Move at-risk species to locations that are expected to provide more suitable habitat

The relocation of a species or population to a location outside of its current or historic range that will offer suitable habitat based on future climate projections is referred to as assisted migration, assisted colonization, or managed relocation. Considerable uncertainty surrounds the likelihood for success in such relocations, and a high failure rate for establishment is common. Risks include potentially invasive behavior of a translocated species, alteration of ecological processes (e.g., nutrient cycling), transport of diseases and parasites, and hybridization with closely related species. Given the high degree of uncertainty and potential risks, this approach is best reserved for situations where assisted migration will forestall extinction of an at-risk species.

This strategy seeks to enable transitions of communities to new desirable states through shifts in plant species composition while maintaining or producing desired wetland functions. Climate change may drive major alterations in wetland plant community composition and net primary productivity, as well as geographic shifts of some wetland types. Climate parameters are changing at a rapid and unprecedented pace, setting up conditions where local plants may no longer be ideally suited to local conditions. Habitat fragmentation and isolation further reduce the fitness and adaptive capacity of plant populations by causing reduced gene flow and inbreeding recession. For native wetland species that are already rare, these threats may render populations vulnerable to extirpation or extinction, forcing consideration of drastic measures such as assisted migration. Managers may determine that resisting such threats and changes is not feasible at some sites, and that managing for a range of acceptable trajectories is more practicable; monitoring outcomes and periodically re-evaluating restoration targets is essential when uncertainty is high.