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TNC’s Knowledge Base for Climate Change Adaptation

USDA Forest Service (USFS)

The mission of the USDA Forest Service is sustaining the health, diversity, and productivity of the Nation's 193 million acres of forests and grasslands to meet the needs of present and future generations. As set forth in law, the mission is achieving quality land management under the sustainable multiple-use management concept to meet the diverse needs of people.

U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack has made addressing climate change a core focus of the Forest Service. It was the first federal land management agency to issue a formal framework for addressing climate change in 2008, and a number of climate change research and adaptation activities are in progress.

The Forest Service has one of the best scientific databanks on climate change and forests and rangelands in the world. The Agency has more than two decades of climate change research that is supported by other research in watershed hydrology, fire management, nutrient cycling, wildlife and forest management.

 

> Strategic Framework, Roadmaps, Plans

Strategic Framework for Responding to Climate Change

The 2008 Framework 1) identifies overarching threats and challenges imposed by climate change to the Agency achieving its mission, 2) provides a vision for the Agency in responding to climate change and principles to guide the Agency in achieving the vision, and 3) outlines and describes seven overarching goals: science, adaptation, mitigation, policy, sustainable operations, education, and partnerships.

 

Landscape Conservation Action Plans (memo and news release, 11/2009)

Forest Service Chief Tom Tidwell has indicated The Agency's task is to translate the overall strategic framework for responding to climate change into its daily operations. He directed the Agency's regional foresters and research station directors to jointly produce draft area-specific action plans for landscape conservation by March 1, 2010 to guide its day-to-day response to climate change. A critical message in the directive is conjoining the management and research (science) arms of the Agency in a partnership.

 

National Roadmap for Responding to Climate Change

The Agency released a Roadmap in July 2010 for responding to changing climate that includes a scorecard system for rating effectiveness in dealing with climate change initiatives across the National Forest System (NFS). The Roadmap identifies Agency priorities in responding to related direction in the USDA's 2010-2015 Strategic Plan and provides guidance in implementing the Framework for Responding to Climate Change. It holds the Agency accountable for progress in four key areas: organizational capacity, partnerships and education, mitigation, and adaptation.

 

New National Forest Planning Rule

The Agency is revising its forest planning regulations to guide land managers in developing, amending, and revising land management plans for the 155 national forests and 20 grasslands in the NFS. Key elements of the planning regulations will drive climate adaptation planning, decision-making, and monitoring on national forests. Maintaining and restoring forest ecosystem resilience to climate change and other threats is a top management priority of the Agency. Developing monitoring strategies that can measure those elements of forest ecosystems that are integral to building such resiliency will be a key issue.

New Planning Rule, Input Requested (news release, 12/15/2009)

The Agency seeks public comment and input as part of a scoping process to identify issues, develop alternatives, and build planning rule content leading to a proposed new rule and draft Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) in December 2010. An EIS, prepared by the Agency, will analyze and disclose potential environmental consequences associated with the new planning rule.

 

Planning, NEPA Guidance for Addressing Climate Change

In the absence of a final revised planning rule, the Agency has issued interim guidance for integrating climate change information into forest plans under the current regulation framework and within documents prepared under NEPA. The planning guidance calls for a collaborative assessment between the NFS and Agency research stations of scientific information relevant to climate change for land management planning in the geographic region of the planning area.

In January 2009 the Agency issued guidance for considering climate change in project-level National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) analysis and documentation. The NEPA guidance outlines basic concepts: including the effects of agency actions on global climate change and effects of climate change on a proposed project, mitigating the effects of climate change on ecosystems, sequestering carbon, quantifying greenhouse gas emissions, and evaluating alternatives.

 

> Resources, Products, Tools

Climate Change Resource Center (CCRC)

The Agency includes a robust research and development branch with regional research stations conducting on-the-ground research on many adaptation-related topics. The CCRC provides information and tools to resource and land managers to address climate change in project planning and implementation. It offers educational information, decision-support models, maps, simulations, case studies, and toolkits.

For more than 20 years, Forest Service scientists have been studying and assessing climate change effects on forests and rangelands. The Forest Service Global Change Research Program is a part of the U.S. Global Change Research Program (USGCRP); research aims to restore, sustain, and enhance the Nation's forests and grasslands, provide and sustain benefits to the American people, and provide science-based applications and tools for sustainable natural resource management.

 

"Adapting to Climate Change: A Short Course for Land Managers"

This interactive, self-paced course presents current scientific knowledge on adapting to climate variability in wildland management. It is intended to help land managers plan for future climate-driven uncertainties and is organized around three central themes: climate variability and projections, ecological responses to climate variability, and management responses to climate variability. It is available as a DVD or online at the CCRC.

To order DVD, include this reference, PNW-GTR-789, and send an email to: mailto:mpnwpubs@fs.fed.us

Course produced by USFS, USGS, University of Washington and Oregon State University.

 

Technical Report, "Water, Climate Change, and Forests: Watershed Stewardship for a Changing Climate"

This Agency report (6/2010) describes adaptation opportunities in the context of water and aquatic ecosystems. Early sections of the report describe the importance of forests to water resources and summarize effects of climate change on the hydrologic cycle and forested watersheds. Later sections outline a feasible framework for response until more comprehensive adaptation strategies are developed and limitations in knowledge and capacity are addressed.

 

Guidance Document, "Responding to Climate Change on National Forests: A Guidebook for Developing Adaptation Options"

This Agency document (2/2011) contains science-based principles, processes, and tools necessary to assist with development of adaptation options on national forest lands. The adaptation process is based on partnerships between local resource managers and scientists who work in a collaborative manner. Because management objectives and sensitivity of resources to climate change vary among national forests, appropriate processes and tools for developing adaptation options may also vary. Regardless of specific processes and tools, four steps are recommended and described in the guidebook. Results of recent case studies on adaptation in national forests and national parks can facilitate integration of climate change in resource management and planning and make the adaptation process more efficient.

 

Guidance Document, "Scanning the Conservation Horizon: A Guide to Climate Change Vulnerability Assessment"

This 2011 document is a product of an expert workgroup on climate change vulnerability assessment convened by the National Wildlife Federation (NWF) in collaboration with U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The workgroup draws from state and federal agencies, including USFS, non-governmental conservation organizations, and universities. Financial support for the publication was provided by Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, DoD Legacy Resource Management Program, and several other organizations and agencies, including USFS Rocky Mountain Research Station.

Vulnerability to climate change, as the term is used in the guide, has three principle components: sensitivity, exposure, and adaptive capacity. The document focuses on providing practical guidance to practitioners for assessing climate change vulnerability of species, habitats and ecosystems in the U.S. It includes 1) an overview and basics of climate change vulnerability assessment; 2) methods and tools available for combining climate change exposure and species/system sensitivity in developing an assessment of climate change vulnerability (incl. types of data and models that can be used for vulnerability assessments); 3) measures to deal with uncertainty in these assessments; 4) specific case studies of vulnerability assessments; and 5) a reference section on climate change vulnerability assessment resources (publications, web-base tools).

Currently sufficient guidance is available on the likely physical change that will occur due to climate change and on developing climate change adaptation strategies and actions. However, little guidance is available on assessing the vulnerability and sensitivity of biological systems to the physical changes. This document fills a gap in available guidance, will be useful to TNC and its partners, and will nicely complement the TNC "Climate Change Project-Level Guidance" document.

 

U.S. Fire Learning Network (USFLN)

The USFLN is a joint effort of The Nature Conservancy, the  Forest Service and several other federal agencies with a goal of accelerating the implementation of ecologically appropriate and culturally acceptable fuels reduction and fire regime restoration in high-priority habitats and landscapes. It fosters innovation and transfers knowledge acquired from numerous multi-agency, community-based projects to other landscape projects, scientists and decision makers.

 

Connected Habitat Analysis

A multi-agency team including representatives of The Nature Conservancy and Forest Service is analyzing connected wildlife habitats in Washington and other states and including data about the expected effects of climate change in the analysis. Interconnected corridors of undeveloped land throughout the West are necessary for the survival of migratory wild animals.

 

Cooperative Ecosystem Studies Units (CESU) Network

The CESU national network has been established with an overarching goal of improving the scientific base for managing federal lands by providing high-quality scientific research, technical assistance, and education to resource and environmental managers. It is a nationwide consortium of federal agencies, universities, conservation organizations, and other partners working together to support agency missions and informed public trust resource stewardship. One objective is to build capacity and enhance coordination of climate change management and adaptation efforts among management agencies.

CESUs are based at host universities and focused on biogeographic regions of the country. To date the nation had been divided into 17 biogeographic regions, each served by a distinct CESU that is structured as a working collaboration among partners. Each regional unit operates independently and in association with one national network and is directed by specific mission, vision, goals and objectives and a strategic plan.

 

Technical Report, "The State of the Birds: 2010 Report on Climate Change"

The U.S. Committee of the North American Bird Conservation Initiative (NABCI) has released a systematic analysis (3/2010) of the effects of climate change on bird populations of the United States. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service was the lead agency in creating the report through a partnership with other organizations and government agencies, including The Nature Conservancy and Forest Service.

This 2010 report is the nation's first comprehensive assessment of the vulnerability of nearly 800 bird species to climate change. The report shows that climate change will have an increasingly disruptive effect on bird species in all habitats and outlines conservation actions that will be important as biological planning and design of large-scale conservation efforts are advanced. The Migratory Bird Joint Ventures, Land Conservation Cooperatives, and public/private partnerships for the conservation of birds, and the actions outlined in every state's State Wildlife Action Plan will be important tools as additional threats climate change will place on the birds of the nation are addressed.

 

The Agency and California climate change policy- opportunity for involvement, cooperation and collaboration (Agricultural Air Quality Task Force Meeting, May 2007)

 

New data highlights role of forests in fight against climate change through carbon storage; U.S. forests offset roughly 11 percent of industrial greenhouse emissions annually

 

 
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