Large‐scale environmental impacts, such as those of climate change on fisheries, require policy and management action not only at the local level, but at regional, national and international levels. Fisheries biology and ecology, along with social, political and economic considerations, can influence policy design and implementation. Decision‐support tools can integrate these sciences to distil often complex, mechanistic and synergistic processes into a format that the public, policy makers and managers can use when designing strategies to ensure fisheries sustainability in the face of large‐scale environmental perturbations, such as climate change. Harvest management of lake whitefish, Coregonus clupeaformis (Mitchill), in the Laurentian Great Lakes provides an excellent case study to examine the value and utility of a decision‐support tool for inland fisheries management when considering the effects of climate change because this fishery is expected to be impacted by future changes in water temperature, ice cover and wind speed.

Welcome to the inaugural edition of the annual report for the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) National Climate Change and Wildlife Science Center (NCCWSC) and the Department of the Interior (DOI) Climate Science Centers (CSCs). More than three years ago, I was asked to come on a detail to organize and get the NCCWSC/CSC enterprise up and running. Little did I know that I would still be leading this enterprise today (at the time I was fairly convinced I would go back to being the Fisheries Program Coordinator at the U.S. Geological Survey). Three or four weeks later, Robin O'Malley joined this effort and along with Hardy Pearce, the three of us spent most of the first year figuring out how this whole enterprise was supposed to run. After some sleepless nights and very long days, I am very proud to say that the NCCWSC is almost fully staffed (one Research Grade Scientist vacancy remains with the retirement of Bruce Jones in July 2012), all eight CSCs are operational, seven of eight CSC directors have been hired, and we have hired our first research scientist at the Alaska CSC (and plan to hire a research scientist in the Southeast CSC). We have funded 69 new research projects in fiscal year (FY) 2012 whereby various aspects of climate change effects on fish, wildlife, and their habitats will be examined. I am also excited that the NCCWSC was able to help organize and produce the biodiversity, ecosystem and ecosystems services technical input to the National Climate Assessment, develop a webinar series to highlight the science outcomes of projects funded by NCCWSC, and will convene, in 2013, the first meeting of a Federal Advisory Committee to provide external advice and guidance to the program. There was no guidebook to start the NCCWSC/CSC enterprise and, although it is loosely modeled after the Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Units, we are still developing processes, procedures, guidelines, and approaches to implementing this initiative. We have made some mistakes along the way and had some successes, and I am quite certain there will be more bumps in the road, but I am very excited about how far we have come in a fairly short period. And I still get to dabble with fish and aquatic systems, which is the reason I got in this business in the first place and is one reason I care so much about the long-term sustainability of our natural systems. The NCCWSC and CSCs can provide world class science to support the long-term sustainability of our natural systems.

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