National Roadmap for 

Responding to Climate Change

United States 

Department of 

Agriculture

Forest Service

FS-957b

February 2011
2 Forest Service

Nature is enormously complex. 

Climate change magnifies those complexities 

and introduces additional uncertainties.
National Roadmap for Responding to Climate Change 1

Introduction ...................................................................................... 2

Modes of Action................................................................................. 4

Assess................................................................................................ 5

 Risks and Vulnerabilities.............................................................................................5

 Knowledge Gaps..........................................................................................................7

 Policy ..............................................................................................................................8

 Monitoring.....................................................................................................................8

Assessment Actions ................................................................. 10

 Ongoing Activities.................................................................................................... 10

 Immediate Initiatives................................................................................................ 11

 Longer Term Initiatives............................................................................................ 12

Engage ............................................................................................ 14

 Research and Management Partnerships............................................................ 14

 All-Lands Approach .................................................................................................. 14

 Education.................................................................................................................... 15

Engagement Actions................................................................ 16

 Ongoing Activities.................................................................................................... 16

 Immediate Initiatives...............................................................................................XX

 Longer Term Initiatives............................................................................................ 16

Manage............................................................................................ 18

 Climate Change Adaptation ................................................................................... 18

 Climate Change Mitigation..................................................................................... 18

 Sustainable Consumption ....................................................................................... 20

Management Actions ............................................................... 21

 Ongoing Actions....................................................................................................... 21

 Immediate Initiatives................................................................................................ 23

 Longer Term Initiatives........................................................................................... 24

The Way Forward............................................................................ 25

Credits ............................................................................................. 26

Contents
2 Forest Service

Introduction

The mission of the Forest Service, U.S. Department of 

Agriculture (USDA), is to sustain the health, diversity, 

and productivity of the Nation’s forests and grasslands to meet 

the needs of present and future generations. Americans rely 

on their forests and grasslands for a wide range of benefits—

for provisioning services such as water, wood, and wild foods; 

for regulating services such as erosion, flood, and climate 

control; and for cultural services such as outdoor recreation, 

spiritual renewal, and aesthetic enjoyment. These services are 

connected and sustained through the integrity of the ecosystems on these lands. 

Climate change places those ecosystems at risk. Most of 

the urgent forest and grassland management challenges of 

the past 20 years, such as wildfires, changing water regimes, 

and expanding forest insect infestations, have been driven, in 

part, by a changing climate. Future impacts are projected to 

be even more severe. Managing America’s forests and grasslands to adapt to changing climates will help ensure that they 

continue to produce the benefits that Americans need, while 

helping to mitigate the effects of a changing climate and to 

compensate for fossil fuel emissions through carbon storage in 

healthy forests. 

The Forest Service has a long history of managing the 

national forests and grasslands to enhance ecosystem health, 

sustainability, and resilience. Working with the States, the 

Forest Service assists private landowners who wish to sustainably manage their woodlands and, increasingly, participate 

in markets and programs to gain credit for climate change 

mitigation activities. To these ends, the agency’s management 

strategies and actions have evolved to address a changing climate. Agency scientists are participants in national and international assessments of climate change effects on forests and 

grasslands, and they have summarized a range of management 

strategies to respond to climate change. Many of the agency’s 

actions to sustain and restore healthy, flourishing ecosystems 

are responses to changing climatic conditions. 

The sustainability of the Nation’s forests and grasslands, 

however, requires these programs and field units to work 

together even more closely in an integrated national response.

In June 2010, USDA released the 2010-2015 Strategic Plan

that guides its agencies towards achieving several goals including Strategic Goal 2—Ensure our national forests and private 

working lands are conserved, restored, and made more resilient to climate change, while enhancing our water resources. 

This goal has several objectives. Objective 2.2 is to lead efforts 

to mitigate and adapt to climate change. The performance 

measures under this objective seek to reduce greenhouse gas 

emissions by the U.S. agricultural sector, increase the amount 

of carbon sequestered on U.S. lands, and bring all national 

forests into compliance with a climate change adaptation and 

mitigation strategy. The Forest Service response to this goal 

includes this National Roadmap for Responding to Climate 

Change and a Performance Scorecard.

In October 2008, the Forest Service introduced a “Strategic Framework for Responding to Climate Change.” As field 

units began to implement the framework, the need emerged 

for a national roadmap to help the agency move from what 

it is already doing in response to climate change, through 

a range of additional short-term initiatives, to longer term 

investments in the future of America’s forests and grasslands. 

The roadmap set forth here builds on the strategic framework. 

Based on regional guidance, individual units can put this 

roadmap to use, using a performance scorecard to track local 

implementation. The Forest Service will hold itself accountable for progress under this roadmap in four major dimensions: agency or organizational capacity; partnerships and 

conservation education; adaptation; and mitigation (figure 1). 

National Roadmap for Responding to Climate Change
National Roadmap for Responding to Climate Change 3

Figure 1. The Forest Service Performance Scorecard 

for accountability in responding to climate change 

considers 10 elements in 4 dimensions.

Introduction

Agency Capacity

1. Educate employees.

2. Designate climate change 

coordinators.

3. Develop program guidance 

and training.

Adaptation

6. Assess vulnerability.

7. Set priorities.

8. Monitor change.

Partnerships 

and Education

4. Integrate science and 

management.

5. Develop partnerships 

and alliances.

Mitigation and 

Sustainable 

Consumption

9. Assess and manage 

carbon.

10. Reduce environmental 

footprint.

FS 

Response 

to Climate 

Change
4 Forest Service

Figure 2. The Forest Service will use three types of actions—assessing risks, vulnerabilities, policies, and knowledge gaps; engaging employees and external partners; and 

managing for adaptation and mitigation—in a continuous cycle of adaptive management informed by monitoring and evaluation.

Modes of Action

Modes of Action

The Forest Service will respond to climate change in three 

interconnected ways (figure 2): 

n Assess current risks, vulnerabilities, policies, and gaps 

in knowledge.

n Engage employees and stakeholders to seek solutions.

n Manage for resilience, in ecosystems as well as in human 

communities, through adaptation, mitigation, and 

sustainable consumption strategies.

All three modes of action are dynamic and mutually 

reinforcing. They are interconnected through monitoring 

and evaluation, forming a continual feedback loop to allow 

opportunities for adjustment in direction or tactics. 

Assess

n Risk/Vulnerability

n Policy

n Knowledge Gaps

n Management 

Outcomes

Manage

n Adaptation

n Mitigation

n Sustainable 

Consumption Engage

n Education

n Science-Management 

Partnerships

n Alliances
National Roadmap for Responding to Climate Change 5

Modes of Action: Assess

Nature is enormously complex. Climate change magnifies those complexities and introduces 

additional uncertainties. Not only is climate change having different impacts in different 

places; the likelihoods of those impacts will vary greatly. There will never be enough 

financial or other resources to address all of these risks. The first step in addressing 

climate change is to carefully assess the associated risks and vulnerabilities for natural 

and human communities alike. A primary role for scientists in addressing climate change 

will be to identify the associated knowledge gaps and fill them. As knowledge increases 

and uncertainty recedes, policies can be formulated and refined to better address climate 

change. Through careful monitoring, climate change and its impacts can be tracked, and 

the effectiveness of policies and the benefits of management actions can be evaluated.

Risks and Vulnerabilities

Climate change impacts will vary. Some ecosystems might 

experience only minor changes, whereas others might 

cease to exist, supplanted by new ecosystems. Impacts on 

water will also vary; desired ecosystem functions might diminish in some watersheds. Ecosystem vulnerability to climate 

change will depend on a suite of interacting factors, including 

the following:

n Climate change impacts on air and water quality.

n Plant community succession dynamics.

n The frequency and intensity of extreme events.

n Landscape patterns in relation to species dispersal.

n The magnitude of temperature and precipitation 

changes.

n Contextual features, such as topography and physical 

substrates.

n The ability of systems to adapt.

n Changes in disturbance regimes comprised of insects, 

pathogens, and wildland fire and their effects on key 

ecosystem processes.

Assess

Species vulnerability is also dependent on these factors, as 

well as on the sensitivity of individual species to change and the 

effectiveness of management actions in facilitating adaptation.

Infrastructure and human communities might also be 

vulnerable. Bridges, culverts, and campgrounds will be 

increasingly vulnerable to floods caused by rain-on-snow 
6 Forest Service

The Forest Service Response to Climate Change: Why It Matters

n Climate change could exacerbate global conflicts 

over natural resources, inducing mass migrations in 

coming decades. Stewardship of America’s forests 

and grasslands will become more critical than ever.

n Carbon dioxide uptake by forests in the contiguous 

United States offsets 11 percent of total carbon 

dioxide emissions. Forests and other ecosystems 

are carbon sinks, as they absorb CO2, thereby 

removing it from the atmosphere. Forest management activities will play a critical role in ensuring 

that forests remain a net carbon sink. 

n Forests are an important source of employment 

and rural development. More than 2.5 million 

Americans have forest-related jobs, including in forest management, outdoor recreation, and the forest 

products industry.

n The Forest Service manages more than 35 

million acres of designated wilderness areas, 

providing critical habitat and ecological connectivity. 

n Nearly one-fifth of the Nation’s water originates on the National Forest System. 

n Virtually all lands that the Forest Service manages are open for public recreation. Americans 

spend up to 7.5 billion activity days per year 

enjoying their national forests and grasslands. 

With 80 percent of the U.S. population residing in urban areas, public opportunities to connect with the land are more important than 

ever. 

Americans depend on forests and grasslands in many ways. Climate change will affect the ability of these lands to 

continue delivering a broad range of benefits, including clean air and water, habitat for wildlife, opportunities for 

outdoor recreation, and more. 

Modes of Action: Assess

Forests and Watershed Stewardship

A primary purpose for reserving Federal forest land at the turn of the 20th century was to 

protect watersheds. Today, roughly one out of five Americans depends on a national forest 

for drinking water. The quantity and quality of America’s water, however, are affected by 

a changing climate. Rising air temperatures mean less snow, along with faster and earlier 

snowmelts. Greater variability in the volume and timing of precipitation means more floods 

and droughts. Warmer water in lakes and streams alters critical fish habitat, while increased 

evapotranspiration leads to drier vegetation and more fire, insects, and pathogens. 

In an era of climate change, forests will play an increasingly vital role in protecting the Nation’s watersheds. Forests reduce erosion, recharge aquifers, regulate stream flows, moderate water temperatures, and protect water quality. Wild and scenic rivers on the national 

forests, with relatively little direct human impact, provide ecosystem connectivity along 

elevational gradients and serve as baseline watersheds for scientific study. As the climate 

changes, the importance of America’s forests is bound to grow as a source of clean and 

abundant water. A successful response to climate change will entail sound stewardship of 

America’s watersheds.
National Roadmap for Responding to Climate Change 7

events in warmer winters. Some groups of communities, such 

as American Indians, might be especially vulnerable because 

of location or cultural and economic circumstances. Some 

70,000 communities in the wildland-urban interface might be 

at additional risk from wildland fires. 

To address the risks and vulnerabilities associated with 

climate change, land managers will need science-based assessments of the relative vulnerability of key ecosystem components and their ability to adapt to increased stress. These 

assessments will help managers set priorities in maintaining 

healthy, resilient ecosystems and protecting communities and 

infrastructure. Basing their decisions on such assessments, 

land managers can avoid fragmented, piecemeal approaches 

and make cost-effective investments.

 Vulnerability assessments will need to span the range of 

ecosystem elements and values at risk. Designated wilderness areas and wild and scenic rivers will need to be studied 

to help determine the potential impacts of climate change on 

these unique resources and determine their important role 

in adaptation and mitigation. Vulnerability assessments are 

needed for communities, their institutions, and their capacity to adapt to disturbances associated with climate change. 

Vulnerability assessments are the basis for defining the social, 

economic, and ecological costs of inaction as a reference point 

against which to compare proactive adaptation measures.

Understanding climate change effects and the systems 

involved requires integration across agencies, disciplines, and 

programs. Numerous efforts to assess the vulnerability of 

species, ecosystems, and communities are already underway, 

and additional efforts are planned. Various methods have been 

applied and new methods are in development to provide a 

reliable suite of tools for assessing various aspects of vulnerability. Existing vulnerability assessments will need to be 

synthesized and interpreted, using the results to guide more 

targeted appraisals for forest and grassland ecosystems. Useful 

assessments will require strong partnerships among science, 

management, and communities.

Knowledge Gaps

Scientists know a great deal about climate change, but not 

yet enough to help land managers fully facilitate successful adaptation. Climate change models predict temperature 

increases reasonably well; with the magnitude varying by 

model and emissions scenario, but uncertainty still surrounds 

future precipitation patterns for different parts of the United 

States. The frequency of extreme weather events, such as 

floods and droughts, will likely increase, but the local and 

regional impacts remain far from clear.

Advances in climate change knowledge, both scientific and 

experiential, can temper the risks and vulnerabilities associated with climate change and its impacts. Fortunately, the 

Forest Service is well positioned to make those advances The 

agency has a century of experience in conducting, synthesizing, and applying forest and grassland research and in examining the social and environmental processes that maintain 

healthy, resilient ecosystems. Since the 1980s, the agency has 

studied the actual and potential impacts of climate change 

and ecosystem response.

Efforts are under way to improve projections at spatial and 

temporal scales relevant to land managers and policymakers. 

In its ongoing research, the Forest Service is trying to better 

understand the effects of changing temperature and precipitation regimes on the major forest and grassland stress agents 

such as fire, insects and disease, and invasive species, and the 

resultant vulnerability of plants and animals. More research is 

needed on the capacity of individual species to adapt or migrate, their likelihoods of extinction, and their possible roles 

in emerging ecosystems. 

The Forest Service’s Global Change Research Strategy for 

2009–19 (http://www.fs.fed.us/climatechange/documents/globalchange-strategy.pdf) will build a progressively stronger foundation for assessing climate change and its impacts. The research 

will continue to improve the scientific basis for a unified 

approach to managing ecosystems based on a better underModes of Action: Assess
8 Forest Service

standing of the uncertainties created by climate change. The 

strategy calls for research to help accomplish the following: 

n Enhance ecosystem sustainability (adaptation).

n Increase carbon sequestration and reduce emissions 

(mitigation).

n Provide better decision support.

n Address shared research needs (infrastructure, scientific 

collaboration, and science delivery). 

To these ends, Forest Service Research and Development 

is building on existing expertise in areas such as landscape 

ecology, watershed hydrology, vegetation modeling, nutrient 

cycling, wildlife ecology, and ecosystem management. Longterm data from Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) plots 

across the Nation and from the Forest Service’s network of 

experimental forests and ranges and its research natural areas 

will provide both a baseline on ecosystem composition and 

structure and a valuable network of sites for monitoring the 

future effects of climate change. 

Policy

Forest Service policies, developed over many years, were 

mostly devised before the agency took climate change 

into account in its programs for public land management and 

private landowner assistance. Such policies might not provide the most effective means for guiding actions to address 

climate change across broad landscapes, jurisdictions, and 

resource areas. The Forest Service will identify shortcomings 

in its policies, procedures, and program guidance, reformulating them where necessary to align resources with an effective 

climate change response and to more effectively collaborate 

with other Federal agencies, States, tribes, and other stakeholders for landscape-scale conservation.

Modes of Action: Assess

Monitoring

Monitoring will be key to the program’s success. Monitoring paves the way for assessments to be updated and 

validated, revealing critical new issues. A unified, multiscale 

monitoring system capable of detecting and evaluating national, regional, and local trends will enable land managers 

to develop and adjust adaptation and mitigation strategies to 

improve their effectiveness across landscapes and landownerships. Improved information delivery systems will provide reliable, timely, and transparent information to inform planning, 

decisionmaking, and project implementation at all levels.

The Forest Service and other organizations have monitoring 

programs, but they are not well integrated. Climate-informed 

planning and monitoring of forests and grasslands will focus 

on shared landscapes and broad spatial contexts across ecological regions. A comprehensive interagency approach is needed 

to connect various monitoring efforts and to fill information 

gaps. Other organizations have monitoring systems, data, 

and expertise that the Forest Service needs; other organizations can benefit from Forest Service data, including periodic 

updates on the overall condition of America’s forests. 

Mechanisms and methods for effectively monitoring climate 

change impacts and program effectiveness are developing. In 

the short term, the Forest Service will undertake three interrelated forms of monitoring: systematic monitoring, targeted 

monitoring, and effectiveness monitoring (see the sidebar 

Monitoring Strategies). The Forest Service will also monitor 

changing trends in human behavior, using U.S. census data, 

the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service’s Natural 

Resource Inventory, and other large-scale land use surveys. The 

agency will constantly reevaluate its monitoring mechanisms, 

integrating tools such as the FIA landowner survey and the 

Resources Planning Act (RPA) assessments, adjusting them to 

the pace and nature of climate-induced changes.
National Roadmap for Responding to Climate Change 9

Monitoring Strategies

Modes of Action: Assess

Systematic monitoring establishes monitoring locations across large areas, with monitoring stations often 

located in an established grid of various resolutions. An 

example of systematic monitoring is the Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) program, which uses a systematic 

plot-based system that has extensive coverage and uses 

standard measures within U.S. forest lands. FIA uses a 

broad suite of indicators to assess status and trends in 

forest resource conditions and health over time. The 

U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) National Stream Gauging Network, the USGS National Atmospheric Deposition Program’s National Trends Network, the Natural 

Resources Conservation Service’s Natural Resource 

Inventory, and the Environmental Protection Agency’s 

Ambient Air Quality Monitoring Program are additional 

examples of systematic monitoring programs. 

Targeted monitoring assesses particular areas based 

on specific objectives, using measurements or indicators related to those objectives. It obtains quantitative or 

qualitative population density and trend estimates in areas 

where a given species or community has been identified as 

potentially vulnerable. Targeted monitoring enables early 

detection of adverse climate change effects and facilitates 

rapid responses for adaptation or restoration needs. Examples include monitoring of weather-related changes in 

watershed hydrology and outbreaks of insects and diseases 

or invasive species in areas that have been identified as 

vulnerable to infestation due to climate change.

Effectiveness monitoring is focused on evaluating resilience and adaptation outcomes that result from on-theground activities. The aim is to determine the effectiveness 

of management actions taken to reduce stressors, enhance 

resilience, or conserve species.
10 Forest Service

Ongoing Activities

n Providing basic and applied science to help managers 

respond to climate change. The Forest Service’s Climate 

Change Resource Center (CCRC) Web site (http://www.

fs.fed.us/ccrc/) is continuously updated with new tools 

and information for managers. Efforts include the following:

– Upgrading carbon inventory and accounting tools, 

such as the Carbon OnLine Estimator (COLE) and 

I-Tree (for urban forest assessments) (http://nrs.fs.fed.

us/carbon/tools/).

– Evaluating potential future climate change impacts 

on ecosystems, thereby identifying vulnerabilities 

and helping to prioritize management actions.

– Using RPA assessments (http://www.fs.fed.us/research/

rpa/) to evaluate the effects of climate change, both 

current and projected, on America’s natural resources.

n Conducting workshops that bring scientists and managers together at local, regional, and national levels to 

facilitate learning and develop adaptation strategies. 

n Utilizing national monitoring networks, such as 

the FIA program (for forest cover and conditions); 

Integrated Monitoring of Protected Visual Environments, the Clean Air Status and Trends Network, and 

the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s National 

Atmospheric Deposition Network (for air quality); 

and the U.S. Geological Survey’s (USGS) National 

Water-Quality Assessment Program (for water quality). 

Other networks are associated with disturbances, such 

as insects and pathogens (Forest Health Monitoring), 

fires (Monitoring Trends in Burn Severity), and weather 

(remote automated weather stations).

Modes of Action: Assess

The Forest Service is already studying climate change, assessing risks and vulnerabilities, identifying knowledge gaps and monitoring needs, and formulating new policy designed to facilitate an 

effective response. The agency will continue such activities while undertaking a series of additional 

immediate and longer term assessment initiatives to help meet the challenge of climate change.

Assessment Actions
National Roadmap for Responding to Climate Change 11

Modes of Action: Assess

Immediate Initiatives

n Furnish more predictive information on climate 

change and variability, both immediate and longer 

term, building on current research capacity and partnerships with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric 

Administration, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, USGS, and other scientific agencies. 

– Develop, interpret, and deliver spatially explicit 

scientific information on recent shifts in temperature and moisture regimes, including incidence and 

frequency of extreme events.

– Provide readily interpretable forecasts at regional and 

subregional scales.

n Develop vulnerability assessments, working through 

research and management partnerships and collaboratively with partners. 

– Assess the vulnerability of species, ecosystems, communities, and infrastructure and identify potential 

adaptation strategies. 

– Assess the impacts of climate change and associated 

policies on tribes, rural communities, and other 

resource-dependent communities.

– Collaborate with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service 

and National Marine Fisheries Service to assess the 

vulnerability of threatened and endangered species 

and to develop potential adaptation measures.

n Tailor monitoring to facilitate adaptive responses.

– Expand observation networks, intensify sampling in 

some cases, and integrate monitoring systems across 

jurisdictions (see, for example, the national climate 

tower network on the experimental forests and 

ranges).

– Monitor the status and trends of key ecosystem 

characteristics, focusing on threats and stressors that 

may affect the diversity of plant and animal communities and ecological sustainability. Link the results to 

adaptation and genetic conservation efforts. 

n Align Forest Service policy and direction with the 

Forest Service’s strategic response to climate change.

– Review manuals and other policy documents to 

assess their support for the agency’s strategic climate 

change direction. Evaluate current policy direction 

for its ability to provide the flexibility and integration needed to deal with climate change.

– Develop proposals for addressing critical policy gaps.

Climate Change Resource Center

The Climate Change Resource Center (CCRC) is a Forest Service reference Web site for 

resource managers and decisionmakers who need information and tools to address climate change in planning and project implementation. The CCRC addresses the manager’s 

question, “What can I do about climate change?” by providing information about basic 

climate sciences and compiling knowledge resources and support for adaptation and mitigation strategies. The site offers educational information, including basic science modules 

that explain climate and climate impacts, decision-support models, maps, simulations, case 

studies, and toolkits. Visit http://www.fs.fed.us/ccrc/.
12 Forest Service

Since the early 1990s, the Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) program has provided official estimates of 

forest carbon stocks and flows for the United States. 

The estimates are used in international negotiations 

and domestic assessments. A three-phase approach is 

used to estimate changes in forest resources, including forest carbon stocks (see http://www.fia.fs.fed.us for 

more details):

n Phase 1: Remote sensing.

n Phase 2: Ground measurements of tree and plot 

attributes. 

n Phase 3: Additional measurements for bioindicators of forest health and diversity. 

Statistical estimates of forest area, species, and stand 

density are converted to ecosystem carbon estimates 

with known precision. This information has been incorporated into tools for estimating carbon stocks.

The Forest Carbon Calculator Tool estimates 

carbon sequestration in forests at the State level. 

State values are summed and used as the official 

U.S. forest carbon stocks reported to the United 

Nations Framework Convention on Climate 

Change. 

The Carbon OnLine Estimator (COLE) is a 

Web-based tool that generates carbon estimates 

based on FIA data for any part of the Continental 

United States, down to the county level. In 2004, 

COLE was named the official 1605b Web-tool by 

the U.S. Departments of Agriculture and Energy. 

A new version (COLE-EZ), designed for reporting estimates in the format for reporting to the 

Department of Energy for its national carbon 

registry, has been released. 

The Forest Service has also developed additional 

tools to estimate carbon in forests and urban settings at various scales. These tools can be found at 

http://nrs.fs.fed.us/carbon/tools/.

Longer Term Initiatives

n Expand capacity for assessing the social impacts and 

drivers of climate change. 

– Increase support for research on how society will be 

affected by the impacts of climate change on natural 

resources.

– Initiate partnerships to interpret and forecast changes 

in human behavior and land use patterns at multiple 

scales over time.

n Implement a genetic resources conservation strategy. 

Improve the Forest Service’s genetic resources program 

to conserve at-risk species and facilitate transitions to 

more resilient ecosystems (see the sidebar Gene Resource Management). 

n Fortify internal climate change partnerships. Building 

on existing research and management partnerships, formalize joint positions across Forest Service deputy areas 

focusing on improving climate change science delivery.

Modes of Action: Assess

Forest Carbon Stocks
National Roadmap for Responding to Climate Change 13

Successful restoration activities use species and populations that are adapted to current and likely future conditions to successfully reestablish resilient ecosystems after 

disturbances. Genetically appropriate material is called for 

in the Forest Service’s native plant materials policy (FSM 

2070), but most species used in restoration lack suitable 

seed and propagation sources. In responding to climate 

change, the Forest Service will develop strategies and 

seed sources adapted to both current and likely future 

conditions. The agency will use more genetically diverse 

populations and breed for appropriate abiotic and biotic 

resistances.

Gene conservation practices will be critical in preserving 

populations and species at risk of extinction. Strategies will 

use both in situ (onsite) and ex situ (offsite) conservation 

practices. Maintaining species and their ecotypes in situ 

provides the Forest Service with a continuing source of 

restoration plant material that is adapted to a known set 

of conditions. Ex situ practices are becoming more important as factors such as climate change, increased insect 

and disease pressure, and invasive species reduce areas of 

suitable habitat. 

Basic strategies for using seed as a gene conservation 

method have been developed (see Forest Service General 

Framework for Genetic Conservation of U.S. Forest Tree Species), 

and agreements are in place to use the USDA Agricultural 

Research Service’s National Genetic Resources Program. 

Efforts are under way to preserve the seed of a handful 

of tree species, including high-elevation pines in the West 

and hemlocks and ashes in the East. Other efforts involve 

establishing conservation plantings (e.g., arboreta, botanic 

gardens, and specific conservation plantings in the field) in 

environments that do not experience the pathogen pressure threatening a species. Present efforts involve establishing oaks (at risk from sudden oak death) and hemlock 

(at risk from hemlock woolly adelgid) in other countries. 

These efforts are especially important for species whose 

seed cannot be stored long term (such as acorns).

Modes of Action: Assess

Gene Resource Management
14 Forest Service

Engage

A successful response to climate change will require working across organizational boundaries to 

discover common goals, avoid duplication, and build on complementary assets. The Forest Service will maintain its strong current partnerships; develop additional partnerships; and enhance 

awareness and understanding through effective education and outreach, engaging a wider range 

of stakeholders in learning about forests, grasslands, and climate change.

Modes of Action: Engage

Research and Management Partnerships

The Forest Service will improve its processes for defining 

and addressing important management problems and 

knowledge needs. An effective response to climate change 

starts with well-framed management questions that science 

can accurately address. Well-developed partnerships between 

managers and researchers will identify information needs and 

specify how information is to be delivered; managers will 

describe information needs, both current and possible future 

needs, and the modes of delivery with the highest probability 

of success. The problem-framing process itself will strengthen 

partnerships between managers and researchers. 

The Forest Service will establish dedicated contacts at the 

national, regional, research station, and area levels to transfer 

information related to climate change and nurture research 

and management partnerships. The contacts will provide the 

latest technology to policymakers and managers and consult 

with managers to determine needs. Existing technology and 

development service centers and threat assessment centers will 

emphasize climate change technology transfer. Forest Service 

regions and stations will formalize joint approaches to organize evolving science and assessment findings for cost-effective 

adoption by field units.

The Forest Service’s Conservation Education Program coordinates the development and delivery 

of high-quality, science-based conservation education programs and materials nationwide. These 

efforts promote the connection of youth to 

nature, the development of environmental literacy, 

and the understanding of climate change and ways 

each of us can help to mitigate its effects. 

Conservation Education’s goal is to help prepare 

students for real-world 21st century challenges. 

We will be passing on 

complicated environmental 

problems to future generations. We must give the 

next generation a solid 

understanding of these 

problems and the basic 

tools to overcome them 

and make informed choices 

in their own lives.

The Forest Service’s Conservation Education 

Program helps people of all ages understand 

and appreciate our country’s natural resources 

and how to conserve those resources for future 

generations. Last year, more than 4 million people, 

including children and their educators, were 

reached through a diversity of Forest Service 

educational and experiential programs. 

Forest Service Climate 

Change Education Resources
National Roadmap for Responding to Climate Change 15

Modes of Action: Engage

All-Lands Approach

Landscapes are composed of mosaics of plant and animal 

communities and of landownership and human communities. In the Eastern and Western United States alike, critical 

issues such as forest health, invasive species, fire and fuels, 

water quantity and quality, and wildlife habitat connectivity 

are exacerbated by climate change. Such issues neither begin 

nor end at national forest boundaries. The Forest Service will 

work with its neighbors to devise and implement solutions 

that operate across jurisdictions at a landscape scale. 

Accordingly, the Forest Service has embraced an all-lands 

approach to conservation through cross-boundary partnerships (see the sidebar A Shared Vision for America’s Forests). 

Landscape-scale conservation is a logical extension of the 

collaborative approaches that have evolved over the past 100 

years in wildland fire management and cooperative pest management, with State and Federal partners jointly setting policy 

and sharing resources to address cross-jurisdictional challenges. The Forest Service will use its full range of authorities 

to provide climate change adaptation services to citizens. All 

parts of the Forest Service are working to integrate research, 

management, and landowner assistance programs to address 

issues in high-priority landscapes across the country.

To this end, the Forest Service will expand collaboration 

beyond traditional partnerships, increasing cooperation and 

coordination with industry, environmental, outdoor recreation, and fish and wildlife stakeholders. The Collaborative 

Forest Landscape Restoration Program (http://www.fs.fed.us/

restoration/CFLR/index.shtml) provides additional impetus to 

work across ownerships to build resilient forested landscapes. 

Education

The Forest Service has a long tradition of fostering 

environmental awareness and understanding through 

multiple programs and disciplines. The agency will incorporate climate change science into programs to create awareness, 

build knowledge, and develop skills that lead to action. Three 

audiences will be targeted:

n Youth: Through a variety of programs, the Forest Service 

will engage youth in responding to climate change. 

Youth will be most affected by climate change and can 

do the most about it. In the decades to come, whole careers will be built around climate change and its effects. 

n The general public: The Forest Service will provide all 

Americans with information that prepares them to participate in climate-related decisionmaking and actions 

affecting the Nation’s forests and grasslands.

n Employees: A successful climate change response requires 

employees who are aware of potential climate change 

impacts and options for adaptation and mitigation. The 

Forest Service will educate employees accordingly.

Providing education on climate change adaptation will 

require substantial investment and planning. The Forest 

Service will employ a full range of communication methods, 

including printed materials, seminars and workshops, and 

interactive, on-demand electronic resources. Workshops held 

by individual units will engage employees and partners in 

developing context-specific climate change adaptation and 

mitigation strategies. It will be particularly important to 

maintain technology transfer positions that are dedicated to 

climate change.
16 Forest Service

Engagement Actions

Actions are already under way to engage partners and build public support for a strong climate 

change response. The Forest Service will continue ongoing activities while undertaking a series 

of additional immediate and longer term initiatives.

Ongoing Activities

n Building public awareness of climate change by doing 

the following:

– Tailoring training and education to audience needs.

– Providing professional development training for 

Kindergarten–12 educators through symposia, workshops, and webinars.

– Presenting climate change as a global issue, emphasizing what the Forest Service does locally in research 

and management.

 

n Building management capacity for addressing climate 

change by doing the following:

– Working with partners to develop education and 

information resources for land managers and natural 

resource practitioners.

– Establishing climate change technology transfer 

contacts at the regional, station, and area levels.

Immediate Initiatives

n Use collaborative approaches to support multiparty 

climate change responses.

– Establish a collaborative agreement on landscapescale conservation between the U.S. Departments of 

Agriculture and the Interior. 

– Agree on a consistent Federal framework for responding to climate change.

– Work with leaders from other Federal agencies, 

States, tribal, and local governments to develop 

national policies on climate change. 

– Develop landscape-scale assessments, adaptation 

plans, and management strategies.

n Build public support for a strong, well-coordinated 

climate change response.

– Translate climate change science into messages 

tailored to youth, the public, and employees, partly 

through existing educational tools (such as Natural 

Inquirer (http://www.naturalinquirer.org/), the CCRC 

(http://www.fs.fed.us/ccrc/), and employee seminars or 

workshops).

– Develop consistent climate change communication 

strategies to: (1) increase awareness of fundamental principles regarding climate change, (2) clarify 

the role of forests and grasslands and of the Forest 

Service in responding to climate change, and (3) use 

place-based messages to motivate action.

Longer Term Initiatives

n Build interagency coordination by developing the following:

– A climate change infrastructure (such as councils 

and boards) for interagency coordination on climate 

change and land management issues.

– A complementary interagency research and decisionsupport consortium and network to coordinate 

science delivery.

n Engage youth in climate change response. Work with 

partners to sponsor high school students as “climate ambassadors” who will educate other students and organize 

community learning projects.

n Support community and regional collaboration.

Convene forums for dialogue among business and other 

nongovernmental stakeholders in the Nation’s forests 

and grasslands, building support for actions at local, 

State, and Federal levels.

Modes of Action: Engage
National Roadmap for Responding to Climate Change 17

Some plant species, such as oaks, do not have seed that can be stored in long-term seed 

storage facilities. The Forest Service is in a partnership with Botanic Gardens Conservation 

International to conserve three rare southeastern trees in the red oak group: maple-leaf 

oak (Quercus acerifolia), Arkansas oak (Q. 

arkansana), and Georgia oak (Q. georgiana).

If sudden oak death, caused by the pathogen Phytophthora ramorum, becomes established in the Southeast, these three oaks 

will be at great risk of extinction. Tissue 

culture will be used and living collection 

will be established at an Australian arboretum; Australia has been chosen because P. 

ramorum is not known to occur there.

Climate Change Impacts:

Rare Red Oaks in the Southeast

Many Federal agencies are engaged in activities to assess the potential and actual impacts 

of climate change on human and natural communities; develop strategies to mitigate these 

impacts where possible; and develop adaptation strategies that will reduce the vulnerability 

of human and natural communities to expected climate change effects. The Forest Service 

is working with partners to ensure consideration of the effects of climate change on lowincome, minority, and indigenous populations. The Forest Service offers guidance and direction 

on priorities and gaps that leverage limited resources, prevent unnecessary duplication, and 

encourage the development and consistent implementation of policies and programs that appropriately engage diverse populations in climate change. In partnership with the Joint Center 

for Political and Economic Studies, Forest Service Research and Development is creating a 

benchmark report and compendium of information and resources for policymakers, researchers, and others that documents current and historic challenges, consequences, and actions that 

address the concerns of communities of color with regard to climate change issues.

Environmental Justice

Modes of Action: Engage
18 Forest Service

Modes of Action: Manage

Manage

Ultimately, the Forest Service’s management response on the ground will be threefold: adaptation, 

mitigation, and sustainable consumption. The agency is responding to climate change through 

adaptive restoration—by restoring the functions and processes characteristic of healthy, resilient 

ecosystems, whether or not those systems are within the historical range of variation. Through 

restoration, the Forest Service is conditioning and repairing the key functions of ecosystems 

across landscapes so that they can withstand the stresses and uncertainties associated with climate 

change. In land management activities, adaptation and mitigation goals are inextricably linked. 

Forested landscapes capable of adapting to changing conditions will be more likely to sequester and 

store carbon sustainably, while furnishing woody materials to help offset fossil fuel use. 

Climate Change Adaptation

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) 

defines adaptation as an initiative to reduce the vulnerability of natural or human systems expected climate change 

effects. Adaptation strategies include the following:

1. Building resistance to climate-related stressors such as 

drought, wildfire, insects, and disease.

2. Increasing ecosystem resilience by minimizing the severity of climate change impacts, reducing the vulnerability 

and/or increasing the adaptive capacity of ecosystem 

elements.

3. Facilitating large-scale ecological transitions in response 

to changing environmental conditions. 

Resistance strategies are appropriate for short-term protection of high-value resources, such as a human community or 

an endangered species; they tend to be costly and site specific. 

Resilience strategies are longer term and broader in scale, 

designed to help ecosystems attain a healthy condition, often 

within the historic pattern of stressors. Transitions are the longest term approach, responding to changes in environmental 

conditions and a concomitant need for ecosystems to adapt 

by moving or changing, often taking a trajectory beyond the 

historical conditions. Resistance, resilience, and transitions are 

tiered to increasing levels of environmental change; one task 

for science is to find ways of assessing change and choosing 

the most appropriate blend of management tools based on the 

relative risks, vulnerabilities, and likelihood of success. 

Climate Change Mitigation

The IPCC (http://www.ipcc.ch/) defines mitigation as an 

intervention to reduce the emissions or enhance the storage of greenhouse gases. Mitigation is predicated on adaptation: the long-term capacity of ecosystems to capture and 

store carbon depends in large part on their ability to adapt to 

a rapidly changing climate. Mitigation strategies include the 

following: 

1. Promoting the uptake of atmospheric carbon by forests 

and the storage of carbon in soils, vegetation, long-lived 

wood products, and recycled wood materials.

2. Indirectly reducing greenhouse gas emissions (for 

example, through the use of carbon-neutral bioenergy 

to offset fossil fuel emissions and substituting wood for 

more fossil fuel-intensive building products).

3. Diminishing greenhouse gas emissions (for example, 

through the cooling effects of urban forests, which reduce the need for fossil fuels to run air conditioners) or 

through more prudent consumption in facilities, fleet, 

and other operations. 

The United States has historically addressed climate change 

simply by conserving forests. The national forests and Forest 

Service were established, in part, to help stem the Nation’s 

dramatic forest losses in the 19th century. Within a single 

generation, net forest loss almost entirely ceased. America’s 

forest estate stabilized at about 750 million acres, one-third of 

the Nation’s land area. A century of forest conservation and 

restoration has turned America’s forests from a net carbon 
National Roadmap for Responding to Climate Change 19

Modes of Action: Engage

A Shared Vision for America’s Forests

Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack, in a speech in August 

2009, articulated a vision for the future of America’s forests. 

America’s forests and grasslands are under severe stress. Climate change, wildfire, insects, pathogens, and urban development are among the cross-boundary challenges. 

The threats facing our forests don’t recognize property boundaries. 

So, in developing a shared vision around forests, we must also be 

willing to look across property boundaries. In other words, we must 

operate at a landscape-scale by taking an all-lands approach.

The Forest Service will work with other Federal agencies, 

States, tribes, conservation groups, industry, communities, and 

private landowners to meet shared goals for healthy, resilient ecosystems across landownerships. Through an all-lands 

approach, America will sustain and restore flourishing forest 

and grassland ecosystems capable of delivering clean and 

abundant water, carbon sequestration and storage, sources of 

renewable energy, habitat for fish and wildlife, opportunities 

for outdoor recreation, and all the other benefits that Americans want and need.
20 Forest Service

Whitebark pine (Pinus albicaulis) is a keystone species throughout the high mountain ranges of Western 

North America. Often the only tree capable of surviving in harsh subalpine areas, whitebark pine is crucial 

in stabilizing soil and moisture and creating habitats 

that support a wide variety of plants and animals. Its 

nuts are a critical food source for grizzly 

bears as they prepare for winter hibernation. Throughout its range, whitebark pine 

and other five-needle pines are declining 

due to a complex of stresses. White pine 

blister rust, caused by an invasive pathogen 

(Cronartium ribicola), has caused extensive dieback of older 

trees and mortality 

of seedlings. Recently, 

large outbreaks of the 

native mountain pine 

beetle (Dendroctonus 

ponderosae) have affected extensive areas, 

including sites previously thought too cold for serious 

beetle outbreaks. Changes in beetle activity have been 

linked to warmer winter temperatures that have led 

to quicker development and higher survival rates for 

overwintering insects. Warmer and moister weather 

might also favor white pine blister rust by producing frequent “wave 

years” of conditions 

that promote massive 

numbers of infections. 

Rangewide restoration 

strategies for whitebark 

pine are needed to 

reverse current trends. 

The Forest Service is 

collaborating with partners, including the National Park 

Service, University of Colorado, and University of Montana, to develop and implement restoration and gene 

conservation strategies for whitebark pine and other 

threatened tree species. http://www.fs.fed.us/r1-r4/spf/

fhp/whitebark_pine/WBPCover_4.htm.

Climate Change Impacts: Whitebark Pine Decline

source into a net carbon sink. In 2006, America’s forests, 

including the carbon stored in wood products and landfills, 

offset about 12.5 percent of the carbon dioxide that Americans emitted.

Forest regrowth in the United States and the attendant high 

rates of carbon sequestration, however, have limits, linked 

as they are to recovery from past deforestation and logging 

practices. Greenhouse gas accumulations in the atmosphere 

will have uncertain effects on carbon sequestration. On the 

one hand, increasing carbon dioxide might accelerate forest 

growth and carbon uptake; on the other, climate change will 

exacerbate drought, wildfire, insects, disease, and other disturbances. Opportunities for effective, sustained climate change 

mitigation through forestry are therefore limited; many might 

entail unacceptable risks and tradeoffs. For example, storing 

carbon in overly dense forests increases the risk of losing the 

carbon through smoke and decomposition of fire-killed trees 

following large wildfires.

Taking any tradeoffs into account, the Forest Service will 

work with partners to sustain or increase carbon sequestration 

and storage in forest and grassland ecosystems and to generate forest products that reduce and replace fossil fuel use. The 

Forest Service will balance its mitigation efforts with all other 

benefits that Americans get from healthy, resilient forests and 

grasslands, such as wildlife habitat, wood fiber, water quantity 

and quality, and opportunities for outdoor recreation.

Modes of Action: Manage
National Roadmap for Responding to Climate Change 21

Sustainable Consumption

As it faces the enormous challenge of sustaining forests 

and grasslands under a changing climate, the Forest 

Service recognizes that it must also become more transparent with the implications of the agency’s own use of natural 

resources. The IPCC and the United Nations Commission on 

Sustainable Development both suggest that making development more sustainable can enhance synergies between adaptation and mitigation approaches. Our long-term commitment 

to sustainability involves strategically connecting our land 

stewardship with practices that reduce the agency’s consumption and environmental footprint. The direct relationship 

between our healthy forests, faucets, heating systems, clean 

air, modes of transportation, and many other goods and 

services has never been more apparent. Water and energy 

conservation, fleet and transportation management, and waste 

prevention/recycling and purchasing habits are activities that 

we must now include in our approach of “caring for the land.” 

The work of developing habits that create more sustainable 

consumption patterns includes working across disciplines and 

staff groups within the Forest Service as well as with other 

agencies, partners, and communities. Strategies the Forest 

In 2009, five Forest Service western regions (Northern, Rocky Mountain, Southwest, Pacific Northwest, and Intermountain Regions) and the Rocky 

Mountain Research Station formally chartered the 

Sustainable Operations Western Collective (WC). 

Recognizing that sustainable consumption practices require a leadership climate supporting cross 

boundary and interdisciplinary work, these units are 

pooling resources, staffing, and strategy to reduce 

energy, water usage, waste production, fleet emissions, and the overall environmental footprint of 

operations. Through pooling experimentation and 

case study effort, learning can be more quickly applied across the West, and propagated across the 

Nation and with other partners and sister agencies. 

In 2010, the Western Collective was able to leverage 

$635,000 of hard cash contributions into about $1.2 

million of work that directly supported reductions 

in consumptions, as well as creating a leadership 

climate that supports those changes becoming a 

long-term part of our culture. http://www.fs.fed.us/

sustainableoperations/western-collective.shtml

Service will use to move towards more sustainable consumption patterns include: 

n Incorporate and maintain long-term programs, practices, tools, and policies that integrate sustainable 

consumption principles throughout the organization 

by removing barriers and promoting the use of efficient 

appropriate technologies and behavior changes.

n Institute a culture that emphasizes education, rewards 

positive actions, and recognizes achievements that reduce our environmental footprint in long lasting ways. 

n Integrate sustainable consumption activities into daily 

decisions, habits, planning, and operations. 

n Increase leadership capacity and day-to-day capabilities 

to implement sustainable consumption patterns at and 

between all levels of the organization. 

The Forest Service’s 2007 environmental footprint can be 

found at: http://www.fs.fed.us/sustainableoperations/documents/

fy2007-environmental-footprint.pdf.

The Western Collective: Implementing Sustainable 

Consumption Practices in a Place-Based Way

Modes of Action: Engage
22 Forest Service

Maintain biodiversity 

Maintaining diverse, functioning forest and grasslands into the future is critical in dealing with the 

variable and uncertain impacts of climate change. 

When possible, the Forest Service should work to 

conserve existing forests and grasslands, restoring diversity, structure, and functions that may have 

been lost. While systems are certain to change, 

having a greater array of ecosystems and species 

reduces our vulnerability to the impacts of a changing climate. 

Sustain multiple benefits 

Forests and grasslands provide multiple goods 

and services—clean and abundant water, clean air, 

carbon storage, biodiversity, wildlife habitat, timber, 

food, fiber, fuel, recreation, aesthetic enjoyment, and 

other public services. Policies should sustain the full 

range of diverse products and services that forests 

and grasslands provide to meet society’s current 

and future needs.

Consider scale

Our national forests and grasslands are part of a 

larger human and ecological landscape comprised 

of public and private lands. Problems must be 

addressed at scales that make sense and make a 

difference. Local objectives need to be balanced 

with broader goals on a landscape scale. The Forest 

Service should strategize for ecosystem conservation at the landscape scale, but maintain flexibility 

to manage locally. One-size-fits-all strategies are 

unlikely to be efficient or effective.

Consider human communities

Maintaining the social health and economic prosperity of human communities is a vital part of 

landscape-scale conservation. Humans shape and 

depend on forests and grasslands for a variety of 

benefits and are an intrinsic component of the 

landscape. Adaptation and mitigation strategies need 

to explicitly recognize the vulnerabilities of human communities to a changing climate. Strategies 

should address how changing ecological and climate 

conditions, and associated policies, affect the array 

of ecosystem services and products and economic 

opportunities generated by forests and grasslands.

Manage risk 

Continuous environmental monitoring and incorporation of new science into planning, policies, and decisionmaking processes are critical to adaptation and 

mitigation in an uncertain climate future. The Forest 

Service’s decision processes require institutional 

flexibility to manage for risk while acknowledging the 

uncertainty of the magnitude and nature of climate 

change impacts on local and regional scales. 

Embrace partnerships 

Achieving a landscape-scale approach to adaptation 

and mitigation hinges on partnerships with other 

Federal, State, and local government agencies; tribes; 

nongovernmental organizations; and the private sector. Through diverse partnerships, the Forest Service 

can build capacity to promote learning, facilitate the 

exchange of ideas, and create sustainable solutions 

based on traditional and scientific knowledge. Institutional and public support for implementing innovative 

approaches is essential.

Build from established programs

Many of the actions needed to address climate 

change build upon established practices for advancing sustainable forest and grassland management. 

The Forest Service should build on its knowledge, 

integrating and refining practices as it learns about 

the implications of a changing climate. Where knowledge gaps are identified, the agency should continue 

to emphasize fundamental scientific inquiry into the 

causes, consequences, and strategies for responding 

to climate change in forests and grasslands. 

Provide incentives and examples 

The Forest Service is changing agency behavior to 

encourage sustainable consumption and, as a result, 

reduce its environmental footprint. Policies should 

encourage best practices of employees and the public 

for reducing carbon emissions through conservation 

and renewable energy use. 

As the Forest Service responds to a changing climate, it strives to:
National Roadmap for Responding to Climate Change 23

Modes of Action: Manage

Ongoing Actions

n Restoring healthy, resilient forest and grassland 

ecosystems by doing the following: 

– Treating overgrown forests to make them less vulnerable to wildfire, pathogens, and insect attack.

– Controlling insects, pathogens, and invasive 

species that threaten the health and resilience of 

ecosystems.

– After major disturbances, quickly restoring ecosystems with species and populations adapted to 

current and future climates.

n Protecting infrastructure by modifying or relocating roads, culverts, trails, campgrounds, and other facilities to resist floods and other major disturbances. 

n Actively managing carbon stocks in forests, grasslands, 

and urban areas over time by doing the following: 

– Rapidly reforesting land damaged by fires, hurricanes, and other disturbances, consistent with 

land management objectives.

– Conserving working forests and grasslands.

– Providing technical assistance for programs designed to enhance carbon sequestration potential 

through afforestation, reforestation, and practices 

that increase and maintain productivity and ecosystem health.

– Encouraging communities to retain green space 

and to plant and maintain trees.

– Using available tools to understand the impacts of 

management actions on carbon stocks and fluxes.

n Facilitating demonstration projects leading to 

the development of markets for ecosystem services, 

including carbon markets.

n Promoting woody biomass utilization by doing the 

following:

The Forest Service has a long history of managing the national forests and grasslands 

for sustainability and of working with the States toward sustainable forest management 

on private lands. Many management actions already address climate change. The Forest 

Service will continue its ongoing activities while undertaking additional initiatives, both 

immediate and longer term, to facilitate adaptation and mitigation.

Management Actions

More than one-half million acres of Alaska 

yellow-cedar (Chamaecyparis nootkatensis)

mortality have been mapped during aerial surveys in 

southeast Alaska. The affected areas contain mixtures of long-dead, recently died, and dying yellowcedar trees. Yellow-cedar has extremely valuable 

wood; thus, the problem has considerable economic 

consequences. This tree also has ecological and cultural importance: its wood and bark have long been 

used by indigenous people. Analysis of aerial survey 

data reveals that tree mortality is concentrated at 

lower elevations and on wet soil types. Research indicates that the problem began about 100 years ago 

at the end of the Little Ice Age. Tree death appears 

to result from root freezing, predisposed by low 

snow accumulations in the 1900s. Shallow roots in 

anaerobic soils and a unique vulnerability to cold injury in early spring are associated with the decline. 

Knowledge of the cause of yellow-cedar decline 

and associated site risk factors is leading to a 

conservation strategy for this valuable tree species 

in the context of a warming climate with reduced 

snow. For more information, go to http://www.fs.fed.

us/pnw/research/climate-change/yellow-cedar/.

Climate Change Impacts: 

Alaska Yellow-Cedar Decline
24 Forest Service

Climate Change Impacts: Rare Plants

Christ’s Indian paintbrush (Castilleja christii) is a showy, 

yellow-flowered perennial endemic to subalpine meadow 

and sagebrush habitats in the upper elevations of the Albion 

Mountains in Idaho. This species is known from only a single 

population on the summit of Mount Harrison. The conservation and protection of this rare population are managed by 

the Sawtooth National Forest, Minidoka Ranger District. It is 

currently ranked as one of Idaho’s rarest plants. 

The plant is now threatened by another Indian paintbrush that has climbed in elevation due to the effects of climate change. Christ’s Indian paintbrush is hybridizing with this other native plant. In addition, 

invasive plants are gaining in elevation and have begun to occupy the habitat of this very rare species. 

The species will not be able to survive in situ for these reasons. Long-term survival will require extraordinary measures, including seed collection and preparation for long-term storage. Living collections in botanical gardens will also be part of this overall ex situ conservation plan.

Climate Change Impacts:

Animals Adapted to Cold

Many animal species occupy a geographic range 

within certain thermal limits. Because the Forest Service manages many cold, higher elevation landscapes, 

it plays an important role in sustaining populations 

of cold-adapted species. As annual temperatures rise, 

animals will shift northward or move to higher elevations. For example, many species in the Great Basin, 

in particular butterflies and pika,will be forced into 

smaller, more isolated patches of high-elevation habitats. 

Similarly, many trout and char populations will be forced 

into smaller, more isolated headwaters; some might 

disappear. Woodland caribou in northern Idaho occupy 

the southern extent of their range. Northward migration 

would eliminate them from the Continental United States. 

To protect all these species and more, the Forest Service will need to make habitats more resilient to climate 

change and increase connectivity among them. Failure 

will mean the disappearance of these species from the 

National Forest System.

Modes of Action: Manage
National Roadmap for Responding to Climate Change 25

– Encouraging the use of woody materials for thermal 

heat and power production and as a substitute for 

more energy-intensive building materials.

– Increasing the reliability of an accessible and sustainable supply of woody biomass from national forests 

and private lands, where feasible.

– Providing research, technical assistance, and grants 

to foster (1) the substitution of wood-based building 

products for more energy-intensive materials (such as 

steel and concrete); (2) more use of excess wood from 

forests and urban areas as renewable sources of heat, 

power, and transportation fuels; and (3) development 

of cost-competitive, wood-based liquid transportation fuels and chemicals to reduce fossil fuel use.

n Reducing the Forest Service’s environmental footprint, including reduced carbon emissions and more 

efficient use of energy and water resources. 

– Require all new design and construction at owned 

buildings and leased buildings over 10,000 gross 

square feet meet the criteria of the U.S. Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design Silver Certification, where practicable.

– Install advanced electric meters in agency buildings 

by 2012 and natural gas/steam meters by 2016.

– Promote Energy Saving Performance Contracts and 

Utility Energy Service Contracts, when life-cycle cost 

effective, to help finance energy and water efficiency 

projects.

– Optimize use of vehicles and right-size fleet.

n Addressing climate change in planning and analysis

by doing the following:

– Incorporating climate-related vulnerabilities and 

uncertainties into land management and project-level 

environmental analyses.

– Discussing how a range of uncertain future climate 

conditions might affect the expected consequences of 

proposed activities.

n Playing a leadership role in carbon assessments and 

climate change monitoring by coordinating with other 

Federal agencies in assessing and reporting carbon stocks 

Modes of Action: Manage

and in monitoring for climate-driven impacts and 

changing conditions on the ground.

n Protecting rare and sensitive species by restoring and 

reconnecting their habitats.

Immediate Initiatives

n Develop decision support tools for adaptation and 

mitigation. 

– Update data systems for identifying current resource 

conditions, feedback from past management practices, and future high-priority activities and the 

feasibility of their implementation.

– Develop comprehensive tools for priority setting and 

budgeting that are applicable at all geographic scales 

using existing data and compatible with data and 

tools being used by partners.

n Set priorities for management actions. 

– Develop a risk-based management system to identify 

adaptation and mitigation priorities across landscapes 

and watersheds within bioregions. The system would 

use risk management concepts to evaluate resource 

conditions and trends, values at risk, relative vulnerabilities, and other local factors, encouraging balancing risk reduction across multiple risks and costs.

– Develop new management strategies for reconnecting 

habitats, maximizing the habitat accessible to native species while minimizing the spread of unwanted species.

n Refine management practices for addressing projected 

climate change impacts and ecosystem dynamics, using 

the principles of risk management and adaptive management.

n Develop a web-based sustainable operations information system that integrates with existing databases to 

report and monitor energy and water use, green purchasing, fleet and transportations, waste prevention, and 

recycling activities and provide guidance in achieving 

goals in reducing the agency’s environmental footprint.

n Connect habitats to improve adaptive capacity.

– Collaborate with partners to develop strategies 

that identify priority locations for maintaining and 
26 Forest Service

restoring habitat connectivity. Seek partnerships with 

private landowners to provide migration corridors 

across private lands. 

– Remove or modify physical impediments to the 

movement of species most likely to be affected by 

climate change.

– Manage forest and grassland ecosystems to decrease 

fragmentation.

– Continue to develop and restore important corridors 

for fish and wildlife.

Longer Term Initiatives

n Increase long-term restoration capacity.

– Restore disturbed areas, where appropriate, with 

planting stock from seed sources and species that will 

be adapted to changing conditions. 

– Develop seed and plant stocks that will be appropriate for revegetation in light of climate change.

– Implement genetic conservation strategies for at-risk 

species or populations, including saving and storing 

seed stocks for trial and study.

n Develop transition strategies. Where changing conditions will lead new ecosystems to emerge, develop and 

implement strategies for facilitating the transition.

Modes of Action: Manage

n Develop comprehensive strategies for maintaining 

and restoring habitat connectivity.

n Implement effectiveness monitoring systems to 

evaluate the results of management actions designed to 

facilitate adaptation and mitigation.

n Take sustainable consumption to the next level.

– Beginning in fiscal year (FY) 2020, design all new 

buildings and those buildings undergoing major 

renovation to achieve zero-net energy by FY 2030.

– Facilitate and coordinate the implementation of 

the Power Track system by 2012. Power Track has 

the potential to greatly enhance the ability of field 

units to track their own energy use. This system is 

designed to capture more consumption data than 

current National Finance Center systems.
National Roadmap for Responding to Climate Change 27

Climate change is one of the greatest challenges the Nation has ever 

faced. The implications for both society and natural resources are 

profound and complex, as are the challenges of integrating adaptation 

and mitigation responses. A successful approach will be based on 

thorough assessments and well-tailored policies, engaging a full range 

of stakeholders across the landscape in activities for adaptation, 

mitigation, and education. 

The Forest Service’s “Strategic Framework for Responding to Climate 

Change” has set the stage for the roadmap presented here. The roadmap 

can help Forest Service units chart a course to the future tailored to 

local needs, based on three interrelated modes of action (assessing, 

engaging, and managing) and three sets of activities for each (ongoing, 

immediate, and longer term). The roadmap points the way to a comprehensive, science-based approach to managing forests and grasslands 

in an era of climate change. 

Land and resource management are inherently fraught with risk and 

uncertainty. Climate change exacerbates both. In response, the Forest 

Service must be nimble, willing to learn from mistakes, and must incorporate lessons learned into future agency direction. The agency is ready 

to work with and learn from others, sharing its knowledge, skills, and 

experience to make America’s forests and grasslands sustainable for 

present and future generations, even in an era of climate change.

The Way Forward

The Way Forward
28 Forest Service

Roadmap Writing Team

Borys Tkacz, Team Leader

Hutch Brown

Amy Daniels

Ann Acheson

Dave Cleland

Frank Fay

Randy Johnson

Greg Kujawa

Brett Roper

Larry Stritch

Strategic Framework Writing Team

Dave Dillard, Team Leader

Susan Conard

Kathryn Conant

Amanda Cundiff

Loren Ford

Sarah Hines

Doug MacCleary

Christine Rose

Josh Trapani

Kay Wiand

Photo Credits

Ken Gibson

Paul Hennon

Steve Kozlowski

Megan Matonis

Hugh Nourse

Kim Pierson

Terry Puls

Brett Roper

John Schwandt

Sara Seidel

Credits
National Roadmap for Responding to Climate Change 29
30 Forest Service

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) 

prohibits discrimination in all its programs and 

activities on the basis of race, color, national 

origin, age, disability, and where applicable, sex, 

marital status, familial status, parental status, 

religion, sexual orientation, genetic information, 

political beliefs, reprisal, or because all or part 

of an individual’s income is derived from any 

public assistance program. (Not all prohibited 

bases apply to all programs.) Persons with 

disabilities who require alternative means for 

communication of program information (Braille, 

large print, audiotape, etc.) should contact USDA’s TARGET Center at (202) 720–2600 (voice 

and TDD). To file a complaint of discrimination, 

write to USDA, Director, Office of Civil Rights, 

1400 Independence Avenue, S.W., Washington, 

D.C. 20250–9410, or call (800) 795–3272 

(voice) or (202) 720–6382 (TDD). USDA is an 

equal opportunity provider and employer.