Forest ThreatNet

Forward-thinking natural resource management strategies result from collaborations among networks of partners and teams representing diverse areas of responsibility and expertise. EFETAC scientists and staff are contributing to several ongoing efforts to address natural resource management issues across all lands, including:

• The US Global Change Research Program’s National Climate Assessment – EFETAC researchers Steve McNulty and Ge Sun are leading teams of federal and state scientists that are assessing how climate change will affect forest and water resources, respectively, across the southeastern United States. The completed Assessment is expected to be released in late 2012. For more information, visit www.globalchange.gov.

• Every ten years, the Resources Planning Act Assessment provides reliable information on the status, trends, and projected future of the nation’s renewable resources. For the 2010 Assessment, EFETAC research ecologist Kurt Riitters assessed the fragmentation and landscape context of US forest, grass, and shrub lands, and provided summaries of forest areas that qualified as protected land under International Union for Conservation of Nature criteria. See www.fs.fed.us/research/rpa for more information.

Right: Spatial patterns of land cover in the United States: a technical document supporting the Forest Service 2010 RPA Assessment

• The Southern Forest Futures Project (SFFP) anticipates and analyzes future challenges and opportunities for land management in the southern United States. EFETAC scientists Steve McNulty, Jennifer Moore Myers, Peter Caldwell, and Ge Sun authored the SFFP technical report’s climate change chapter and, along with Erika Cohen, also co-authored a chapter on water and forests. Report findings are being incorporated into EFETAC’s Template for Assessing Climate Change Impacts and Management Options. Learn more at www.srs.fs.usda.gov/futures.

• The Climate Change Adaptation and Mitigation Management Options (CCAMMO) project analyzes forest management options for guiding natural resource decision making in a changing climate. EFETAC scientists contributed chapters on ecological and economic vulnerability and risk, water quality and quantity, and invasive species to the CCAMMO project. A peer-reviewed CCAMMO document will be released this year. Visit www.forestthreats.org/current-projects/project-summaries/ccammo for more information.

CRAFT Supports Development of National Cohesive Wildland Fire Management Strategy

Wildland fire management approaches are held by diverse agencies, organizations, and individuals. The National Cohesive Wildland Fire Management Strategy is a broad-reaching effort designed to address these complexities and, ultimately, help society live better with wildland fire.

EFETAC’s Comparative Risk Assessment Framework and Tools (CRAFT)—a planning and decision support system developed in partnership with the University of North Carolina Asheville’s National Environmental Modeling and Analysis Center—provides the underlying process for developing the Cohesive Strategy.

EFETAC director Danny Lee and ecologist Steve Norman are working with national and regional teams to help identify objectives, explore broad management options, and to accurately predict the outcomes and tradeoffs of potential decisions related to wildland fire.

For more information on CRAFT and the Cohesive Strategy, see www.forestthreats.org/tools/craft and www.forestsandrangelands.gov/strategy.