Recent and Future Trends in Forest and Rangeland Disturbances from the 2020 RPA Assessment

This webinar is part of a series of nine webinars focused on the 2020 Resources Planning Act Assessment, produced by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service every ten years. It was originally hosted on ForestEd, the Society of American Foresters' online learning platform. It has been lightly edited and uploaded here for easier sharing. If you would like to earn CFEs for this or other SAF offerings, please visit SAF's ForestEd learning platform. 

Webinar information: As climate, other biophysical factors, and management regimes change, disturbance regimes are being altered, with the possibility of some disturbance types becoming more frequent, severe, or longer in duration. These alterations have the potential to drive changes in the distribution, structure, species composition, or function of forest and rangeland ecosystems, putting those ecosystems at risk and presenting challenges for management. Identifying trends in disturbances on forests and rangelands enables examination of effects on forest and rangeland resources and can inform regional and national management and policy. This webinar will review results from the Disturbance Chapter of the 2020 RPA Assessment, summarizing recent changes in forest and rangeland exposure to fire and drought, and presenting future projections to 2070 based on RPA scenarios. To highlight the value of the RPA approaches, we will then hear about the ways in which RPA information on disturbance, in particular projected trends in drought, were used to inform the Forest Plan Revision process for the Nantahala and Pisgah National Forests in western North Carolina. 

Is this technical session for you? This webinar is intended for land managers, scientists, and policy makers—anyone interested in understanding how the exposure of forests and rangelands to disturbances in the U.S. has been changing over time and how it is likely to continue to change in the future. Changes in disturbances can have substantial effects on resources, so anyone with responsibility for evaluating or managing resources would benefit by learning more about ongoing trends and potential futures.