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Midwest Region
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| NCA Report Cover |
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4th National Climate Assessment includes many regional highlights
The 4th National Climate Assessment was released in late November, and this updated version includes valuable information for land managers across the Northwoods. Here are a few quick links to save you some time:
- The Midwest Chapter includes updated information about on-going and projected change in the region, including sections on Forestry and Adaptation.
- The Forests Chapter is a nation-level look at how climate change will affect forests across the country.
- The Adaptation Chapter highlights the big advances that have occurred since 2014, but also notes that climate impacts are still moving faster than adaptation planning.
And if you'd like to explore the most recent climate change science that underpins this whole assessment, there's a new report on all that, too! The Climate Science Special Report is a comprehensive look at the best available information we have about global and regional trends, attribution of weather extremes, future climate projections, and more. |
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Minnesota
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| Olivia LeDee (USGS) addresses the audience at the Minnesota Climate Adaptation Conference. |
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Minnesota Climate Adaptation Conference shares accomplishments and encourages further action
Minnesota has been a regional leader on climate change adaptation for the past several years. Once a year, the Minnesota Climate Adaptation Partnership organizes a statewide meeting to let adaptation professionals share their successes, vent their frustrations, and explore new collaborations. At this year's Climate Adaptation Conference, NIACS organized a panel of speakers from across the forestry sector. These speakers represented on-going adaptation projects on federal, state, private, and municipal lands. It was inspiring to learn about great work going on across many different sectors! But as keynote speaker Mark Hertsgaard told the crowd, we all have to get even more proactive on climate adaptation as well as mitigation in the years ahead. |
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Michigan
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| The SFI logo. |
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Loggers talk changing conditions, future trends at education session
The Sustainable Forestry Initiative is a certification standard used across the USA and Canada, with over 250 million acres of forest land certified under SFI Forest Management Standards. The 2015-2019 update of the SFI standards require that all program participants learn about climate change effects on forests, which means that a huge portion of the forestry community may now be grappling with this issue for the first time. The Michigan SFI Education Committee has started to include climate change sessions as part of their regular training calendar, and in early November NIACS was invited to present at a logger education meeting in Filer City, MI. The crowd asked a lot of great questions, and we hope to have more in-depth discussions about what can help loggers adapt to changing conditions. Contact Stephen Handler to learn more. |
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Wisconsin
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| Image from www.library.wisc.edu. |
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Wisconsin focus in the National Climate Assessment
Did you check out the new National Climate Assessment after reading the description above? Wisconsin has been on the front lines of climate change over the past few decades, with record-smashing rain events and rapidly warming winters. There are a few WI-specific items in the NCA that might catch the interest of readers in the Badger state, including:
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Upcoming Events
Webinar - December 12 - 12:00pm Eastern
This webinar is part of a regular lunchtime series from the Northeast Climate Adaptation Science Center. Olivia LeDee's presentation will cover on-going work to develop a climate adaptation menu for wildlife managers, which has included a comprehensive review of 1300 journal articles and a hands-on workshop.
Cloquet, MN - January 23-24 - FREE REGISTRATION
NIACS will be co-hosting a climate adaptation workshop for tribal natural resources professionals. The 1854 Treaty Authority and Great Lakes Indian Fish and Wildlife Commission are helping organize the event, which will be located at the Cloquet Forestry Center.
Agenda and registration details are posted here, and
contact Kristen Schmitt for more information!
Cleveland, OH - January 27-30 - Registration $60
As a part of the Midwest Fish and Wildlife Conference, NIACS will be co-hosting a day-long adaptation workshop for wildlife managers. The workshop will take place on Sunday, January 27 before the start of the main conference agenda.
Members of the North-Central Section of The Wildlife Society get a $50 discount on registration!
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Useful Resources
This storymap shows projected changes in three important metrics that influence plant growth and survival: growing degree days, plant hardiness zones, and heat zones. The storymap also includes links to additional online maps for two scenarios of potential change (RCPs 4.5 and 8.5), and four different time periods. More information is available in the full report.
NOAA's National Center for Environmental Information, North Carolina State University's Cooperative Institute for Climate and Satellites-North Carolina, along with many cooperating partners in every state has released a state-by-state assessment of climate change. They're full of great graphics and printable PDFs!
The Great Lakes Indian Fish and Wildlife Commission conducted a climate change vulnerability assessment for key species within the Ceded Territories in MN, WI, and MI. The first version of the report features 16 species, including ogaa (walleye), waabooz (snowshoe hare), and manoomin (wild rice). An expanded Version 2 will be released in 2019, which will include 60 priority species.
This project from Michigan Tech University, the US Forest Service, and Great Lakes Restoration Initiative aims to create a detailed map of black ash throughout its range. Learn more at the link above, and consider submitting your own inventory data to help complete the map!
My Minnesota Woods has created two handy pages that spell out the current risk levels for oak wilt and EAB across the state. Check them out, and stay informed!
NIACS created a series of 2-page handouts that summarize how individual tree species are expected to respond to climate change across the Northwoods states. Each handout includes model projections from two future climate scenarios and models like the Climate Change Tree Atlas. We think they're a handy way to show a lot of information and get people thinking about managing climate change risk and opportunity. Contact
Stephen Handler with any questions or comments!
Vulnerability Assessments for Wisconsin's Natural Communities
The WICCI Plants and Natural Communities Working Group has released a series of short climate change vulnerability assessments for Wisconsin's natural communities. Briefs are available for 10 broad community groups (Northern Forested Wetlands, Southern Upland Forests, etc.) and 52 more specific Natural Communities (Boreal Rich Fen, Oak Woodland, etc.) These are great resources - enjoy!
The Lake States Fire Science Consortium is designed to share knowledge among researchers and managers across our region. They have a searchable Science Library of great resources, and a regular webinar series. Check it out!
The College of Menominee Nation Sustainable Development Institute is creating a new platform for indigenous peoples to share information on climate impacts and discuss ways to adapt. The new website just launched, and contains lots of great videos and resources!
Check out this new documentary from WKOW in Wisconsin. It's 55-minutes long, and it would make a great discussion piece for a classroom or a community event!
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Feel free to contact
Stephen Handler with any comments, questions, or suggestions for projects within the Northwoods Response Framework!
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