The Southeast Conservation Blueprint 2024 known issues are now updated based on the feedback from last year’s Blueprint workshops. You can find the new known issues here on the website and in the Blueprint development process final report, which is also included in the Blueprint data download. Although it takes awhile, I love going through all the comments. Not only does it help with updating the known issues, but it points to ways we could improve the next Blueprint.

I’m working on grasslands and savannas indicators today. So, I’ll give you a couple of examples of how workshop comments are helping improve that indicator. There were a few areas of longleaf being underprioritized near the Mississippi River. It turns out there are some landcover classification errors there that make wet longleaf look like bottomland hardwood. That issue is now fixed in the draft 2025 version of the indicator. One of the known grasslands is now a speedway. We weren’t accounting for potential loss of known grasslands in the indicator. That issue is now fixed in the draft 2025 version of the indicator.

Some of these issues are hard to find and often regionally specific. That’s why I’m so thankful to have so many eyes on the Blueprint during these workshops.

The Blueprint known issues serve two important purposes:

1. Prioritizing what to fix in future updates
2. Communicating important places and resources that the Blueprint seems to be missing.

That’s why we’re always trying to keep them updated, detailed, and available for everyone.