Office of the Climate Change Advisor
Starting this year, each national forest and grassland will be tracking progress using a new 10-point scorecard. The Forest Service's research branch along with regional and national programs will provide support for this agency-wide effort.
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The Roadmap will help to guide the Forest Service as it works to ensure that national forests and private working lands are conserved, restored, and made more resilient to climate change.
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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
The Challenge of Wildland Fire Management in an Era of Climate Change
July 18th, 2011
Perhaps more than any other single issue, fire has shaped us as an agency. For more than 100 years, we’ve been suppressing, managing, and studying wildland fire. During that time, we have come a long way in understanding fire’s ecological role and our fire management policies have evolved. Climate is the most important natural shaper of ecosystems. It affects the location and composition of forests and the frequency and extent of wildfires. Across the United States, wildfire seasons have been getting worse, partly under the influence of a changing climate. From 2000 to 2008, at least nine states had record-breaking fires. From 2000 to 2009, almost 28,000 homes, businesses, and outbuildings burned in wildfires.
The Way We Talk About Climate Change
May 25th, 2011
My grandmother is ninety-seven years old. Over roughly the span of her life, the global average temperature has increased by about one and a third degrees Fahrenheit. I’ve never talked with her about climate change, but recently, I’ve been thinking about how that conversation might start and what information I could give to her.
Preliminary Scorecard Responses Are In
April 26th, 2011
In February, the Chief asked each National Forest and Grassland to complete an assessment using the Climate Change Scorecard. The Scorecard is designed to ensure a balanced approach to integrating climate change considerations into our programs and initiatives, so that we might continue to fulfill our mission to sustain the health, diversity, and productivity of the Nation’s forests and grasslands.
More News from the Climate
Change Advisor
- 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.
