A Practical Approach for Translating Climate Change Adaptation Principles into Forest Management Actions

There is an ever-growing body of literature on forest management strategies for climate change adaptation; however, few frameworks have been presented for integrating these strategies with the real-world challenges of forest management. We have developed a structured approach for translating broad adaptation concepts into specific management actions and silvicultural practices for forest adaptation, as well as an associated set of resources to assist managers in using this approach. A variety of public, private, nongovernmental, and tribal natural resource managers are using this approach to develop projects that implement a diversity of adaptation actions while also meeting manager-identified goals. We describe how managers can integrate climate change information into management planning and activities and provide examples of real-world forest management projects that identify actions to help forests adapt to changing conditions.