Partnership Network Turns Climate Change Science into Adaptation Action
Scientists and staff with the Eastern Threat Center and USDA Southeast Regional Climate Hub (SERCH) are leveraging collaborative partnerships to address regional climate change science needs; identify the effects of climate change and variability on forest, crop, livestock, and range lands; and communicate these findings to extension professionals and stakeholders who can help land managers take action. Working closely with the State Climate Office of North Carolina, SERCH is developing options for adapting working lands to a changing climate based on short- to long-term climate forecasts and projections. SERCH scientists are developing and actively supporting the use of tools and products that can help land managers address potential climate change effects, including the Template for Assessing Climate Change Impacts and Management Options (TACCIMO), Climate Hubs Tool Shed, Natural Resources Conservation Service Planning Process Climate Tool, SERCH LIGHTS drought alert service, Service Foresters Handbook mobile application, training workshops, website content (such as blogs, news, and event information), and user-friendly factsheets. Partners from Southern Regional Extension Forestry at the University of Georgia are producing and hosting summaries of these tools and products in webinars and online courses through their Climate Science Learning Network, which uses innovative technology to inform, educate, and engage stakeholders across the National Forest System, land-grant universities, extension communities, Natural Resource Conservation Service, industry and private consultants, and individual land owners and managers.
Right: A diagram illustrates the climate science information flow between USDA Climate Hubs; Climate Science Learning Network; and stakeholders at universities, in extension communities, and owners and managers of working lands. Click to enlarge.
Forest Service Partners/Collaborators: Southern Research Station Center for Forested Wetlands Research
External Partners/Collaborators: University of Georgia, Southern Regional Extension Forestry; State Climate Office of North Carolina
Contact: Steve McNulty
