Training at the National Conservation Training Center

Microlearning videos provide online learners with the knowledge and skill development they require to achieve their objectives. Here are a few from the employees at the National Conservation Training Center (NCTC). 

Algae Culture for Freshwater Mussel Propagation

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These videos were produced by NCTC with assistance from White Sulphar Springs Fish Hatchery, White Sulphar Springs, WV.  They are intended to be used with the manual below.  The manual describes the algal culture methods designed by Drs. David and Pam Orcutt under contract with the White Sulphur Springs National Fish Hatchery (US Fish and Wildlife Service).

Algae Culture for Freshwater Mussel Propagation Manual

• Algae Culture for Freshwater Mussel Propagation Introduction (00:01:57)
• Sterile Technique (00:02:28) See Manual page 2.

• Algae Media Preparation (00:03:03) See Manual page 5.

• Backing up Algae Slant Cultures (00:06:07) See Manual page 8.

• Stepping up from Slant Culture to Flask Culture (00:09:46) See Manual page 11.

• Stepping up from Flask Culture to Carboy Culture (00:14:40) See manual page 13.

• Large Scale Production of Algae (00:01:58)

Climate Adaptation

Natural resource managers and conservation professionals face challenges and uncertainty with the changing climate. The videos below describe the various aspects of climate change climate change
Climate change includes both global warming driven by human-induced emissions of greenhouse gases and the resulting large-scale shifts in weather patterns. Though there have been previous periods of climatic change, since the mid-20th century humans have had an unprecedented impact on Earth's…

Learn more about climate change impacts to natural resource management, addressing uncertainty as it relates to climate change, understanding and using climate models, and addressing future climate scenarios. They serve to ​complement the ‘Climate Fundamentals for USFWS Employees’ training.

• Climate Change 101: The Observed Evidence for Warming World
• Climate Change 101: Carbon Dioxide and the Earth's Atmosphere - How Human Activities are altering the Greenhouse Effect
• Climate Change 101: Observed Impacts - How Climate Change is already altering our World
• Climate Change 101: Future Impacts - How Climate Change will affect the United 
• Climate Impacts 201: Great Plains
• Climate Projections 301: Uncertainty
• Climate Projections 301: Downscaling
• Climate Projections 301: Future Scenarios
• Climate Projections 301: Global Climate Models
• Climate Projections 301: Sea Level Rise
• Advanced Application 401: Future Scenarios

Collaboration and Conflict Transformation in Multiparty Processes

Natural resource managers and conservation professionals involved in multiparty collaborative decision processes face increasingly complex decisions where underlying conflict can undermine their efficacy if unknown or inappropriately addressed. Distinct from workplace interpersonal conflict, these short videos focus on working with conflict in the context of a collaborative decision process. These select topics were chosen:

• What is Conflict?
• When to Engage in Collaborative Process
• Collaborative Process Design
• Addressing Impediments
• Getting to Yes: Introduction
• Getting to Yes: Practicing Skills
• Trust: Building & Maintaining Collaborative Relationships & Processes
• Distrust: Building & Maintaining Collaborative Relationships & Processes

Conservation Policy

These courses explore mission relevant policies and planning topics. Participants learn how to locate, interpret, and apply regulations resulting from policy and law.  You can view all videos in this series by going to the Section 7 Interagency Consultation YouTube playlist.

Section 7 Section 7
Section 7 Consultation The Endangered Species Act (ESA) directs all Federal agencies to work to conserve endangered and threatened species and to use their authorities to further the purposes of the Act. Section 7 of the Act, called "Interagency Cooperation," is the mechanism by which Federal…

Learn more about Section 7 Interagency Consultation

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• Welcome to Section 7

• ESA Overview

• What is Section 7

• Incidental Take

• Introduction to Federal Register

• Use of 50 CFR

• The Process of Section 7 Consultation

• Definitions Final

• Section 7(1)(a)

• Deep Dive into Section 7

Decision Analysis

These videos build the knowledge and skills needed to make better decisions. Most videos are based on the Problem, Objectives, Alternatives, Consequences & Tradeoffs (PrOACT) model and the Structured Decision Making (SDM) process.

• Differentiating Decision Analysis
• Components of a Decision
• Warning: Retrospective Storytelling
• Good Decision Bad Outcome
• What Makes a Good Decision
• Bad Decision Good Outcome
• Pitfalls of Human Decision Making
• Centrality of Objectives

Know Your Mission

The ‘Know Your Mission series’ is intended to introduce new employees or employees with new responsibilities to the laws, policies, and guidance that the Service operates under.

• The Wilderness Act