Adaptation strategies and approaches for forest management

Background/Question/Methods

A changing climate and associated uncertainties will create new challenges in forest management.  In the scientific literature, climate change adaptation is often discussed as an abstract concept, without regard for the fact that decisions in forest management are based on ecological, social, and economic considerations that vary across ownerships and geographies. To address this disconnect, we have developed Forest Adaptation Resources: Climate Change Tools and Approaches for Land Managers.  This tool includes a menu of specific and applicable adaptation actions from which managers can select and refine actions that help them meet their management goals and objectives. Over 100 forest adaptation actions were synthesized from peer-reviewed and gray literature, expert solicitation, and on-the-ground adaptation projects.   

Results/Conclusions

Strategies and approaches were reviewed and refined for their applicability to common forest systems throughout the Midwest, Mid-Atlantic, and Northeast. This menu of adaptation actions include options that describe the concepts of resistance, resilience, and response (Millar et al. 2007). Strategies describe broad adaptation responses that consider regional ecological and management conditions. Approaches are adaptation responses that can be applied more specifically to a single forest type or community. Tactics are prescriptive actions that are necessarily designed by managers themselves to account for site-level conditions and management objectives (i.e., the specific actions that implement the adaptation approaches). The result is a menu of adaptation strategies and approaches that are integrated with the adaptation process and workbook. Managers select adaptation strategies and approaches based on their individual management objectives and geographic constraints, and then develop site-specific tactics. The adaptation strategies and approaches are currently being applied in forest management to adapt forest ecosystems to a range of anticipated climate conditions and ecosystem impacts. This presentation will describe the strategies and approaches and the benefits of using a menu-based hierarchy of adaptation actions.