Adapting forest management to climate change: The state of science and applications in Canada and the United States

Halofsky, Jessica E.; Andrews-Key, Sheri Anne; Edwards, Jason E.; Johnston, Mark; Nelson, Harry W.; Peterson, David L.; Schmitt, Kristen; Swanston, Christopher W.; Williamson, Tim

doi:10.1016/j.foreco.2018.02.037

Cited by 56 publications

(46 citation statements)

References 34 publications

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“…One approach to increasing adaptive capacity is to use existing vulnerability assessments (e.g., forest vulnerability assessments), where various stakeholders (including Indigenous and non-Indigenous communities, firms, and others) identify risks to resources, the values derived from these resources, and potential adaptation options to mitigate negative impacts. In North America, forest vulnerability assessments are part of a broader suite of climate change assessments that have been carried out in the past decade (Halofsky et al 2018). A synthesis of a dozen early attempts at forest vulnerability assessments distributed across Canada found that where collaborative processes were used in these assessments they were important in building local understanding and increasing local adaptive capacity, which are important determinants in identifying options and motivating action (Johnston and Edwards 2013).…”

Section: Policy Recommendation 3: Create and Implement Programs And Mmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…A synthesis of a dozen early attempts at forest vulnerability assessments distributed across Canada found that where collaborative processes were used in these assessments they were important in building local understanding and increasing local adaptive capacity, which are important determinants in identifying options and motivating action (Johnston and Edwards 2013). Halofsky et al (2018) examined the use of these assessments across the United States and Canada; they found that while these vulnerability assessments and development of adaptation planning and strategies were growing in terms of organizational changes and awareness, and on-the-ground examples continue to proliferate, to be effective the goal should be to incorporate vulnerability assessments into business-as-usual decisionmaking (i.e., mainstreaming) so that climate change becomes a part of sustainable resource management. In the boreal zone, support for these kinds of assessments could provide not only a structured way to tackle the need to develop increased adaptive capacity but can also offer a way to connect and tie together policy development at different levels.…”

Section: Policy Recommendation 3: Create and Implement Programs And Mmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Reimagining energy in the Canadian boreal zone: policy needs to facilitate a successful transition to a low-carbon energy future¹

et al. 2019

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Canada will be unable to meet its greenhouse gas pledges-of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 30% over 2005 levels by 2030-without transitioning away from the current high-carbon economy. This transition will bring new challenges, especially to the Canadian boreal zone. The boreal zone continues to experience intensive natural resource activities including the extraction of forest, mining, oil and gas, and renewable energy products, which in combination with climate change, is placing the future sustainability of the boreal zone at risk. We explored policy options to reduce the risk to the future sustainability of the boreal zone in light of the inevitable energy transition to either a higher or a lower dependence on carbon and the uncertainty of society's capacity to adapt to change. Current policies are putting us on a path towards failure to achieve sustainability of the boreal zone. While current policies may be moving us towards a low-carbon future, they lack a shared vision of what the energy transition will be and engagement by those members of society most impacted; they are top-down, prescriptive, and fragmented, and they lack capacity, accountability, and enforcement. Together these limitations create barriers to society's capacity to adapt to the low-carbon future. Sustainability of the boreal zone will not only require a transition to a low-carbon economy but will require policies that overcome these barriers and create a higher capacity for society to adapt.

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Section: Policy Recommendation 3: Create and Implement Programs And Mmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Policy Recommendation 3: Create and Implement Programs And Mmentioning

confidence: 99%

Reimagining energy in the Canadian boreal zone: policy needs to facilitate a successful transition to a low-carbon energy future¹

et al. 2019

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“…Broad-scale monitoring of aquatic systems in combination with climate change vulnerability assessments should help prioritize the type and location of future forest management activities (Halofsky et al 2018) in a manner that fosters the protection of aquatic biodiversity. This rule not only requires monitoring to inform decisions at the forest scale but also at broader scales.…”

Section: Developments In Forest Service Aquatic Monitoringmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This requirement will foster monitoring stream and watershed conditions at a national scale through tools such as Watershed Condition Framework. Broad-scale monitoring of aquatic systems in combination with climate change vulnerability assessments should help prioritize the type and location of future forest management activities (Halofsky et al 2018) in a manner that fosters the protection of aquatic biodiversity.…”

Section: Developments In Forest Service Aquatic Monitoringmentioning

confidence: 99%

Conservation of Aquatic Biodiversity in the Context of Multiple‐Use Management on National Forest System Lands

et al. 2018

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The U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Service (USFS) manages 193 million acres of public lands across 43 states and Puerto Rico. The original intent behind reserving lands managed by the USFS was to improve and protect forests, secure favorable conditions for water flows, and furnish a continuous supply of timber for the nation. Through time national forests have evolved, so they are managed for a broad array of uses. Differing expectations have led to conflicts between aquatic conservation and other aspects of the USFS’ mandate. In the 1990s, these conflicting goals came to a head with the listing of the northern spotted owl Strix occidentalis caurina and the need to better protect streams that fostered populations of anadromous salmonids. To better balance these conflicting uses, the agency placed additional emphasis on conserving and restoring aquatic systems by integrating conservation concepts into the forest planning process. If the USFS is to succeed in protecting and restoring aquatic biodiversity, it must continue to address traditional challenges such as minimizing the effects of timber harvest, roads, grazing, and mining on aquatic systems while improving policies and practices regarding contemporary challenges such as climate change and invasive species.

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“…Evaluating vulnerability and uncertainty is part of an overall adaptation framework that also includes characterizing change and elucidating strategy and then responding to assessment results through management and monitoring (Halofsky et al. ). Accordingly, it is necessary to understand vulnerability patterns at subregional scales that are relevant to land managers (e.g., watersheds to subbasins; Peterson et al.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Using climate projections to assess ecosystem vulnerability at scales relevant to managers

2019

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Land managers require information about the ongoing and potential effects of future climate to coordinate responses for ecosystems, species, and human communities at scales that are operationally meaningful. Our study focused on the vulnerability for all upland ecosystem types of Arizona and New Mexico in the southwestern United States. Local vulnerability across the two‐state area was represented by the level of departure for late 21st‐century climate from the characteristic pre‐1990 climate envelope of the ecosystem type at each given location, resulting in a probability surface of climate impacts for the two‐state area and an uncertainty assessment based on agreement in results among multiple global climate models. Though the results varied from one ecosystem type to the next, the majority of lands were forecast as high vulnerability and low uncertainty, reflecting significant agreement among climate model projections for the southwestern United States. We then tested our results in relation to ongoing ecological processes that have both regional and global change implications and discovered significant relationships with wildfire severity, upward tree species recruitment, and the encroachment of scrub into semidesert grassland. The testing helped determine the efficacy of the vulnerability surface, as a product of relatively high spatial and thematic resolution, in supporting local planning and management decisions. Most important, this study links climate and changes in vegetation by ecosystem processes that are already ongoing. The results affirm the value of climate model downscaling and show that this portable approach to correlative modeling has value in determining the location and magnitude of potential climate‐related impacts.

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Adapting forest management to climate change: The state of science and applications in Canada and the United States

Cited by 56 publications

References 34 publications

Reimagining energy in the Canadian boreal zone: policy needs to facilitate a successful transition to a low-carbon energy future¹

Reimagining energy in the Canadian boreal zone: policy needs to facilitate a successful transition to a low-carbon energy future¹

Conservation of Aquatic Biodiversity in the Context of Multiple‐Use Management on National Forest System Lands

Using climate projections to assess ecosystem vulnerability at scales relevant to managers

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Adapting forest management to climate change: The state of science and applications in Canada and the United States

Cited by 56 publications

References 34 publications

Reimagining energy in the Canadian boreal zone: policy needs to facilitate a successful transition to a low-carbon energy future1

Reimagining energy in the Canadian boreal zone: policy needs to facilitate a successful transition to a low-carbon energy future1

Conservation of Aquatic Biodiversity in the Context of Multiple‐Use Management on National Forest System Lands

Using climate projections to assess ecosystem vulnerability at scales relevant to managers

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About

Reimagining energy in the Canadian boreal zone: policy needs to facilitate a successful transition to a low-carbon energy future¹

Reimagining energy in the Canadian boreal zone: policy needs to facilitate a successful transition to a low-carbon energy future¹