial and varied benefits across the participating Midwest states.

In Minnesota, excerpts of these reports will be directly integrated into their SWAP in the descriptions of climate related changes in temperature and precipitation and how those may relate to changes in habitat community composition and conditions. In addition, as part of SWAP implementation, the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources anticipates incorporating these findings into workshops, webinars, and outreach materials for a variety of conservation practitioners including land managers, non-profit organizations, and educators. In this way, these findings will catalyze future climate-related conservation actions.

Alison Cariveau, Minnesota State Wildlife Action Plan Coordinator, imagines “a set of future workshops for land managers across the state that brings this up-to-date and in-depth information about climate patterns and impacts on specific habitats. In these workshops, managers can tailor their own climate-smart restoration and habitat management solutions to the day-to-day problems and specific needs of their landscapes. We also anticipate sharing this information with partners and the public through webinars, outreach events, and educational projects and materials.”

A blandings turtle held in someone's hand.

For Illinois, the reports provide crucial scientific justification for future habitat management policies and approaches, facilitating a much-needed shift from largely mitigation-focused climate strategies to adaptation. They also serve as vital documentation for Illinois' SWAP, supporting the development of best management practices for sensitive habitats by identifying when, where, and how stewardship, restoration, and management should occur.

Leon Hinz, Wildlife Action Plan Coordinator, Illinois Department of Natural Resources, was thankful of the effort for summarizing potential impacts to natural communities under a changing climate that will assist with improving management strategies. “Prescribed fire, a tool often used in Illinois and throughout the Midwest to maintain and enhance natural areas and habitats for at-risk species, can be applied more strategically by being informed through climate science. These collaborative efforts improve our ability to use and understand this management tool by identifying, and avoiding, locations and seasons where sensitive and rare insect and reptile species are vulnerable and may be unintentionally impacted or lost during burns. Many natural communities and species important to Illinoisans will benefit from this science product produced by the USGS Midwest CASC.”

Published Reports

View the first four reports in the series below. Each one provides an overview of the effects of climate change on a specific habitat in the Midwest region.

By T. Kevin O'Donnell, MW CASC Assistant Regional Administrator

Sharing the Best Available Science

Benefits for Midwest States

Published Reports

Contact the MW CASC

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