Approach
EASTERN: The suitable site conditions for a community or species may shift on the landscape as climate changes, resulting in new combinations of locations and species aggregations. This may increase opportunities for successful regeneration and the likelihood of persistence of a species or community. Species currently covering a large extent may provide many options for retaining redundancy across the landscape.
WESTERN: The suitable site conditions for a community or species may shift on the landscape as the climate changes, resulting in new combinations of locations and species assemblages. Therefore, managing habitats in multiple sites and conditions may increase opportunities for successful regeneration and the likelihood of persistence of a species or community. Similarly, exposure and sensitivity to widespread disturbances such as drought and fire can show strong spatial variation as a result of differences in site exposure, and local adaptations. Species currently covering a large extent may provide many options for retaining redundancy across the landscape.
Tactics
- Restoring or increasing a community type on a variety of soil types and across a range of topographic positions.
- Implementing a variety of forest management activities or silvicultural prescriptions across multiple stands or areas with similar starting conditions in order to diversify forest conditions and evaluate different management approaches.
- Coordinating with partners to manage an at-risk species or community existing on a variety of suitable sites.
Strategy
Strategy Text
Some losses are inevitable, whether due to catastrophic events or unforeseen interactions of management, climate change, and forest response. Increasing ecosystem redundancy attempts to lower the overall risk of losing a species or community by increasing the extent, number of occurrences across the landscape, and diversity of regeneration stages. This strategy may benefit greatly from developing partnerships with other land management organizations and coordinating landscape-scale conservation practices.
1. Swanston, C.W.; Janowiak, M.K.; Brandt, L.A.; Butler, P.R.; Handler, S.D.; Shannon, P.D.; Derby Lewis, A.; Hall, K.; Fahey, R.T.; Scott, L.; Kerber, A.; Miesbauer, J.W.; Darling, L.; 2016. Forest Adaptation Resources: climate change tools and approaches for land managers, 2nd ed. US Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Northern Research Station. 161 p. http://dx.doi.org/10.2737/NRS-GTR-87-2