Forest conservation and management in the Anthropocene: Conference proceedings

Abstract

Climate change is but one aspect of the Anthropocene, a new epoch in which the effects of human activities have become the predominant force in the global biosphere. More than just an overlay on the traditional concerns of sustainable natural resource management, the uncertainties associated with these effects are creating a "no-analog future" in which much of the existing science relating to the functioning and response of forest ecosystems - which serves as the fundamental basis for current forest management practices and policies - must be reconsidered. In these collected papers, leading scientists, resource managers and policy specialists explore the implications of climate change and other manifestations of the Anthropocene on the management of wildlife habitat, biodiversity, water, and other resources, with particular attention to the effects of wildfire. Recommendations include the need for a supporting institutional, legal, and policy framework that is not just different but more dynamic, to facilitate resource management adaptation and preparedness in a period of accelerating environmental change.

Titles contained within Forest conservation and management in the Anthropocene: Conference proceedings

• Introduction
• Climate change in the age of humans
• Evidence-based planning for forest adaptation
• Adapting forest science, practice, and policy to shifting ground: From steady-state assumptions to dynamic change
• Evolving conservation paradigms for the Anthropocene
• Terrestrial protected areas: Threats and solutions
• Briefing: Climate and wildfire in western U.S. forests
• Forest ecosystem re-organization underway in the southwestern United States: A preview of widespread forest changes in the Anthropocene?
• Increasing resiliency in frequent fire forests: Lessons from the Sierra Nevada and western Australia
• Planning the future's forests with assisted migration
• Invasive plants, insects, and diseases in the forests of the Anthropocene
• Indigenous experiences in the U.S. with climate change and environmental stewardship in the Anthropocene
• Journeying into the Anthropocene - Scots pine and eastern hemlock over the next 400 years
• Mitigating Anthropocene influences in forests in the United States
• Challenges and opportunities for large landscape-scale management in a shifting climate: The importance of nested adaptation responses across geospatial and temporal scales
• Implementing climate change adaptation in forested regions of the United States
• Improving the role of vulnerability assessments In decision support for effective climate adaptation
• Maintaining forest diversity in a changing climate: A geophysical approach
• Adaptation approaches for conserving ecosystems services and biodiversity in dynamic landscapes caused by climate change
• Adaptation: Forests as water infrastructure in a changing climate
• Water source protection funds as a tool to address climate adaptation and resiliency in southwestern forests
• Measuring resilience to climate change: The benefits of forest conservation in the floodplain
• A community based approach to improving resilience of forests and water resources: A local and regional climate adaptation methodology
• Climate change effects on forests, water resources, and communities of the Delaware River Basin
• Cumulative effects: Managing natural resources for resilience in the urban context
• Considerations for forest adaptation to climate change in sustainable production of wood/fiber/biomass and ecosystem services
• National Wildlife Refuges: Portals to conservation
• Policy challenges for wildlife management in a changing climate
• Evolving institutional and policy frameworks to support adaptation strategies
• Climate change: Wilderness's greatest challenge
• Evolving the policy framework: Budget strategies, legislative authorities, and management strategies to facilitate federal forest adaptation and collaborative partnerships
• Summary and synthesis

Citation

Sample, V. Alaric; Bixler, R. Patrick, eds. 2014. Forest conservation and management in the Anthropocene: Conference proceedings. Proceedings. RMRS-P-71. Fort Collins, CO: US Department of Agriculture, Forest Service. Rocky Mountain Research Station. 494 p.