New Research Can Help Support Health of National Forests

Americans cherish the 193 million acres of public lands in the National Forest System (NFS) for the many resources, values, and opportunities they support. In 44 states from coast to coast, our forests support biodiversity, connect people to the land, promote sustainable recreation economies, and provide ecosystem services. Seven in 10 Americans live within 100 miles of a national forest.

However, climate change is threatening the health of many of our national forests. Changing patterns in precipitation and temperature may put forested ecosystems at risk in the future. Factoring in other threats—such as catastrophic wildfire, drought, severe weather, and insect infestation—it’s clear that forest officials need a new approach to managing NFS lands.

Jace James USDA Forest Service Flickr

In light of these growing challenges, the U.S. Forest Service (USFS) is considering new policies that would support the health and sustainability of national forests. These updates have the potential to benefit both people and nature, now and into the future. The USFS can better incorporate climate change-ready practices in four ways.

1) Use the best available science.

Strong science should be the core of any new or updated policy. New management approaches adopted by the Forest Service should encourage the continual incorporation of sound scientific and climate-informed information, as well as collaboration among the agency, Tribes, governments, and stakeholders in the design and development of new research projects to address identified knowledge gaps.

To support this management approach, The Pew Charitable Trusts and Conservation Science Partners (CSP) have released new research that can be used to help inform management decisions with climate change effects in mind, an approach known as climate-ready management. This publicly available data can be viewed with a user-friendly, interactive web map. Designed with input from USFS, the research identifies:

• Areas of relatively high ecological value (HEVAs), such as places with high biodiversity, resilience to climate change, and significant carbon storage. Such prime locations would contribute most to sustaining forest health if managed with conservation as a priority.
• Areas where proactive forest management projects would mitigate the risk of large, severe wildfires, which would help to protect communities, ecologically valuable areas, and the provision of ecosystem services.

U.S. Forest Service Eastern Region Flickr

Together, this data can improve return on investment by identifying places where the right management or the right activities will provide the greatest set of benefits across multiple considerations.

2) Identify specific climate change-ready management tools.

Using the best available science, the Forest Service should identify specific strategies to help ecosystems and species resist or adapt to the impacts of climate change and related stressors. Such strategies include:

• Directing managers to prioritize HEVAs—after considering other important social and economic considerations—for strong conservation-oriented management.
• Promoting connectivity by retaining or restoring migration corridors for species such as mule deer.
• Replacing or removing culverts to allow aquatic species to move throughout streams.
• Restoring forests to their historic mix of young, mature, and old forest types where today’s conditions differ.

3) Monitor and adapt to changing conditions.

To understand the impact of management choices and trends of ecological conditions, the agency should develop more robust monitoring policies that regularly measure key indicators, such as annual rainfall and population of key species. Monitoring is critical and when science indicates a needed change, the USFS must pivot to incorporate a new management direction in a timely manner. Updated forest plans can serve as the starting point for this adaptive management approach.

4) Engaging communities and Tribes.

During the development of management plans, project design, and monitoring programs, the USFS must reflect the needs and desires of communities and Tribes that have a connection to national forests. Such meaningful engagement at every step of these processes will increase the quality and durability of the results.

National Forest Foundation USFS Flickr

The Forest Service is accepting public comment on how it can improve management of NFS lands and be climate change ready. The agency must hear from the public by July 20 about the need to update its policies to support the sustainability of our nation’s forest landscapes. Comments can be submitted to the agency here.

Pew looks forward to working with USFS and its partners on this important initiative to secure a resilient future for our treasured national forests.

John Seebach is a senior manager and Blake Busse is an officer with The Pew Charitable Trusts’ U.S. conservation project.