Forest ThreatNet

EFETAC research hydrologist Ge Sun co-organized a North Carolina tour for 24 senior-level Chinese State Forestry Administration delegates in early December. The tour focused on carbon sequestration and climate changes issues and included stops at North Carolina State University (NCSU), the Southern Research Station in Asheville, the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Weyerhaeuser Bioenergy Research/Demonstration Site in eastern North Carolina, and NCSU’s Schenck Memorial Forest. The delegates engaged in several lectures given by NCSU professors and EFETAC and SRS scientists, highlighting ongoing research efforts in forest ecosystem management and sustainability.

Researchers Developing Online Tool to Assist Resource Managers with Climate Change Adaptation

EFETAC scientists and forest planners from the Forest Service’s Southern Region and Southern Research Station are combining talents and interests to develop the Template for Assessing Climate Change Impacts and Management Options (TACCIMO), a Web-based tool designed to align information needs with available and emerging climate research. TACCIMO allows users—including federal, state, and private land owners and managers—to connect scientifically reviewed climate change impacts and management options with forest planning. The TACCIMO tool generates customized reports for adapting to climate change and minimizing negative impacts. Visit www.forestthreats.org/tools/taccimo to learn more and to follow TACCIMO’s progress.

Ecosystem Services Model to Expand Beyond U.S. Borders

EFETAC is developing the “Water Supply Stress Index – Carbon Biodiversity” model (WaSSI-CB) to assess interactions among water, carbon, and biodiversity, and will soon utilize data from across the Americas. With support from Forest Service International Programs, EFETAC ecologist Steve McNulty met with Brazilian agriculture and forestry officials in late 2009 to discuss the model’s applications to that country’s unique challenges related to biodiversity, climate, and land use change. Also, as chair of the North American Forest Commission’s climate change working group, McNulty proposed WaSSI-CB’s expansion to include Central America and Canada at a commissioners’ meeting in Guadalajara, Mexico, this spring.

Closer to home, EFETAC scientists have begun a collaboration with North Carolina State University and North Carolina’s Department of Environment and Natural Resources Wildlife Resources Commission to use the model in a finer scale examination of climate change impacts on North Carolina wildlife habitat.

Scientist Provides Far-Reaching Guidance on Climate Change and Water Issues

Steve McNulty worked with scientists from Canada and Australia to prepare a report commissioned by the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD). The report, “Forest Resilience, Biodiversity, and Climate Change: a synthesis of the biodiversity/resilience/stability relationship in forest ecosystems,” was developed to guide discussions at the monumental United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP15) in Copenhagen, Denmark, last December. While COP15 was underway, McNulty traveled to Washington, DC, to brief Forest Service Chief Tom Tidwell on climate change, water issues, and research in the eastern United States. This was McNulty’s fourth briefing to a Forest Service Chief since 2002. The CBD report and the Chief’s briefing paper are available at www.forestthreats.org.