U.S. Forest Service embraces climate change

No word on Smokey bear’s new duties yet, but maybe they’ll make him do a new public service pitch, maybe something like this:

Above: a parody image,  see WUWT story on Ursus Bogus

Forest Service Shifts Strategy to Address Changing Climate

The Forest Service has issued a national road map for responding to climate change, along with a performance scorecard to measure how well each individual forest implements the strategy.

The new blueprint outlines a series of short-term initiatives and longer-term projects for field units to address climate impacts on the country’s forests and grasslands.

“A changing global climate brings increased uncertainties to the conservation of our natural resources,” Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said in a statement. “The new roadmap and scorecard system will help the Forest Service play a leadership role in responding to a changing climate and ensure that our national forests and grasslands continue to provide a wide range of benefits to all Americans.”

The national road map focuses on three types of actions Forest Service managers must take. They include assessing risks, vulnerabilities, policies and knowledge gaps; engaging employees and external partners; and management actions, including adaptation and mitigation.

Climate change impacts likely will vary greatly in different places, the strategy notes. “There will never be enough financial or other resources to address all of these risks,” it says. “The first step in addressing climate change is to carefully assess the associated risks and vulnerabilities for natural and human communities alike.”

Immediate assessment actions include providing basic and applied science to help managers respond to climate change, conducting workshops, utilizing national monitoring networks, furnishing more predictive information, developing vulnerability assessments, tailoring monitoring and aligning service policy and direction.

Longer-term assessment will focus on expanding the agency’s capacity for assessing the social impacts of climate change, implementing a genetic resources conservation strategy and fortifying internal climate change partnerships.

The plan’s second component aims to help the Forest Service develop partnerships with other organizations to avoid duplication and build on complementary assets. It calls for public education and outreach and coordination with other agencies, communities and interested groups.

And the roadmap calls for on-the-ground management responses including adaptation to climate change effects, mitigation to reduce the sources or enhance sinks of greenhouse gases, and sustainable consumption.

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Full story here at the New York Times

h/t to Charles the moderator