The USDA Forest Service has published a new report, New England and Northern New York Forest Ecosystem Vulnerability Assessment and Synthesis: A Report from the New England Climate Change Response Framework Project. This report describes how climate change is expected to affect the 40 million acres of forest in our region. Climate change is already having an impact on our forests, increasing damage from extreme precipitation events and insect pests. Future changes could dramatically alter the landscape that characterizes the region. The report, which has more than 30 authors, provides a foundation of information that land managers can use to make ecosystems more resilient and adaptable to future conditions. This assessment provides a foundation for numerous climate change adaptation efforts that are underway regionally, including those led by the Northern Institute of Applied Climate Science (NIACS) through the Climate Change Response Framework.

NorthWoods has been involved through our hardworking Forestry staff, who have used resources from the NIACS to revisit the 2015 NorthWoods’ forestry plan to make modifications that take into account predicted climate change effects. Some of the changes made to our forestry management plan include:

  • Tree species favored for retention in pre-commercial thinning will be adjusted to favor native future-adapted species such as black cherry and red maple, while decreasing proportions of species expected to decline such as white ash, yellow birch and sugar maple. This resilience-building tactic will focus on existing forests that are diverse and healthy.
  • Many forest areas degraded by heavy logging in the 1980s-90s are dominated by early successional trees (primarily gray birch) with low ecological value and declining health. Management will mimic natural disturbance by establishing patches of younger forest, creating a planting site for non-invasive transition species such as red oak, black walnut and shagbark hickory.
  • Invasive plant populations will be controlled with 90-100% removal, which would not be feasible in more heavily-invaded areas. By removing invasive species before they impact native populations, diverse plant assemblages that are resistant to climate impacts will be maintained.
  • Forest roads and trails will be improved to withstand more intense rainfall events and increase access during non-frozen conditions when possible, allowing future management and outreach and reducing surface water degradation.
  • Areas of refugia will be maintained where vigorous examples of climate-threatened natural communities exist, and where non-climate stress factors are minimal. One example is a stand of eastern hemlock, a species declining in Vermont due to hemlock woolly adelgid. Spread of the adelgid through the region has slowed and it is not present in this area, so this stand may reasonably be expected to persist in a changing climate.

You can find us as one of the management efforts featured in the US Forest Service Office of Sustainability and Climate and Northern Institute of Applied Climate Science online Story Map, which highlights how natural resource managers like us are responding to climate change challenges, or check out a summary of our adaptation efforts directly by clicking here.

Questions about climate change adaptation, our forest management plan, or our offered landowner services? Contact Forestry Specialist Sam Perron: sam@northwoodscenter.org