Blue Mountain Eagle file photo Workers and volunteers place a log structure into the Middle Fork John Day River in Grant County as part of a collaborative project to restore riparian areas and aquatic habitat. The project was done in 2007 on property owned by The Nature Conservancy, with cooperation of state and federal agencies and other landowners. A Prineville firm that specializes in in-stream work, Highland Trucking Company, was hired to build and place the log-jamlike structure at several locations to add more sinuosity to the river channel.

Although the National Wildlife Federation calls global warming “the single biggest threat to wildlife today,” its senior climate change specialist sees one silver lining.

Patty Glick said the science presents an opportunity as well as a challenge.

“We do have the benefit of some foresight with climate change,” she said. “We really have the opportunity to be looking at the threat we face as an opportunity, a chance to come together and really consider what’s at stake if we lose our traditional natural resources.”

The National Wildlife Federation Web site cites a 2007 report from the International Panel on Climate Change, which says 20 to 30 percent of the species worldwide could be a increased risk of extinction if average global temperatures rise 2.2 to 4 percent from current levels. The report predicted that warming could occur before the end of the century, unless changes are made to limit pollution.

The Northwest would not be immune. In Oregon alone, there’s a rich array of wildlife that includes 338 birds, 150 mammals, 32 reptiles, 31 amphibians and 65 fish species. If warming significantly alters the ecosystems on which they depend, some of those creatures will need to shift their ranges, adapt – or die.

“At the upper ends of the climate change projections, if we don’t do something about greenhouse gases, we are going to lose species,” Glick said.

While some observers still dispute man’s role in climate change, the projected impacts of warming draw less debate with each passing year. The key concerns, Glick said, are:

? Longer, more severe fire seasons, which threaten important forest ecosystems and the animals that depend on them.

? Rising average temperatures and reduced snowpack, which pose a host of habitat changes for streams, rivers and wetlands. The “front-line” species to be affected by such changes are the salmon – fish that are already stressed by other factors such as dams and water draw-down, Glick noted.

“They’ve got the deck stacked against them from the start,” she said.

As for other species, wildlife officials are putting new focus on the issue, but some say it can be hard to peg specific shifts to climate change.

“It’s really hard to tell what affect global warming will have at the local level. It’s difficult to tell the difference between what is caused by natural cycles and what is caused by warming,” said Ryan Torland, district wildlife biologist for the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife in John Day, in Eastern Oregon.

Brent Fenty, executive director of Oregon Natural Desert Association, also acknowledges that challenge, but said scientists are making the link with some animals.

The pika is one example.

A hamster-like relative of the rabbit, the pika lives at high elevation in rocky, talus areas of the Cascade Range and Rocky Mountains. Pikas are expecially vulnerable to climate change, scientists say, because their habitat occurs in small, disconnected “islands.” Pikas have few options – the habitat is widely dispersed and they are not big travelers – as warmer temperatures force some species to seek higher ground.

Warmer temperatures also could change when the natural vegetation ages, and that affects the pika’s ability to store adequate food for winter.

Torland cited another example: the Douglas’ squirrel, which is native to parts of Eastern Oregon.

“Some studies show that the Douglas’ squirrel seems to be shifting its range based on temperature changes. It is becoming more prevalent in its northern habitat and less common in the south,” he said.

The movement or loss of such animals could have a ripple effect, as they are prey items for other animals.

For other types of wildlife, Torland noted, there could be a mix of negative and positive impacts from climate change.

“With warmer winters you’d probably have a lower mortality rate for deer, but then with a drier winter there would be less forage in the warmer months,” he said. “It’d a mixed bag.

“Similar drought conditions have caused problems for deer in past years.”

Some experts believe large animals – elk, deer and pronghorn – will range toward increasingly higher ground as the climate warms.

Torland said elk may not be as affected by subtle shifts in winter weather. Some elk herds in Oregon’s John Day Valley are lingering longer in the low valleys – climate notwithstanding – because that’s where ranches are growing hay, providing a relatively easy source of food.

“However, the elk cause damage every year when it’s dry and they’re looking for food,” he said.

The ODFW gets complaints each year about elk breaking fences, raiding haystacks and pounding agricultural fields into compacted turf.

“That damage could increase in a drought,” he said.

Meanwhile, some observers worry as much about the timing of the rain and snow as the amount.

“We’re seeing projections that we will be experiencing more of our precipitation in the summer than in the winter,” Fenty said.

That’s a shift that has serious repercussions for streams and rivers, he said. Wetlands  are drawing increasing scrutiny because of that. Representing only a small portion of the landscape, wetlands play a big role in water conservation and wildlife diversity.

Allison Aldous, research and monitoring director for the Nature Conservancy in Oregon, said wetlands are critical features for many reasons. She said their value to people lies in their ability to filter toxins and pollutants from our water; wetlands also serve as a buffer in extreme weather events, soaking up and storing rainfall and snowmelt for a slow release – rather than a flood.

“But wetlands also are incredibly diverse places,” she said. These areas – from marshes to bogs to damp “potholes” – provide places for migrating birds and mammals to breed, feed and seek refuge. Wetlands also are lifelong homes for some species of fish, mollusks, and other animals – creatures that can’t simply migrate northward to survive habitat loss.

In a report to the Association of State Wetland Managers, founder Jon Kusler noted what’s at stake when wetlands are threatened: cold-water fish habitat, shellfish production, waterfowl breeding and feeding grounds, rare and endangered species habitat, and important links in the food chain. His report also underscored the sensitivity of wetlands to climate shifts.

“Flora and fauna in wetlands are especially sensitive to small, permanent changes in water levels, while similar small changes in water levels often have less impact upon rivers, streams and lakes,” he wrote.

In a delicate balance, a healthy wetland depends not just on water, but water at the right time in the right amounts. Climate change threatens that balance. Too much water at the wrong time could turn sensitive marshes into open water – a major concern for the Northwest’s coastal estuaries as sea levels rise. Inland, rising temperatures, dwindling snowpacks, wetter winters coupled with drier summers may mean that lower-elevation wetlands will simply dry out.

“A lot of wetlands could be lost,” Aldous said. “It’s almost inevitable.”

The Nature Conservancy is trying to lessen that loss with conservation projects across the state, from the Klamath Basin to the riparian areas of the John Day River and its tributaries, she said. Government agencies and other organizations are partners in those efforts, which seek to protect and restore key areas that are important both for replenishing groundwater and for wildlife diversity.

Aldous said a key step is to reconnect stream channels to their flood plains, removing manmade barriers where possible.

“The pace that we’re doing that kind of work sometimes seems frustratingly slow,” she said.

However, it is light years away from the attitude half a century ago, when wetlands were viewed as sources of contaminants and disease and the government sponsored efforts to drain and fill these critical areas.

“The values of wetlands weren’t well recognized,” she said. “We’ve learned a lot since then.”

The NWF’s Glick said the Northwest has been on the cutting edge in recognizing the science of climate change, and in beginning to mitigate the impacts. Collaboration between conservation groups, government agencies, citizens and industry will be important as those efforts continue, she said.

With the focus on habitat, conflicts over water uses and land access may be inevitable.

Glick said it’s important for all parties to realize the fundamental importance of healthy natural ecosystems, not just as a cultural resource but to our economy – for tourism, hunting and fishing, water quality, agriculture and more. That makes it critical to find ways to use water more efficiently as temperatures climb, she said.

“We are fortunate in that we have the ability to figure out ways to deal with that. The fish and wildlife don’t,” she said.