Treesearch

Given the consequences and opportunities of the Anthropocene, what is our underlying theory or vision of successful adaptation? This essay discusses the building blocks of this theory, and how will we translate this theory into guiding principles for management and policy.

Anthropogenic climatic change can no longer be considered an abstract possibility. It is here, its effects are already evident, and changes are expected to accelerate in coming decades, profoundly altering wilderness ecosystems. At the most fundamental level, wilderness stewards will increasingly be confronted with a trade-off between untrammeled wilderness character and primeval, natural conditions, accompanied by increasing impetus for management intervention. Possible strategic responses to climatic change fall into four broad classes: restraint (do nothing), resilience, resistance...

Some of the greatest challenges to the management of federal forests in the Unites States result from inadequate public and private investment in proactive forest restoration projects. This situation has been exacerbated by the growing fiscal and logistical demands of wildfire suppression activities, which currently consume at least 40 percent of the U.S. Forest Service’s total budget. This paper presents some near-term policy, funding and collaborative management options that would enhance the ability of citizens and agencies to increase the pace and scale of beneficial forest treatments,...

America’s forests are undergoing changes unlike any seen before in human history. The concept of the Anthropocene Era, a new geologic epoch characterized by anthropogenic dominance over the Earth’s systems, has become an important framework for thinking about the processes and consequences of worldwide environmental change, particularly global climate change, widespread species extinctions, mega-forest fires, and the erosion of the Earth’s life support systems. If humanity is now in an epoch where large-scale ecological functions and relationships are outside the historic range of variabili...

Fire regimes of the Canadian boreal forest are driven by certain environmental factors that are highly variable from year to year (e.g., temperature, precipitation) and others that are relatively stable (e.g., land cover, topography). Studies examining the relative influence of these environmental drivers on fire activity suggest that models making explicit use of interannual variability appear to better capture years of climate extremes, whereas those using a temporal average of all available years highlight the importance of land-cover variables. It has been suggested that fire models...

The economic costs of flooding have increased in the United States over the last several decades, largely as a result of more people and property, and more valuable property, located in harm’s way (Pielke and Downton 2000). In addition, climate models predict increases in the intensity of precipitation events in many locations (Wuebbles and Hayhoe 2004; IPCC 2012). How such precipitation changes will alter flood risks is not well understood, but could lead to greater flood damages in the future. Given these findings, various stakeholder groups have suggested it is time to think more...

Forest-based ecosystem services are at risk from human-caused stressors, including climate change. Improving governance and management of forests to reduce impacts and increase community resilience to all stressors is the objective of forest-related climate change adaptation. The Model Forest Policy Program (MFPP) has applied one method designed to meet this objective since 2010. MFPP’s program, “Climate Solutions University: Forest and Water Strategies,” delivers a climate change adaptation process based on the 2007 publication by the Climate Impacts Group at the University of Washington,...

The Delaware River provides drinking water to 5 percent of the United States, or approximately 16.2 million people living in 4 states, 42 counties, and over 800 municipalities. The more than 1.5 billion gallons withdrawn or diverted daily for drinking water is delivered by more than 140 purveyors, yet constitutes less than 20 percent of the average daily withdrawals. Approximately 64 percent of the water withdrawal is used for thermoelectric cooling, a primarily non-consumptive use. The main stem of the Delaware River is free-flowing, such that permitted water withdrawal and discharge...

Cities throughout the United States have started developing policies and plans that prioritize the installation of green infrastructure for the reduction of stormwater runoff. The installation of green infrastructure as a managed asset involves relying on natural resources to provide a predictable ecosystem service, stormwater retention. The placement of green infrastructure in urban areas may result in additional ecosystem services, such as climate change resilience. While climate change mitigation may not be the goal for the installation, green infrastructure may provide the value-added...

Climate change is expected to affect forests into the future. Although forests have an inherent resiliency that allows them to adapt to various disturbances, including past climate change, concerns are expressed that the rate of change of current and future climate may be more rapid than the ability of many forests to adapt. This paper examines the background of forest challenges to natural disturbances. Recent research on the ability of forests to adapt is cited, as are their general projections. This paper notes that most research suggests that while some areas are likely to experience...