Forest Service Climate Change Atlas Webinars

[Fern Davies]

 

The USDA Forest Service, Northern Research Station has developed an on-line Climate Change Atlas http://www.nrs.fs.fed.us/atlas/ containing a wealth of information about 134 tree and 147 bird species of the eastern U.S. The atlases are based on models that project how the habitat for these species might change with changing climate under different emission scenarios. These projections are based on an array of information about these species and their associations, much of it available on the site, and on innovative techniques for understanding why species exist where they do now. The site contains information that can help forestry, wildlife, educators, and other natural resource professionals make management decisions, formulate research hypotheses, answer questions from the public, and more.

 

There will be three separate, but similar workshops, each developed for a different audience, to introduce participants to the content, features and use of the atlases:

• Monday, Sept. 19th, 1:00 – 3:00 PM (ET). Primary audience is US Forest Service employees
  
• Tuesday, Sept. 20th, 9:00 – 11:00 AM (ET). Primary audience is natural resource professionals, such as wildlife biologists and foresters
  
• Tuesday, Sept. 20th, 1:00 – 3:00 PM (ET). Primary audience is forest owners, natural resources educators, Cooperative Extension educators
  

Register on-line any time prior to the day of the webinar at: www.arnotconservation.info and click on “Events”.

 

Upon registering, you will receive email confirmation including instructions on how to join the webinar.

 

This web-based workshop will include

1. an introduction to the Climate Atlas web site and all of its useful components;
   
2. an exercise where participants work independently to answer climate-related questions provided by the instructors about trees and birds;
   
3. additional opportunity for instructor feedback and assistance; and
   
4. time to provide feedback about web site content and ease of use.
   

Webinar participants will:

• Find out how to access detailed information on tree species characteristics, current distribution, and management considerations.
  
• Explore natural history information about eastern bird species and learn how current bird distribution is influenced by factors such as climate, elevation, and presence of important tree species.
  
• Access maps showing how average and seasonal temperatures and precipitation are predicted to change according to different emissions scenarios.
  
• See projected changes in individual tree and bird species habitats.
  
• View changes by region, ecoregion, state, national park or national forest.
  
• Provide input about additional information needed to make real-world management and conservation decisions.
  

[Colleen McLinn]

I'm sad that I didn't see this when it was posted! I am very interested in using the Climate Change Atlas as a resource for undergraduate investigations. It's good to see that the webinar archive is available, however, the link above isn't working correctly. Try this instead:

http://dnr.cornell.edu/cals/dnr/cerp/events/climateatlas.cfm