Climate Change Analyses
Climate Change Analysis
File size: 702 KB
This is a sample of a Climate Change Analysis, created for one Woodlots Program participant.
In order to provide Climate Change Analyses to our Woodlots members, Cold Hollow to Canada follows a process outlined by the Climate Change Response Framework, a partnership among numerous organizations, agencies, and individuals working to incorporate climate change considerations into natural resource management. This group has put together an Adaptatioin Workbook, which outlines a set of Strategies and Approaches that can be incorporated into forest management with a goal of maintaining forest resilience.
Cold Hollow to Canada starts by obtaining a copy of each participating landowner's forest management plan--from the landowner directly, through a consulting forester, or from a County Forester. In conjunction with the Vermont Department of Forests, Parks, and Recreation, we then go through each management plan, identifying ways in which landowners are already implementing the approaches and strategies outlined in the Adaptation Workbook. We compile these into a report and return the report to each landowner.
Photo by Monica Przyperhart
It is important to note that most landowners we encounter have not been trying to manage their forests with climate change in mind prior to this analysis. Some wonder if we will find anything at all that they are already doing to aid forest resilience. Because many climate strategies overlap with other sustainable management solutions, and because some measures are incorporated into the requirements of Vermont's Use Value Appraisal (Current Use) Program, we have always found that each landowner is already implementing multiple climate resilience strategies. This helps to reinforce the rationale for conducting particular practices, and it often allows landowners to feel more confident that they can play a role in the overall climate resilience picture without too much extra effort on their part.
While the reports do not themselves suggest new strategies to enhance cimate resilience or adaptation through management, they do include the workbook's general list of approaches and strategies. This provides landowners with an overview of additional methods to consider.
Climate Change Analysis
File size: 573 KB
This is the synthesis of Climate Change Analyses for all participants in one CHC Woodlots Group. Landowner names have been changed to codes to protect privacy, but you can see how each landowner can see a menu of options for maintainin a climate resilient forest that are employed by neighboring landowners.
Additionally, Cold Hollow to Canada compiles all the Climate Change Analyses from a single Woodlots group into a synthesized report to distribute back to participants. This allows each landowner to see strategies that their neighbors are using. While not all strategies are appropriate for all properties, this is a tool for starting discussions among group members. Landowners can start to understand who is doing what, why a particular strategy has been chosen, and even follow up with practical information like recommended forest professionals, lessons learned, etc.