Chapter 3 North Carolina Species
• Ecological Significance recognizes the legal and regulatory factors for species, range- wide and EBCI conservation status, and relative importance to ecosystem processes. This includes species with federal protection under the ESA and at-risk species being evaluated for potential listing under the ESA. Species known to be rare or declining on EBCI Trust Lands and native (or nonnative) species that threaten ecological or cultural values through changes to the environment or impacts to native species are also considered. Also included are species that perform critical ecosystem functions and species that are either rare or unknown (knowledge gaps) as defined by EBCI Natural Resources (EBCI 2022) . • Biodiversity is a critical part of ecosystems, and maintaining a great diversity of species ensures essential roles in the environment are fulfilled. Conservation targets prioritized for biodiversity include species assemblages that perform critical ecosystem functions and whose status is either rare or unknown as defined by EBCI Natural Resources. Species assemblages facing existing and impending threats also receive prioritized management attention. (EBCI 2022) . 3.1.4.2 Regional Species of Greatest Conservation Need (RSGCN) The Southeastern Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies (SEAFWA) Wildlife Diversity Committee developed a list of Regional SGCN (RSGCN) in 2018 through collaboration of the 15 member states (Rice et al. 2019) . Currently, the SEAFWA RSGCN report and associated data are hosted on the Georgia Department of Natural Resources (GADNR), Wildlife Resources Division’s Biodiversity Portal website https://georgiabiodiversity.org/portal/sersgcn. North Carolina’s SGCN lists (Appendix 3) include notations for RSGCN designations for North Carolina species on the RSGCN list. The Southeastern Plant Conservation Alliance, Atlanta Botanical Garden, NatureServe, Terwilliger Consulting, and SEAFWA’s member states worked collaboratively to evaluate vascular plant taxa to create a RSGCN list of plants (Rice et al. 2019, Radcliffe et al. 2023) . North Carolina’s Plant SGCN list includes notations for SEAFWA plant RSGCN designations. The SEAFWA Wildlife Diversity Committee recommended improvements to the identification, assessment, and prioritization of SGCN by member states. Final recommendations were published in a report published in September 2022 (SEAFWA 2023) . A Southeastern SGCN evaluation database was developed by GADNR, with assistance from Arkansas Game and Fish Commission, and NCWRC (available online https://georgiabiodiversity.org). The project was funded through a competitive SWG grant awarded in 2021. North Carolina partnered with the NCNHP to enter 2025 Taxa Team evaluation results into the new SEAFWA SGCN database along with NatureServe Biometrics data tracked by the NCNHP. The NCWRC will use the SEAFWA SGCN database to generate reports that will be compared with the evaluation ranking scores generated through the 2025 SWAP Taxa Team SGCN evaluation process. The comparison will
2025 NC Wildlife Action Plan
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