As drought regimes change, the ability to quantify and predict the impacts on forests and rangelands is critical to developing and implementing management actions to increase resiliency and adaptation.  So write our colleagues at the USDA Forest Service in their recently released report  Effects of Drought on Forests and Rangelands in the United States: A comprehensive science synthesis. This peer-reviewed publication, a collaborative effort of 77 scientists, establishes a comprehensive baseline of available data that land managers can use to test how well their efforts to improve drought resilience and adaptation practices are working nationwide.

As  Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said upon announcing the report’s release “This report confirms what we are seeing, that every region of the country is impacted by the direct and indirect effects of drought conditions and volatile weather patterns.”  Well, we knew that, didn’t we?  The critical thing is to know how the various forest (and rangeland) processes will respond, allowing us insight into building resiliency.  Key findings in the report include:

• Drought projections suggest that some regions of the U.S. will become drier and that most will have more extreme variations in precipitation.
• Even if current drought patterns remained unchanged, warmer temperatures will amplify drought effects.
• Drought and warmer temperatures may increase risks of large-scale insect outbreaks and larger wildfires, especially in the western U.S.
• Drought and warmer temperature may accelerate tree and shrub death, changing habitats and ecosystems in favor of drought-tolerant species.
• Forest-based products and values – such as timber, water, habitat and recreation – may be negatively impacted.
• Forest and rangeland managers can mitigate some of these impacts and build resiliency in forests through appropriate management actions.

Check out the full report or read the Executive Summary. And stay tuned, this spring the Climate, Forests and Woodlands COP will offer a webinar by James Vose, the report’s lead author. We will announce that webinar on this blog.  Keep tending the forest…