Office of the Climate Change Advisor
Newsletters
The many benefits we receive from forests and grasslands - provisioning services such as water, wood, and wild foods; regulating services such as erosion, flood, and climate control; and cultural services such as outdoor recreation, spiritual renewal, and aesthetic enjoyment - are threatened by climate change. The Climate Change Advisor is the primary spokesperson for the Forest Service on climate change and leads the implementation of the nationwide strategy for weaving climate change response into policies, processes, and partnerships.
Engaging a Climate Change Ready Agency
Our Changing Climate ... A Clear and Present Reason for Restoration
September 20th, 2012
Scientists are accumulating evidence that shows that the warming of the climate is changing the odds of extreme events like floods, droughts, heat waves, and downpours. Longer and more intense heat waves and less intense cold temperatures are being observed and the vast majority of scientific models project that these patterns will intensify throughout the 21st century. We also know that these patterns are altering the frequency, intensity, and timing of events such as fires, heavy precipitation, and insect infestations – disturbances that influence the structure, composition, and function of the forest and grassland ecosystems that we manage.
Getting Straight to the Good Stuff
March 1st, 2012
In honor of leap year, we are leaping over Dave’s essay section and getting right to all of the details of climate change related research, management activities, and communications in the Forest Service. We're learning from each other as we all work to bring climate change knowledge into our organizational expectations and actions.
December 29th, 2011
The owner of a woodlot, rattled by an ice storm, faces an expensive clean up job, with few markets for the damaged timber. A city faces the cost of dredging silt from its reservoir after intense rainfall erodes a severely burned watershed. Managers of a tribal forest, recently burned over, struggle through an extended drought and shortages of seedlings suited to a drier future. These and similar situations that result from extreme weather events are likely to increase.
Results of the Scorecard 2011 Baseline Assessment
October 31st, 2011
The National Forests and Grasslands recently completed their 2011 baseline assessment using the Climate Change Performance Scorecard. The responses provide us with a rich source of information about how climate change considerations have already been incorporated into our programs and initiatives. Over the next few months, we will be reviewing the results and producing a number of reports in order to share the stories told in the narratives. Totaling up the yes and no answers is quite a bit easier so we've got those numbers to share with you already.
Managing Risk: Key to Climate Change Adaptation
September 13th, 2011
We face multiple risks every day as resource managers. We are pretty good at intuitively understanding the likelihoods of different hazards, the uncertainties around them, and their potential impacts on the resources we value, and we use this understanding in our resource management decisions. But the risks we manage are rapidly changing with the climate. Sustainability can no longer presume stationarity. To sustain the benefits of our forests and grasslands, our risk management approach itself must adapt to changing means and extremes. We may have to become even better at the techniques and principles of risk management. Our experience and intuition will only take us so far in a rapidly changing world.
More News from the Climate
Change Advisor
- Managing Risk: Key to Climate Change Adaptation
9/13/2011 - The Challenge of Wildland Fire Management in an Era of Climate Change
7/18/2011 - The Way We Talk About Climate Change– 5/25/2011
- Preliminary Scorecard Responses Are In – 04/26/2011
- Increasing Our Shared Understanding – 03/02/2011
- Assessing Our Progress – 02/02/2011
- Carbon Matters Too – 12/8/2010
- Preserving the Northwoods Landscape for Future Generations – 10/4/2010
- "Building in" a balanced response to climate change... and being accountable – 08/31/2010
- Getting Organized – 7/7/2010
- Becoming a Climate Ready Conservation Agency– 6/4/2010
The Climate Change Resource Center (CCRC) provides information and tools to land managers to address climate change in project planning and implementation. The CCRC offers educational information, decision-support models, maps, simulations, case studies, and toolkits.