USDA Southeast Regional Climate Hub Increases Climate Resilience Awareness and Climate-Smart Decision Making
The Eastern Threat Center-hosted USDA Southeast Regional Climate Hub (SERCH) is assisting farmers and forest managers with climate resilience awareness and climate-smart decision making through networks of state government, federal agency, and university partners. Among this year’s collaborative outreach efforts were webinars, including “Communicating Climate Change Impacts and Options to a Disbelieving Audience,” “A Fair & Balanced Look at Climate Variability, Change, and Impacts across the Southeastern U.S.,” “Weather Variability and Its Impact on Southern Forests,” “Climate Change Consideration when Developing Updated Seed Zones,” and “Introduction to the Southeast Regional Climate Hub and Tools to Help Landowners Make Climate-Smart Decisions.” SERCH staff and partners also delivered a series of workshops, including “Women Owning Woodlands,” “Climate Change and Natural Resource Management,” and the “Southern Regional Drought Adaptation Workshop,” as well as a field demonstration, “Cover Crop and Row Crop Field Day.” SERCH staff presented at local, reginal, and national meetings, such as Prepare, Respond, Adapt: Is Georgia Climate Ready?; Western Gulf Forest Health Conference; Climate Decision Tools Conference; PINEMAP: Pine Plantation Research and Decision Support Rollout; Ecological Society of America Annual Meeting; State Resource Conservationists’ Meeting; and the National, North Carolina, and South Carolina Soil and Water Conservation Society Annual Meetings. Efforts to extend the reach of available tools included increasing the footprint of the AgroClimate suite of sub-regional climate-driven agricultural support tools to the entire southeastern United States; co-developing the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service Climate Concerns and Adaptation Practices tool; and supporting the development of the Southern Forest Health Encyclopedia of plants, insects, fungi, and other threats.
Pictured: A workshop at Eglin Air Force Base conducted in cooperation with the Northern Research Station National Institute of Applied Climate Science helped land managers develop strategies to cope with climate concerns in their resource management areas. Photo by Michael Gavazzi, U.S. Forest Service.
Forest Service Partners/Collaborators: Eastern Seed Zone Forum; Northern Research Station National Institute of Applied Climate Science
External Partners/Collaborators: Universities of Arkansas, Georgia, Florida, and Tennessee; Southern Regional Extension Forestry; USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service; Soil and Water Conservation Society
Contact: Steve McNulty, SERCH Director, steve.mcnulty@usda.gov
