Context matters: How do changing landscapes affect forest dynamics and conditions?
An interdisciplinary working group of Forest Service staff and partners are co-developing the Landscape Drivers of Forest Change (LDFC) project. The project will provide understanding of how landscape change around forests influences the way forests themselves are changing, across the Southeastern US. The project is producing new maps and information to support monitoring, assessment, and planning efforts for Southern forests.
Land uses are changing in the landscapes around forests, and while beyond the control of forest
managers, these changes can influence forest processes. Forest management decisions can be improved when these drivers of change are understood and monitored. The LDFC project aims to develop links between field data measuring forest conditions, and remotely sensed data measuring landscape context and forest dynamics, to provide new insights into the drivers of internal forest change.
The project is focused on science-management integration, from the early planning stages to the delivery of usable products. A working group—forest managers, planners, and researchers from the USDA Forest Service and external tribal and non-profit partners in the Southern Region—was convened to define goals, products, and science delivery strategies. Stakeholders will provide continuing input through the life of the project to ensure the best possible management and planning usability. This ongoing project is building much-needed science-management bridges both within the Forest Service and with partners in the Southeast.
To date, products include data summaries describing the variability across the region in landscape context and forest disturbance and recovery processes over the past several decades. Researchers also created a new map showing the increase in intensity and extent of land development near forests from 2001-2016 for the Southeastern US.
Partners: USFS Region 8 Regional Office, National Forests of North Carolina, National Forests of Florida, Hemlock Restoration Initiative, USGS.
